Western Asia

As upstream dams are filled during a low-flow year on the Euphrates, Iraqis claim that flow reaching its territory is “intolerable” and asks the Arab League to intervene. Syrians claim they are receiving less than half the river’s normal flow and pull out of an Arab League technical committee formed to mediate the conflict. In May Syria closes its airspace to Iraqi flights and both Syrian and Iraq reportedly transfer troops to their mutual border. Saudi Arabia successfully mediates the…

The flow of the Euphrates is interrupted for a month as Turkey finishes construction of the Atatürk Dam, part of the Grand Anatolia Project. Syria and Iraq protest that Turkey now has a weapon of war. In mid-1990 Turkish president Turgut Özal threatens to restrict water flow to Syria to force it to withdraw support for Kurdish rebels operating in southern Turkey.

To quell opposition to his government, Saddam Hussein reportedly poisons and drains the water supplies of southern Shiite Muslims, the Marsh Arabs, or Maʻdān. The marshes of southern Iraq are intentionally targeted. The European Parliament and UN Human Rights Commission deplore use of water as weapon in region.

Israel destroys the Arab diversion works on the Jordan River headwaters. During Arab-Israeli War Israel occupies Golan Heights, with Banias tributary to the Jordan; Israel occupies West Bank.

Iraq threatens to bomb the Euphrates dam (also known as al-Thawra or Tabqa dam) in Syria and massed troops along the border, alleging that the dam had reduced the flow of Euphrates River water to Iraq.

A combined U.S. and Syrian force launches an attack on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces controlling the Tabqa Dam ” a choke point on the Euphrates River and source of hydroelectric power for the region, which has been under ISIL control. There are conflicting reports on whether the dam itself was the target of an attack.

During construction of the Ataturk Dam, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) destroys construction equipment and nearly 1,100 vehicles, severely delaying the project.

Turkish police discover Syrian-backed terrorists designing a plan to blow up the Atatürk Dam.

In response to the advance of the Syrian Arab Army, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) floods villages they control in the Deir Hafer Plain of east Aleppo by pumping water from Lake Assad into the Al-Jar channel.

A plant is destroyed and 14 workers are killed in Yemen in an aerial bombing by a Saudi-led coalition. The Yemeni Defense Ministry claims the facility was a bottled water plant, while the Saudi-led coalition claims the facility was used to make bombs and train African migrants. Human Rights Watch finds no evidence the facility was anything except a bottling plant.