The first known water war occurred nearly 4,500 years ago between the ancient city-states of Umma and Lagash in Mesopotamia over access to irrigation water from the Tigris River. For more than 30 years, the Pacific Institute has tracked and recorded incidents of violence associated with water in the open-source database, the Water Conflict Chronology. […]
The UN formally declared a human right to water in 2010 and international humanitarian law demands the protection of civilian water infrastructure during conflicts. It also prohibits the use of water as a weapon of war. Yet violence over water is worsening.