Southern Asia

In 1957, Eastern Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) begins building the Kaptai Hydroelectric Dam on the Karnaphuli River in the Chittagong Hills Tract in the southeast. Completed in 1962, the dam flooded 655 square kilometers of land and displaced 100,000 people, most of them Jumma, or ethnic minorities in a country ruled by a Bengali majority. The displaced Jumma are offered little land or compensation and many flee to neighboring India. These conditions contributed to 20+ years of conflict.

A major battle between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers, LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces takes place in July and August 2006 around the watershed of the Mavil Aru (Mother River) in the Kallar area of Trincomalee district. The Mavil Aru, a tributary of the Mahaweli River, supplies water to 20,000 villagers in the eastern Sri Lanka. The sluice-gates of the waterway are captured and closed by the LTTE, cutting off water supplies and leading to…

A man is stabbed by his neighbor over a water sharing dispute in Chennai, India. Current drought and water supply management problems have led to lack of water for millions living in the city.

Drought in northern India causes local bandits to threaten to kill nearby villagers unless they deliver water to their rural hideouts. Twenty-eight local villages obey the order and take turns paying what the bandits call a daily “water tax.’

Partition leaves Indus basin divided between India and Pakistan; disputes over irrigation water ensue, during which India stems flow of water into irrigation canals in Pakistan. Indus Waters Agreement reached in 1960 after 12 years of World Bank-led negotiations.

American forces bomb the hydroelectric facility at Kajaki Dam in Helmand province of Afghanistan, cutting off electricity for the city of Kandahar. The dam itself is not targeted.

Disputes over water between Iran and Afghanistan are escalating. One Afghan newspaper, Weesa, suggests that Iran blocked the transport of fuel oil to Afghanistan in 2010 as a means to put more pressure on the country over water. An Iranian editorial calls for bolder action by the Foreign Ministry and states that any aid to Afghanistan should be linked to “Iran’s rights to water.” In 2011, Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban commander captured in southwestern Afghanistan by Afghan authorities, claims to…

Around 210 BC, Arsaces III, one of the Parthian kings, destroys qanats (underground channels) in order to make it difficult for the attacking army of Seleucid Antiochus to advance toward the Parthian capital, Hecatompylos.

A remote-controlled bomb hidden in a water truck kills three people, including two children, in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, which borders Pakistan.

Hundreds of farmers in the town of Varzaneh, in Iran’s Isfahan province, clash with police during a protest against the government’s decision to divert water from the area to another province. Iranian media say farmers smash a pipeline carrying water from Zayanderud river to neighboring Yazd province in an effort to prevent the water transfer. Dozens are reported injured and more arrested.