Violent Conflict Over Water Hit a Record Last Year (msn.com) 59
Researchers at the Pacific Institute documented 420 water-related conflicts globally in 2024, a record that far surpasses the 355 incidents logged in 2023 and continues a trend that has seen such violence more than quadruple over the past five years. The Oakland-based water think tank's database tracks disputes where water triggered violence, where water systems were targeted, and where infrastructure became collateral damage in broader conflicts.
The Middle East reported the most incidents at 138, including 66 tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli military destroyed more than 30 wells in Rafah and Khan Yunis, and there were numerous reports of settlers destroying pipelines and tanks in the West Bank. The Russia-Ukraine war accounted for 51 incidents, including strikes that disrupted water service in Ukrainian cities.
The Middle East reported the most incidents at 138, including 66 tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli military destroyed more than 30 wells in Rafah and Khan Yunis, and there were numerous reports of settlers destroying pipelines and tanks in the West Bank. The Russia-Ukraine war accounted for 51 incidents, including strikes that disrupted water service in Ukrainian cities.
420 conflicts (Score:2)
I read that as H2O conflicts first... I will let someone else insert the other obvious meme.
Only going to increase. (Score:3, Informative)
The number of violent conflicts is only going to increase from now on. Climate change is only causing things to shift and our water management practices are not very good to start with.
Re:Only going to increase. (Score:5, Insightful)
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What is real and grossly, inadequately addressed is climate change by specific major contributors including the US, Rus
Re:Only going to increase. (Score:5, Insightful)
The examples named were not of conflicts over water, they were of Russians and Israelis creating water shortages as a weapon.
Not wars over water (Score:5, Insightful)
Neither Ukraine/Russia nor Palestine/Israel are wars over water.
Re: Not wars over water (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Not wars over water (Score:2, Insightful)
The conflict is over ethnic cleansing. Water is being used as a weapon.
Re: Not wars over water (Score:3, Insightful)
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Israel didn't "steal" that territory, they were invaded by every one of their neighbors and seized those "disputed" territories during their counter-offensive. (Egypt doesn't want Gaza back, Jordan doesn't want the West Bank back...)
It would be like if the Ukraine had fought back so hard that they ended up taking a chunk of Russia and using it as a buffer against future attacks. Wou
Re: Not wars over water (Score:2, Insightful)
The conflict is over honor before reason. As most wars are. And as with most such things in recent decades, it really does take two to tango.
If the Israelis had really wanted peace, they wouldn't have engaged in half-assed occupation for the past sixty years. They would have either flat out annexed the territory and expelled the occupants (as the Soviets did to ethnic Germans in Poland and western Ukraine, for example) or they would have drawn a line, built a wall, and made damn sure no one went across it.
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Similarly, if the Arabs wanted peace more than they wanted honor, they would have granted full citizenship to "Palestinians" in their territory instead of keeping them as refugees for four generations now.
That could be said to apply to the West Bank to a certain extent, as far as I remember (and I was a kid when it happened) that was the part left over after Israel had grabbed the land - kicking the previous occupants out which was the initial State of Israel. Refugees from there mostly landed in Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza.
Israel backed Christian militia perpetrated a massacre (Sabra and Shatila) in 1982 [middleeasteye.net] after the armed PLO fighters had withdrawn from the area and I have no idea what the situation is there no
Re: Not wars over water (Score:1)
Fella I worked with a while back was born in the 1960s in a refugee camp in Beirut. As far as I can tell the only country he actually held citizenship in was the United States.
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Re: Not wars over water (Score:1)
Sure we could. We just don't want to. It would be far too violent for our present sensibilities. Gaza is about 5 to 10 dB less than what it would actually take to force Hamas to accept peace. Another 5 dB of violence on top of that is the minimum to disabuse the rest of the Palestinians of the "here junior, put on this backpack and ride the bus" mentality.
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If the Israelis had really wanted peace, they wouldn't have engaged in half-assed occupation for the past sixty years.
It's not a very good analysis. Israel is not a monolith, it's made up of many people of varying power. Some want peace, some don't. When violence happens, it increases the power/influence of people who don't.
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Yeah, indeed, when the peaceniks get too uppity, they're promptly dealt with [wikipedia.org] by this violence that just happens.
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It didn't change things. The peace process went forward,
Wow, what an interesting alternative history narrative. Too bad that it never happened.
