Saline water, peace, and security: Analyzing the impact of desalination on transboundary groundwater interactions in the Middle East

In the context of decreasing water quantity and quality, the increasing use of different technologies helps to face water security threats such as economic growth, demography, and climate change. Seawater desalination technology is one of them. The treatment of seawater produces an additional supply of freshwater that can meet the growing demand. In some parts of the world, such as in Saudi Arabia or Israel, desalinated water already constitutes more than half of the national water supply. Nevertheless, this technological fix also brings a lot of political, social, financial, and environmental challenges. This study States that by reducing stochasticity in terms of water quantity and quality, the technology lessens the sense of water scarcity and provides the desalinating State greater flexibility in its approach to transboundary water management, including groundwater. As the technology keeps developing worldwide, with costs decreasing and innovations increasing, how does technological change affect transboundary groundwater interactions? This book chapter revolves around the Israel- Palestine and the Saudi Arabia-Jordan case studies to produce a picture of the impact of large-scale desalination on hydropolitics and transboundary groundwater management. This study fills an existing gap in the groundwater security and desalination nexus while laying the foundations for further research.