Violence over water is on the rise, reached a record last year

in Algeria, water scarcity The taps remained dry, causing protesters to riot and set tires on fire.

Eight people died when an Israeli drone opened fire on them while people were waiting for water in the tap in Gaza.

In Ukraine, Russian rockets hit the country’s largest dam. fire cloud passing over the hydroelectric power plant widespread power outages.

These are some of the 420 water-related conflict researchers documented for 2024 in the Pacific Institute’s latest update. Water Conflict ChronologyA global database of water-related violence.

This year has seen a record number of violent incidents on water around the world; The 355 events of 2023 are long gone and a rapid upward trend continues. Violence has more than quadrupled in the last five years.

New data from the Oakland-based water think tank also shows that drinking water wells, pipes and dams are increasingly being attacked.

“More and more incidents of violence over water are being reported in nearly every region of the world,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, “underscoring the urgent need for international attention.”

Researchers gather information from news and other sources and accounts. They divide this into three categories: situations where water triggers violence, water systems are targeted, and water is a “victim” of violence; for example, bullet fragments hitting a water tank.

Not every case results in injury or death, but most do.

The region with the highest number of violent incidents was the Middle East with 138 incidents. This included 66 people from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in both Gaza and the West Bank.

There were numerous reports of Israeli settlers in the West Bank destroying water pipelines and tanks and attacking Palestinian farmers.

Israeli army in Gaza More than 30 wells were destroyed In the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.

Gleick, International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Last year’s accusations against Israeli and Hamas leaders accusing them of crimes against humanity cited Israel’s military strikes on Gaza’s water systems.

“This is an acknowledgment that these attacks are a violation of international law,” he said. “There needs to be greater enforcement of international laws that protect water systems from attack.”

Water systems were also frequently targeted in the Russia-Ukraine war, in which researchers counted 51 violent incidents.

Residents collect water in bottles in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, where Russian bombardment has left civilians without functioning infrastructure.

(George Ivanchenko / Associated Press)

Russian attacks disrupted water service in Ukrainian cities oil spilled into the river After Russian forces attacked an oil depot.

“These are not water wars. These are wars where water is used as a weapon or there are casualties in the conflict,” Gleick said.

Researchers also found that water scarcity and drought are leading to an increasing number of violent conflicts.

“Climate change is making these problems worse,” Gleick said.

Most of the conflicts took place in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Citizens angry about water scarcity in India attacked a municipal employee.

A woman in Jammu, India, carries a container of drinking water filled from leaking water pipes in March.

(Channi Anand / Associated Press)

One person died and three others were injured in a conflict between rice farmers and fishermen in Cameroon.

Three people lost their lives in a fight over drinking water in a refugee camp in Kenya.

There is an increase in conflicts over irrigation, disputes pitting farmers against cities, and violence in places where only some water is drinkable.

A man carries jugs to fetch water from a hole in the sandy riverbed in Kenya’s Makueni County in February 2024.

(Brian Inganga / Associated Press)

Gleick, who has studied water-related violence for more than three decades, said the goal of the list is to raise awareness and encourage policymakers to take action to reduce fighting, bloodshed and mayhem.

The United Nations itself Sustainable Development Goals, Everyone should have access to water and sanitation, he says.

“Failure to do so is inexcusable and contributes to a lot of misery,” Gleick said. “It contributes to ill health, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, water-related diseases and conflicts over water.”

There were dozens of water-related violent incidents in Latin America last year.

Protesters in the Mexican state of Veracruz block the road To condemn a pork processing plant they accused of using too much water and emitting pollution after police opened fire, killing two people.

Juan López, an environmental activist who spoke out to protect rivers from mining in Honduras. He was shot while leaving church. He was the fourth member of his group to be killed.

A man fills containers with water during a famine caused by high temperatures and drought in Veracruz, Mexico, in June 2024.

(Felix Marquez / Associated Press)

“There needs to be more attention to this issue, especially at the international level, but also at the national level,” said Morgan Shimabuku, a senior researcher at the Pacific Institute. “It’s getting worse and we need to turn it around.”

There were few incidents in the United States in 2024, but among them were cyber attacks on water utilities in Texas and Indiana.

In one of them, Russian hackers claimed responsibility for a hack into a wastewater treatment plant in Indiana. Authorities said the attack caused minimal downtime. In another, a pro-Russian hacktivist group manipulated systems at water utilities. small texas townscauses water to overflow.

The Pacific Institute’s database currently lists more than 2,750 conflicts. Most have occurred since 2000. Researchers are adding events in 2025 as well as previous years.

During extreme drought in Iran made worse by climate change, farmers were desperate enough to fight back security forces, demands access to river water. Iran’s water crisis, exacerbated by decades of excessive pumping of groundwater, has become so severe that Tehran’s president said: can no longer remain the capital and the government will have to move it to another city.

Tensions are increasing between Iran and Afghanistan on the Helmand RiverIranian leaders accuse their upriver neighbors of not allowing enough water to flow into the country.

If the drought continues and the Iranian government doesn’t improve how it manages water, “I would expect to see more violence,” Gleick said.