Water-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.
There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank.
The institute has compiled evidence of hundreds of years of water-related conflicts, including cases of water being a trigger for violence, a weapon of conflict or a casualty of conflict.
“We’re seeing more conflicts and they are multicausal,” said Dr Peter Gleick, a co-founder and senior fellow at the institute. “The climate crisis and extreme weather play a part but there are lots of other factors such as state failure and incompetent or corrupt governments, and lack of or misuse of infrastructure.”
Joanna Trevor, Oxfam’s water security lead, said the charity had also seen “an increase in localised conflicts over water due to climate change and water insecurity”.
Recent examples include tensions over an Indus River water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan after a terrorist attack, Russia targeting hydropower dams in Ukraine, Israel destroying Gaza’s water systems, and protests over water supplies in South Africa.
“In Gaza, Israel systematically weaponised water,” Trevor said. “They deliberately targeted water systems and desalination plants and blocked repairs. Wastewater contaminated drinking water due to the destruction of sewage and storm water infrastructure, and people have been attacked while waiting or queueing for water.
“In east Africa and the Sahel, water is becoming increasingly insecure and people are moving into new areas to access water, which in itself can trigger competition and conflict with the host population.”
Politics has intensified already fragile situations in some places. Gleick said: “The Colorado River and the Rio Grande in the US have become increasingly politically contentious in recent years. There are treaties dating back to 1944 that govern both rivers, requiring the US to deliver Colorado River water to Mexico and Mexico to deliver Rio Grande water to the US. But as border politics ramped up under the Trump administration, these issues became more contentious. Several people were killed in Mexico during a protest at a dam used to deliver water to the US, after farmers objected to the releases.”
Gleick said there were some lesser-known disputes in central Asia that could flare up. “In Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan there have been tensions over water for a while and Afghanistan is building a very big canal, the Qosh Tepa canal, to divert water from the Amu Darya River, which if put into operation will significantly reduce flows to the central Asian republics.”
The United Nations’ institutes are sounding the alarm and the UN predicts global freshwater demand will exceed supply by 40% by 2030. On Tuesday the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health declared that the world had entered an era of “water bankruptcy”.
Unesco says that while approximately 40% of the world’s population lives in transboundary river and lake basins, only a fifth of countries have cross-border agreements to share resources equitably.
Trevor said: “With water insecurity rising, more accountable transboundary treaties need to be put in place that cater for all people in a way that secures their human right to water. There needs to be a greater recognition of the need to better share water beyond current water-sharing agreements that are often voluntary and thereby totally reliant upon good will.”
Gleick said: “We can solve our water problems – I don’t argue that we will or that we will do it soon, but we can. That includes the impacts of climate change on water, meeting basic human needs and rights for water, addressing ecosystem problems, and reducing the risks of conflicts over water resources.”
