Fresh water is one of the most basic human needs. But access to water has also long been a source of conflict. Last year saw an uptick in water-related violence around the world, according to the Pacific Institute, a group that tracks how water plays a role in wars and conflicts.
“The database that we maintain — the Water Conflict Chronology — has almost 2,000 entries over 4,000 years, but with a very significant uptick in the last couple of years,” said Peter Gleick, cofounder of the institute.
He spoke to The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler from Stockholm, Sweden, where he is attending a conference for World Water Week.
Carolyn Beeler: What is the connection between water and conflict?
Peter Gleick: For example, we’ve seen where drought has led to violence between farmers or between urban water users and rural water users. A tremendous amount of conflict is going on in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, between farmers and pastoralists over access to land and access to water resources.
But we’ve seen riots over water in India and Iran in recent years. We’ve also seen very extensive attacks on civilian water systems in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war — the destruction of the massive Kakhovka Dam last June, perhaps the greatest or worst example of that, if you will.
And attacks on Palestinian water systems in the West Bank have been going on for quite some time, as well.
But we’ve seen riots over water in India and Iran in recent years. We’ve also seen very extensive attacks on civilian water systems in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war — the destruction of the massive Kakhovka Dam last June, perhaps the greatest or worst example of that, if you will.
And attacks on Palestinian water systems in the West Bank have been going on for quite some time, as well.
You found an uptick in violence over water resources from 2022 to 2023, from 231 incidents to 347. What is driving that change?
Last year, 2023 did see a big uptick in violence, tremendous increase over 2022, which unfortunately was also a big increase over the year before that. We’ve seen this trend over the last couple of decades of more and more violence associated with water.
I think it’s a result of a lot of different factors. First of all, we’ve seen a lot of events associated with the Russia-Ukraine war, a lot of events in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, where water has been a target or casualty of conflict. But we’ve also seen an increase where water scarcity and drought, probably worsened by climate change, which we know is a factor, has contributed to tensions over access to scarce and limited water resources.
So, every category has seen an increase. And unfortunately, we’ve seen an increase in almost every region of the world, as well.
I think it’s a result of a lot of different factors. First of all, we’ve seen a lot of events associated with the Russia-Ukraine war, a lot of events in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, where water has been a target or casualty of conflict. But we’ve also seen an increase where water scarcity and drought, probably worsened by climate change, which we know is a factor, has contributed to tensions over access to scarce and limited water resources.
So, every category has seen an increase. And unfortunately, we’ve seen an increase in almost every region of the world, as well.
I understand you’re at World Water Week in Stockholm right now. What’s under discussion about how to reduce water-related conflict in the future?
The World Water Week conference this year in Stockholm is focused on this issue — water for peace and security. And so, there are a lot of discussions going on about, first of all, the nature of this threat, this growing risk that we’re seeing violence over water resources.
But the ultimate goal of the conference, and frankly, the ultimate goal of the work that we’ve been doing at the Pacific Institute to try and track violence over water, is to think about solutions.
How can we reduce the risk of water conflicts? How can we provide safe water and sanitation to everyone so that water doesn’t trigger violence? How can we get international institutions to protect the rule of law, the Geneva Convention that, in theory, prohibits attack on civilian water infrastructure, but has not done a good job in recent years of actually being enforced?
So, all of the idea about both identifying the risks, but also working on solutions, is part of the conversation here.
But the ultimate goal of the conference, and frankly, the ultimate goal of the work that we’ve been doing at the Pacific Institute to try and track violence over water, is to think about solutions.
How can we reduce the risk of water conflicts? How can we provide safe water and sanitation to everyone so that water doesn’t trigger violence? How can we get international institutions to protect the rule of law, the Geneva Convention that, in theory, prohibits attack on civilian water infrastructure, but has not done a good job in recent years of actually being enforced?
So, all of the idea about both identifying the risks, but also working on solutions, is part of the conversation here.
So, has the needle been moved at all in recent years? You mentioned a bunch of approaches, but has there been any real change in terms of water governance or how governments are working together to prevent conflict?
Well, I do think there’s a growing awareness of the water challenges we face, and in particular here, a growing awareness of the risks of conflicts over water. But the incredible increase that we saw last year and the increase that we’ve seen over the last several decades is a trend in the wrong direction.
We need the international community to pay much more attention to this. We need much more aggressive efforts to provide safe water and sanitation to the billions of people that don’t have it, so that water scarcity won’t trigger violence and conflict.
And, the international community has not done a good job of enforcing international rules of law, enforcing the Geneva Conventions that, in theory, prohibit attack on civilian water infrastructure during conflicts that may start for other reasons, start for religious or ideological or economic reasons, but where civilian infrastructure is supposed to be protected and the Geneva Conventions have not been enforced.
So, enforcing those rules of law also need to be stepped up.
We need the international community to pay much more attention to this. We need much more aggressive efforts to provide safe water and sanitation to the billions of people that don’t have it, so that water scarcity won’t trigger violence and conflict.
And, the international community has not done a good job of enforcing international rules of law, enforcing the Geneva Conventions that, in theory, prohibit attack on civilian water infrastructure during conflicts that may start for other reasons, start for religious or ideological or economic reasons, but where civilian infrastructure is supposed to be protected and the Geneva Conventions have not been enforced.
So, enforcing those rules of law also need to be stepped up.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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