A protest in Zagora, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco,over shortages of drinking water turns violent, resulting in 21 arrests, damage to property, and injuries to members of the security force.
Civil unrest erupts over use and allocation of water from Baiyang Lake, the largest natural lake in northern China. Several people die in riots by villagers in July 2000 in Shandong after officials cut off water supplies. In August 2000, six die when officials in the southern province of Guangdong blow up a water channel to prevent a neighboring county from diverting water.
Tensions continue between India and Pakistan over access to and control of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir, with a demand by Pakistan that India withdraw troops stationed there.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels bomb an oil pipeline, causing it to spill 10,000 barrels of oil into the Mira River, leaving an estimated 150,000 people without drinking water. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos declares a state of emergency in the state of Tumaco due to the spill.
A home-made bomb is discovered at a water reservoir at Wallmansthal near Pretoria. It is thought to have been meant to sabotage water supplies to farmers.
The Syrian civil war and the displacement of refugees into Jordan contribute to a growing water supply crisis. In summer 2013, riots associated with water shortages are reported by the director of water utilities in Jordan’s Mafraq governorate. He notes, “Mafraq was on fire. People burned tires in the street and closed the roads. There was tension over water in the past, but the Syria crisis has made it much worse.”
A bomb blast at the Cali Drinking Water Treatment Plant kills 3 workers May 8th. The workers were members of a trade union involved in intense negotiations over privatization of the water system.
Between 1980 and 1982, as part of President Barre’s “scorched earth” policy, government troops demolish water-points and berkads (catchments) in many of the towns and villages of Mudug and neighboring Nugal.
January 2002. About 40 people are killed and 60 wounded in inter-clan fighting in the Mudug region of central Somalia. The violence is sparked by revenge killings over the deaths of eight fisherman, but a local elder, Muhammad Salad Du’ale, attributes the ongoing violence to the scarcity of water and grazing.
Two days of heavy fighting in Mudug region of Somalia leave at least 43 people dead and over 90 injured. The fighting breaks out between the Sa’ad, Habar Gedir subclan and the Dir, and is concentrated in and around the villages of Towfiq and Awle, some 200 km east of Galkayo. As with the 2002 events, the clashes are triggered by revenge killings but the ensuing escalation of violence is also attributed to disagreements over water and grazing in the…