oblast that had blocked water from flowing into Crimea. The move was symbolic as well as utilitarian. Ukraine built the dam in 2014 after Russia annexed the peninsula, cutting off more than 80% of Crimea’s water supply and crippling harvests. This is not the first time water has played a role in Ukraine’s relationship with its neighbour. For years before the invasion, fighting in separatist areas of eastern Ukraine frequently damaged water infrastructure.
Clashes involving water are becoming more common around the world. A new update to the Water Conflict Chronology, a database maintained by the Pacific Institute, a think-tank in Oakland, California, chronicles 1,300 water conflicts over the past 4,500 years. But their frequency has recently sped up. There were 127 of them in 2021, up from only 22 in 2000 .
As is true of many conflicts in the database, water was not the cause of the fighting in Ukraine. Damage to water systems and water scarcity are often symptoms of broader disputes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most water conflicts in the past two decades have occurred in thirsty regions of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. But no region is completely spared. Disputes over water also break out in rich, Western countries.
These conflicts will probably continue to proliferate as climate change intensifies droughts and extreme-weather events. Fights over water are more common in parched countries where climate change is diminishing water supplies, such as
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