Pacific Institute | Water Conflict Chronology List | Full List Shows 400 entries from 3000 BC to 2017:
Below is a very small sample of recorded incidents – to see full details in the full list, please click here.
| Date | Parties Involved | Basis of Conflict | Violent or In the Context of Violence? | Description | Sources |
| 3000 BC | Ea, Noah | Religious account | No: Threat | Ancient Sumerian legend recounts the deeds of the deity Ea, who punished humanity for its sins by inflicting the Earth with a six-day storm. The Sumerian myth parallels the Biblical account of Noah and the deluge, although some details differ. | Hatami and Gleick 1994 |
| 2500 BC | Lagash, Umma | Military tool | Yes | The dispute over the “Gu’edena” (edge of paradise) region begins. Urlama, King of Lagash from 2450 to 2400 BC, diverts water from this region to boundary canals, drying up boundary ditches to deprive Umma of water. His son Il cuts off the water supply to Girsu, a city in Umma. | Hatami and Gleick 1994 |
| 2016 | India | Development dispute | Yes | At least two people died and others were injured in riots over water in Bangalore, India in the state of Karnataka. The unresest started when the Indian Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release water from dams on the Cauvery river to neighboring Tamil Nadu. Over 400 people were arrested. | Mortimer 2016, Gowen 2016 |
| 2016 | Syria | Military target | Yes | Control over power and water infrastructure and intentional attacks on that infrastructure are being used as weapons in the civil war in Syria. Officials estimate there has been a 50 percent reduction in access to safe water in the country since the war began. | Vidal 2016 |
| 2017 | Darfur | Development dispute | Yes | At least 70 people have been killed in the past few months in clashes between farmers and herders over access to water resources and land in the southern part of Darfur. | UN News Centre 2017 |
| 2017 | Ukraine | Military target, military tool | Yes | A long series of attacks on energy and water systems in the Ukraine has intermittently left nearly three million people without access to reliable water supplies. This has included repeated damage to the Donetsk Filtration Plant, the South Donbas water pipeline, energy plants that supply power to water treatment and distribution systems, and the Carbonit Water Pumping Station. | ReliefWeb 2017b |
| 2017 | Syria | Military Target | Yes | A combined U.S. and Syrian force launches an attack on Islamic State forces controlling the Tabqa Dam — a choke point on the Euphrates River and source of hydroelectric power for the region, which has been under ISIS control. There are conflicting reports on whether the dam itself was the target of an attack. | Gibbons-Neff 2017, BBC 2017 |
