Water and Violence: Attacks on Water Infrastructure
Publisher: Blue Peace Bulletin
Date: 2019
Topics: Peace Agreements, Renewable Resources, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
The Report of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace, “A Matter of Survival”, elucidates how in an on-going armed conflict, states as well as armed non-state groups tend to destroy and capture water installations, deliberately sabotage water supply lines, as well poison water resources to intimidate civilians. This trend of using water during armed conflicts has been around since centuries. Right from the conquests of Julius Caesar to the battles of World War II and more recently the attacks perpetrated by terror organizations and militia, water has played an important role, sometimes inadvertently and at others intentionally. The ‘Water Conflict Chronology List’, prepared by the Pacific Institute, provides a detailed account of various events involving attacks on water infrastructures or the use of water as a weapon. An analysis of this list reveals that the attacks pertaining to weaponization of water can be mainly classified into four categories, namely – diversion or cutting off of water, flooding, poisoning of water resources, and destroying water Infrastructures. Although other forms of weaponizing water may exist, these four forms can be seen predominantly. In this bulletin, the authors have examined the Water Conflict Chronology List and other open sources to discern some trends and patterns with regards to the use of water as a strategic tool in wars and conflicts by both state actors and armed non-state actors ranging over a period as far back as 2500 BC to as recent as 2010 AD.