The sharp rise in water-related conflicts in recent years is in focus as the World Water Week conference begins on Sunday in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, and online.

With the theme “Water for People and Progress”, the conference is organised annually by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and highlights growing global water-security challenges.

According to the Pacific Institute, a US-based nonprofit water think tank, 420 water-related conflicts were recorded in 2024 – a record high and a 78 percent increase from the 235 conflicts recorded in 2022.

The increase is largely driven by attacks on water infrastructure and disputes over access, particularly in regions affected by prolonged wars.

For more than three decades, the Pacific Institute has tracked global water conflicts through its Water Conflict Chronology, classifying each incident by whether water served as a casualty, trigger, or weapon of war.

• Casualty: Water infrastructure is damaged or destroyed during conflict, either deliberately or as collateral damage. This can include dams, pipelines, wells, treatment plants and power systems needed to maintain water supplies. In 2024, 55 percent of water-related conflicts were driven by casualty events.
• Trigger: Water scarcity, unequal access, or disputes over resources fuel violence, often involving communities, farmers, animal herders, or armed groups. Scarcity and access disputes remain widespread, with 28 percent acting as triggers for water-related conflicts in 2024.
• Weapon: Water is deliberately manipulated to harm or pressure opponents, including by cutting supplies, contaminating sources, flooding areas, or controlling access. Water weaponisation is less frequent but persistent, underscoring the growing links between water stress, climate pressures and conflict, with two percent of incidents in 2024 categorised this way.

Palestine

In Gaza, 1.9 million of 2.1 million people remain displaced, while about 90 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks, according to UNICEF.

Up to 70 percent cannot collect the minimum six litres of water per person a day for drinking and cooking and 90 percent of households faced moderate-to-high water insecurity.

The medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, reported that water prices have risen by up to 500 percent. Repeated attacks, restrictions on supplies and damage to water facilities have disrupted distribution, worsening diarrhoeal and skin diseases and increasing risks for children and pregnant women, MSF added.

In the occupied West Bank, settler attacks and Israeli demolitions have damaged and destroyed Palestinian water infrastructure, with repeated raids on the Ein Samiya wells east of Ramallah cutting supply to about 100,000 people.

Sudan

Since April 2023, fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has displaced about 12 million people and created a humanitarian crisis affecting more than 30 million.

A Geneva Academy report documented attacks on water infrastructure, including reservoirs, treatment plants and distribution networks, particularly in Darfur. The collapse of water and sanitation systems has fuelled cholera outbreaks and worsened food insecurity, with famine risks rising across Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Iran

US and Israeli air strikes on Iran since February 28, have further strained a water system already weakened by years of drought, below-average rainfall, depleted groundwater and agricultural demand.

Attacks reportedly damaged desalination plants and reservoirs in Qeshm Island and Hormozgan province, disrupting water supplies to tens of thousands of people. Damage to electricity networks and roads has hindered repairs. The attacks came as Iran’s reserves were critically low, with some reservoirs up to 92 percent depleted. Water levels in reservoirs in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and home to around four million people, dropped below three percent.

Gulf region

The war on Iran has exposed the vulnerability of critical water infrastructure in a region that is among the most water-scarce in the world.

Across the Gulf, water security depends heavily on large desalination plants to convert seawater. They supply about 90 percent of drinking water in Kuwait, 86 percent in Oman and 70 percent in Saudi Arabia. In Bahrain, it is above 90 percent and in Qatar, 99 percent.

Desalination plants were damaged in Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and Iran during the war, though the reported impact on water supplies was largely limited.

Ukraine

Ukraine’s water crisis has worsened as the war with Russia damages vital water and energy infrastructure. UNICEF says 4.3 million people received safe-water assistance last year, while 12.7 million need humanitarian support.

Attacks have reduced electricity generation by 70 percent, disrupting water and heating. In Kherson, strikes this month cut supplies to entire neighbourhoods.

The Kakhovka Dam disaster in June 2023 affected more than 100,000 people, while about 10 million now lack reliable access to safe water.