New Global Analysis Finds Water-Related Terrorism Is on the Rise

May 10, 2018 | Jennifer Veilleux and Shlomi Dinar
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In 2014, after losing a number of Somalian cities it had captured to African Union and Somali troops, the terrorist group Al-Shabaab changed its tactics. To demonstrate its continued power and presence, Al-Shabaab cut off water supplies to its formerly held cities. Residents from these cut-off cities were forced to fetch water from nearby towns, many of which Al-Shabaab controlled. But the terror group prevented anyone living in government-controlled territory from entering, which increased people’s frustration with the government. Attacking water is not a new terror tactic. Thirty decades earlier, in the midst of Peru’s economic crisis and failed agrarian reforms, the leftist group Shining Path destroyed precious water infrastructure, along with bridges and electrical systems. More recently, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control of Tabqa (2013) and Mosul (2014) dams, spurring fears the dams would fail and disrupt water flows and hydropower generation. To better understand incidents like these, we launched a study to codify, quantify, and conduct a geospatial analysis of water-related terrorism. Using the Global Terrorism Database, which includes more than 170,000 terrorism incidents from 1970-2016, we developed a method to codify types of water-related terrorism. Using this method, we found 675 water-related incidents in 71 countries, conducted by 124 known terrorist organizations, and resulting in approximately 3,400 dead or wounded people. Contrary to the belief that terrorists typically use water as a weapon, we found that the most common target of water-related terrorism was water infrastructure: the pipes, dams, weirs, levees, and treatment plants associated with water storage, treatment, and delivery. Terrorists target infrastructure to inconvenience government authorities, influence populations, and cripple corporations.