As industrial operations move to the state, residents find that their drinking water has been promised to companies. In 2019, Corpus Christi, Texas's eighth-largest city, moved forward with plans to build a desalination plant. The facility, which was expected to be completed by 2023, at a cost of a hundred and forty million dollars, would convert seawater into fresh water to be used by the area's many refineries and chemical plants. The former mayor called it "a pretty significant day in the life of our city." In anticipation of the plant's opening, the city committed to provide tens of millions of gallons of water per day to new industrial operations, including a plastics plant co-owned by ExxonMobil and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, a lithium refinery for Tesla batteries, and a "specialty chemicals" plant operated by Chemours.

Important resources like minerals, oil and diamonds often go hand-in-hand with conflict and poor governance. But when it comes to one particular resource -- the most important resource of all -- many think a different theory will hold true. Often referred to as the water wars thesis, it suggests that growing water scarcity will drive violent conflict as access to water dries up for certain communities. Analysts worry that people, opportunistic politicians and powerful corporations will battle for dwindling water supply, inflaming tensions. In a new study, researchers tried to map out how water wars will emerge around the world and which countries are most likely to see water-related conflict in the coming decades.