Violence over water on rise globally: Think Tank

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — Researchers documented 347 water-related conflicts in 2023, a year that saw violence over water increase dramatically worldwide, according to the data compiled by researchers at the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank.
The number of incidents reached a new record last year, far surpassing the 231 conflicts recorded in 2022 and continuing a rising trend that has persisted over the last decade, it noted.
“The newly updated data show that water-related disputes — ranging from quarrels over water sources to protests over lack of clean water — have erupted into violence with alarming frequency, and that water systems have increasingly been targeted in conflicts,” said the Los Angeles Times on Thursday in its report about the new data.
“The rise is very dramatic and disturbing,” said Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute co-founder and senior fellow.
The upsurge in violence, he said, reflects continuing disputes over control and access to scarce water resources, growing pressures on supplies driven by population growth and climate change, and ongoing attacks on water infrastructure where war and violence are widespread, especially in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Details of last year’s incidents have been included in the latest update of the Pacific Institute’s Water Conflict Chronology, a comprehensive global database on water-related violence.
The researchers collect information about the incidents from news reports and other sources and accounts. They classify instances into three categories: where water or water systems have been a trigger of violence; have been used as a “weapon”; or have been targeted and become a “casualty” of violence. ■