How Water Crisis Impacts the Ukraine Conflict

Mar 29, 2022 | Ashok Swain
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Though the water war catchphrase is often used in public discourse to hype up the issue of water scarcity, the correlation between water and war has been a topic of academic interest for decades.

Depriving water denies people of basic survival needs and can work to break their morale. Destruction of dams and other water infrastructures as a weapon of war is nothing new. In World War II, the Allied forces bombed the Nazi-controlled Vemork Dam in Norway, and British ‘Dam Busters’ had destroyed several German dams to flood the Ruhr Valley.The US Air Force had bombed several dams in the Korean War to flood the railroads and damage rice cultivation.

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine raises the question whether water played a role in making this decision. After entering the Ukrainian territory, on the first day itself, one of the first operations of the Russian forces was to control a dam on the North Crimean Canal.Ukraine has been alleging Russian cyberattacks to cripple its water infrastructure even before the military inventions.There is considerable evidence of water being weaponised during the war.

Thus, it is unsurprising that water and power infrastructure is being attacked in Ukraine. Flooding the North-Western part of Kyiv to halt the advancement of Russian tanks entering the city is another example.