Western Asia

Water trucks are damaged during the conflict in Az Zuhrah District, Al Hudaydah, Yemen.

A water truck is damaged during the conflict in Amran District, Amran, Yemen

The Yemeni Interior Ministry claims up to 4,000 people die annually from water-related violence including raids on wells and other fights over water access involving armed groups. A report from Yemen’s pro-government newspaper estimates that 70-80% of conflicts in rural areas are about water. The UNFAO estimates that about 20 million Yemenis do not have access to drinking water because of the ongoing civil war.

Arab forces cut of West Jerusalem’s water supply in first Arab-Israeli war.

Fire is exchanged over “all-Arab” plan to divert the Jordan River headwaters (Hasbani and Banias) and presumably preempt Israeli National Water Carrier; Syria halts construction of its diversion in July 1966.

Israel cuts off the water supply of Beirut during siege.

Jordan makes public its plans to irrigate the Jordan Valley by tapping the Yarmouk River; Israel responds by commencing drainage of the Huleh swamps located in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria; border skirmishes ensue between Israel and Syria.

Airstrikes over several days in July in the city of Al-Hudaydah, Yemen, damage water and sanitation infrastructure, including many drinking water wells.

Control over power and water infrastructure and intentional attacks on that infrastructure are being used as weapons in the civil war in Syria. Officials estimate there has been a 50 percent reduction in access to safe water in the country since the war began.

During the Persian Gulf War, Allied forces target water and sanitation facilities in Iraq’s second-largest city, Basra. The damage is unrepairable.