At least two people die and others are injured in riots over water in Bangalore, India in the state of Karnataka. The unrest starts when the Indian Supreme Court orders Karnataka to release water from dams on the Kaveri river to neighboring Tamil Nadu. Over 400 people were arrested.
Islamist militants execute militia members defending the Machalgho Dam in eastern Afghanistan. The dam is being developed for irrigation and local power supply. This dispute is one of several surrounding the international waters of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, which share several rivers.
Water shortages in the southern part of Iran have caused protests, which turned violent with attacks on property and other infrastructure. Police action to break up the protests lead to several injuries and deaths.
Farmers in Varzaneh clash with police and break a water pipe that transports 50 million cubic meters of water per year from Isfahan to the neighboring province of Yazd, Iran.
A farmer reports losing sight in one eye and wounds from a pellet gun from a clash with police ignited by a strike over lack of water in Varzaneh, Iran.
The Khumbuwan Liberation Front (KLF) blows up a 250 kilowatt hydroelectric powerhouse in Nepal’s Bhojpur District, cutting off power to Bhojpur and surrounding areas. The damages take 6 months to repair and cost 10 million Rs (US $120,000). During 2002, Maoist rebels destroy more than seven micro-hydro projects, a water-supply intake, and supply pipelines to Khalanga in western Nepal.
Employees of the private company Assam Rifles are escorting a water tanker near the Manipur-Myanmar border when they are attacked with a remotely-detonated bomb. No one is reported injured, however the water tanker is damaged.
During a 2001 drought, Taliban authorities cut off the flow of the Helmand River between Afghanistan and Sistan-Baluchestan, Iran, which relies on the Helmand as its only source of irrigation. The Iranian government allegedly responds by entering Afghanistan and building a series of diversion canals to restore flows. A 1973 water agreement between the two countries is never ratified and both Iran and Afghanistan have reported violations.
A dispute over the allocation and rights to water from the Hari Rud River between Afghanistan and Iran leads to at least ten deaths when Iranian border guards allegedly open fire on Afghan villagers trying to collect river water. The river provides water for agricultural production in Herat province, Afghanistan, and to the downstream Iranian city of Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city.
Attacks to the city of Farah in the western region of Afghanistan in early 2018 by the Taliban may, in part, be supported by Iran in an attempt to reduce Afghanistan’s ability to pursue water dam infrastructure projects. Experts disagree to the amount of support given to Taliban militants by Iran, but water projects in Afghanistan’s western region are indisputably a point of contention between the two nations.