What actually happened was that the "peace process" didn't go forward. Instead, after the assassination of Rabin, the circle that organized it, pushed forward with its leader, one Benjamin Netanyahu, a suspected war criminal, who came to power with a narrow victory in, IIRC 1996, and an ambition to achieve the ideal of Lebensra..., errr, Eretz Israel, the first step of which was to kill the "peace process" and the "two-s
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Netenyahu's approach lost the support of the Israeli voters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Netenyahu's successor was willing to make a ton of concessions for peace: https://www.youtube.com/shorts... [youtube.com]
Re: Not wars over water (Score:1)
And got rewarded with a rather large body count for his troubles, if memory serves.
Even Sharon pulled settlers out of Gaza at the point of a gun. And that didn't turn out the way the idealists imagined, did it?
A good nuclear bombing will learn everyone (Score:1)
to behave themselves for another couple of generations, perhaps.
Re: A good nuclear bombing will learn everyone (Score:1)
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It's horrible (Score:1)
Just the other day I was driving along the coast of Lake Erie and saw two seagulls over the water in a huge conflict over what appeared to be a french fry. Brutal.
Let me guess ... (Score:1)
The Israeli military destroyed more than 30 wells in Rafah and Khan Yunis, and there were numerous reports of settlers destroying pipelines and tanks in the West Bank
Let me guess ... the wells were in "schools" and "hospitals" ... right under the rocket launchers, lol
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They also lie like particularly dishonest dogs.
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"Hamas likes to put artillery"
There it is, the neverending pathetic excuse for mass-slaughter. Israel has destroyed every hospital and killed every person it can find that could allow a society to support life. It has mass-murdered whole families with its well-documented Daddy's Home automated killing software, and destroyed all water sanitation.
Field hospital director Marwan al-Hams was disappeared by the IDF, amd then they abducted his daughter to force a false confession from him.
https://euromedmonitor.o [euromedmonitor.org]
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I don't see anyone as dogs. I don't see them as rats either, that's just what the rest of the Arab world calls "Palestinians". I think they're a group of people who want to see Israel destroyed more than they want to live. That's the only explanation I can come up with for the situation. Hamas has openly stated that it isn't interested in governing (though it is the government) and believes that Israel and the UN,
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You brought up the dogs comparison, and your allies in the IDF agree that they are as dogs, as they train dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners at sites like Sde Teiman
https://novaramedia.com/2025/1... [novaramedia.com]
"Well, thank you for lying about me so thoroughly. Using Hamas' propaganda to do it too! "
"Oh, and just to be clear - I 100% voted to have every illegal immigrant rounded up and expelled."
Hamas clearly doesn't need to be in the room for you to reveal yourself for what you are.
Misleading headline (Score:2)
I believe that access to water is a concern, being something that human beings need a constant supply of in order to not die, but the title "Violent conflicts over water" is misleading.
The Oakland-based water think tank's database tracks disputes where water triggered violence, where water systems were targeted, and where infrastructure became collateral damage in broader conflicts.
In the above list, only the first type (disputes where water triggered violence) can be described as "conflict over water". The other two types are conflicts merely involving water in some very small way. The incidents from Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars simply mean that civilian infrastructure, including water sources
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Not over water (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just dumb. There are conflicts over water, but when you include incidents that are part of a larger conflict that is not over water (Israel/Palestinian or Ukraine/Russia), you're just swamping any insight you might have gotten with meaningless noise. This is obvious, so I assume they're not looking for signal but just trying to make a big number for some other reason.
Not a new issue (Score:2)
Perhaps more common now, but always an issue anywhere water is scarce.
Example: https://thejadesphinx.blogspot.com/2013/03/fight-for-water-hole-by-frederic_6.html/ [blogspot.com]
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It's not some circumstantial quibble, rather It'e part of a broader effort to root out all palestinian life.
The israelis, who want to present themselves as indigenous, are at war with the earth itself: they tear up native olive trees and replace them with european ones, they redirect water sources and poison aquifers. They are not compatible with civilized society
Why? (Score:1)
Wait, what? Why are the Israelis destroying wells? These aren't military targets. And why are West Bank settlers destroying pipelines and water tanks?
I though the Israelis were supposed to be the good guys.
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Oh Israel has a lot of different populations still and the West Bank settler's are fuckin' nuts. If you're American you hear about those out there ethno nationalist militia groups, that is kinda their version of it. Really while everyone focuses on Gaza the worst shit is consistently happening out there.
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Yeah Arafat kinda sucked shit at being a state leader instead of a commander.
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Water access is solvable for reasonable money (Score:2)