The Syrian Conflict and the Role of Water

Abstract

There is a long history of conflicts over water—consistently documented in each previous volume of The World’s Water biennial assessments, going back to the first, in 1998. The Pacific Institute also maintains a searchable online chronology of such conflicts going back five thousand years. There were dozens of new examples in the past two years, in countries from Latin America to Africa to Asia. Access to water and the control of water systems have been causes of conflict, weapons used during conflicts, and targets of conflict, but there are also growing risks of violence over the role that water plays in development disputes and economic activities. One especially disturbing example of a major conflict, with complicated but direct connections to water, has developed since 2010: the unraveling of Syria and the escalation of massive civil war there.