In August 2018, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Kuwait had handed four desalination units to neighbouring Iraq. The containerised systems had a combined output of 4,546 m³/day (1 million imperial gallons per day) and were meant for rural and remote communities, including in the south, where protests over poor services and drinking water quality had broken out. Kuwait's electricity and water ministry handed them over at the border to the Iraqi water resources ministry on 13 August 2018. Kuwait also supplied 17 mobile generators totalling 30,000 kW.
The report showed mobile desalination units serving as rapid aid between neighbouring states when failing water supply fed social tension.