The Pacific Institute recently updated its Water Conflict Chronology—a database of water-conflict events that began to take form in the 1980s. The recent updates include the addition of 300 new entries to the database, highlighting the alarming rise of water-related conflicts in the last few years. Despite this overwhelming evidence of a growing trend in water-related conflicts, global attention toward addressing them remains negligible.   

Water Conflict Chronology organizes conflicts related to water under three categories: “trigger”, “casualty”, or “weapon” of violence. The most recent data indicates a rise in the weaponization of water amid escalating conflicts and war, where critical infrastructure has been attacked, destabilized, and even polluted, leading to catastrophic impacts on already vulnerable states.    

The most prominent example is the increase in violence over water amid escalating tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Persistent and targeted attacks by Israel on critical water infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank have amounted to more than 90 occasions resulting in severe impacts, and add up to almost a quarter of all water-related violence in 2023. Due to the consequent contamination, a staggering 97% of the water in Gaza remains undrinkable, contributing to an ongoing public health crisis.  

Ukraine is another country spotlighted by the update to chronology, including Russian forces’ destruction of a dam on the Mokri Yali River to slow down the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia’s broader attacks on infrastructure continue to the present moment, as massive drone strikes have caused nationwide electricity outages, and have even damaged a hydroelectric power plant.     

The impacts of climate change and rising demand driven by growing populations across the globe have also exacerbated water-related conflicts in politically fragile regions. For instance, in Iraq, water insecurity stems from both extreme weather and the country’s longstanding Tigris-Euphrates River disputes with Syria and Turkey. As extreme heat and rising temperatures intensify, drought conditions in Iraq will only worsen access to resources, increasing the risk of water-related violence. Devastating and recurrent climate-induced floods in South Sudan provide a further example of a nation with increased vulnerability to water-related conflicts and escalating inter-communal clashes as a result of climate impacts.     

Yet, despite the growing number of transboundary water conflicts, intra-state or subnational conflicts occur with an even higher frequency. In India, violent social conflicts have emerged between police officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states over disputes on the release of Krishna River water. Sub-Saharan Africa has seen farmers and pastoralists clash over access to water and land across the region, allowing militant groups like Boko Haram opportunities to attack fishing communities and exploit long-standing water disputes. And, in Mexico, hundreds of people have protested for better drinking water and sanitation.        

The Water Conflict Chronology also records incidences of water-related violence accompanied by an undertone of discriminative socio-political and religious norms and underscores broader calls for adopting an intersectional lens toward peacebuilding in local settings. In India, caste-based discrimination led to the killing of a man from the Dalit community for using a public tap to drink water. In Afghanistan, 150 schoolgirls were poisoned by religious conservatives opposing women’s right to education. And, similarly, in Iran, schoolgirls were the targets of “serial poisonings,” which led to the hospitalizing of around 100 students.      

The comprehensive data and rigorous analysis put forth by the Pacific Institute in the Water Conflict Chronology offer both a warning and a call to action that much more attention is needed to alleviate water-related violence. Among the most promising developments in efforts to alleviate the impacts include much-improved technological assessments of damage to infrastructure, which promise a speedy arrival of needed relief to vulnerable populations.    

Amidst the increasing risk of extreme weather events and violence, states also must do their part to ensure equitable distribution and engage in participatory approaches toward peacekeeping. Further, conflict-affected regions can utilize water sharing as an opportunity for peacebuilding, despite pre-existing socio-political tensions. In such circumstances, international platforms can provide crucial proactive support for agreements on joint management of water infrastructures to alleviate transboundary water conflicts.    

Read more:     

• Weaponizing water and rising conflicts prove catastrophic for communities in Ukraine, Yemen, and Libya.    
• How climate change and weak infrastructure pose dual threats to water security in Iraq.     
• A new tool to address water-conflicts: Socio-hydrology bridges the gaps between water and peace.