In November, Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad overrun government forces and capture the Tishrin hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River, after days of heavy clashes. The dam supplies electricity to part of Syria and is considered strategically important to the Syrian regime.
Severe political conflict in Syria has been aggravated by the multi-year drought gripping the region. More than 1.5 million people “mostly farmers and their families” have moved to cities and their outskirts. In 2008, US diplomats in Syria warn that the influx of rural people to cities “could act as a multiplier on social and economic pressures already at play and undermine stability in Syria.” Political unrest begins in March 2011 in Dara’a, and soon escalates into civil war as…
Saladin is able to defeat the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin in 1187 by denying them access to water. In some reports, Saladin fills all the wells along the way with sand and destroys the villages of the Maronite Christians who would supply the Christian army with water.
Nebuchadnezzar breaches the aqueduct that supplies the city of Tyre in order to end a long siege.
Mosul Dam in Iraq is taken over by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces in August 2014. Over the next several weeks, Kurdish and US forces attack ISIS/ISIL in the region and retake control of the dam.
Islamic State (IS) militants attack the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River in Syria. The attack is repelled with airstrikes. The following day a similar attack occurs during which at least 14 IS militants are killed.
A water pumping station is attacked by the Islamic State (IS) in Deir ez-Zor, Syria as part of numerous attacks that leave hundreds of people dead, including Syrian soldiers, IS militia, and civilians.
During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, Gaza’s water infrastructure is heavily damaged. The World Health Organization and other aid groups report that a water facility, wastewater treatment plants, and a desalination facility are damaged by Israeli military action. Moreover, electricity shortages impede the ability of the remaining wastewater treatment plants to function effectively.
Palestinians destroy water supply pipelines to the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and to Kibbutz Kissufim. The Agbat Jabar refugee camp near Jericho disconnects from its water supply after Palestinians loot and damage local water pumps. Palestinians accuse Israel of destroying a water cistern, blocking water tanker deliveries, and attacking materials for a wastewater treatment project.
Farmers returning to their land in northwestern Iraq after the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) find widespread devastation to agricultural land, livestock, and machinery, including water pumps, wells, pipes and generators. One assessment by the Iraq Food and Security Cluster Partnership notes that of the 450 deep wells, only 50 are still useable. Another assessment by Amnesty International details the destruction of wells on the properties of more than 30 different farmers from across the country.