Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate uses sacred money to divert a stream to Jerusalem, Israel. The Jews are angered at the diversion and tens of thousands gather to protest. Pilate’s soldiers mingle among the crowd and with daggers hidden in their garments, attack the protesters. “A great number” are slain and wounded and the sedition ends.
Up to four million people in Damascus suffer a loss of water services after springs outside the city are attacked. Water from the Wadi Barada and Ain al-Fija springs, which serve 70 percent of the Syrian capital, is cut off when water infrastructure is deliberately targeted.
The Islamic State attacks Iraqi security forces and affiliated militiamen stationed around Adhaim dam on the Al Uzym River, north of Baghdad. Accounts differ as to the total number of deaths, however both sides suffer losses of life and numerous fighters are injured.
The Abu Nawas pumping station on the Tigris River, which supplies water to Sadr City and other treatment plants in Baghdad, is severely damaged during the 2003 conflict.
After a successful campaign against the Halidians of Armenia, Sargon II of Assyria destroys their intricate irrigation network and floods their land.
In quelling rebellious Assyrians in 695 B.C., Sennacherib razes Babylon and diverts one of the principal irrigation canals so that its waters wash over the ruins.
Esarhaddon, an Assyrian, refers to an earlier period when gods, angered by insolent mortals, created destructive floods. According to inscriptions recorded during his reign, Esarhaddon besieges Tyre, cutting off food and water.
Ashurbanipal’s inscriptions also refer to a siege against Tyre, although scholars attribute it to Esarhaddon. In campaigns against both Arabia and Elam in 645 B.C., Ashurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, dries up wells to deprive Elamite troops. He also guards wells from Arabian fugitives in an earlier Arabian war. On his return from victorious battle against Elam, Ashurbanipal floods the city of Sapibel, and ally of Elam. According to inscriptions, he dams the Ulai River with the bodies of dead Elamite…
A coalition of Egyptian, Median (Persian), and Babylonian forces attacks and destroys Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, leads the Babylonians. The converging armies divert the Khosr River to create a flood, which allows them to elevate their siege engines on rafts.
On his way from Sardis to defeat Nabonidus at Babylon, Cyrus faces a powerful tributary of the Tigris, probably the Diyalah. According to Herodotus’ account, the river drowns his royal white horse and presents a formidable obstacle to his march. Cyrus, angered by the “insolence” of the river, halts his army and orders them to cut 360 canals to divert the river’s flow. Other historians argue that Cyrus needed the water to maintain his troops on their southward journey, while…