Northern Africa

Islamic State fighters claim responsibility for bombs placed in a road that denoates, damaging a water truck and a tank in Sheikh Zuweid, North Sinai, Egypt.

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.

A person is injured when an explosive device placed under a water pipeline is detonated in the city of Minya Al-Qamh, Eygpt. The pipeline is not damaged. No one claims responsibility for the explosion.

A reservoir appears to have been the target of an attack by supposed Muslim fundamentalists in the city of Zintan, Jabal Al Gharbi district, Libya.

Public protests over drinking and irrigation water shortages take place across Egypt. Several protests turn violent: in Beni Suef, one person is killed and many injured during a conflict over irrigation water; in Minya, villagers clash with officials over water shortages and water pollution; in Faiyum, hundreds of people protesting water shortages block a highway and set fires.

Daesh militants are suspected of two attacks to workers of the Great Man-made River, a large water supply project that transports water from the Sahara desert to communities and agricultural fields in northern Libya. During the first attack four technicians from the Al-Hassouna plant are kidnapped, but later released. During the second attack two workers are killed and two guards are kidnapped.

Military conflict nearly ensues between Britain and France in 1898 when a French expedition attempts to gain control of the headwaters of the White Nile. While the parties ultimately negotiate a settlement of the dispute, the incident is since characterized as having “dramatized Egypt’s vulnerable dependence on the Nile, and fixed the attitude of Egyptian policy-makers ever since.”

In 2007 and 2008, shortages of drinking water provoke demonstrations in towns and villages in the Nile Delta: participants speak of a “Revolution of the Thirsty.” Protestors block the main coastal road after the regional water company diverted water from farming and fishing towns to affluent resort communities. Riot police are sent to quell the disturbances.

Residents of Fernana in northwestern Tunisia threaten to cut off the supply of water delivered by a pumping station to the capital, Tunis. They are protesting economic conditions and repeated water cuts that have sparked anger and protests among the local population. At least one death is reported. Water shortages are experienced in Sousse, Nabeul, Sfax, Kef, Siliana, Beja, Sidi Bouzid, Ben Arous, Medenine and Tataouine. Given the increasing number of protests, the Tunisian citizen’s water observatory, Watchwater, warns against…

Violence breaks out at water points in the Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan. Medicines Sans Frontieres reports that as many as 10 refugees die every day because of water shortages at refugee camps in South Sudan.