Global Rundown
- Taiwan and the Philippines, both especially vulnerable to strengthening storms amid a changing climate, endure the landfall of Typhoon Fung-wong.
- 2024 marked the greatest number of water-related conflicts, according to a Pacific Institute report.
- A rainwater pond in Gaza City, Palestine, is now a hotspot for disease and sewage accumulation after its water pumps were destroyed.
- Indigenous communities in southern Venezuela are increasingly working at gold mines, whose operations continue to expand into protected lands and waters.
The Lead
Water-related violence reached record highs around the world in 2024, according to a report published this week by the Pacific Institute.
The nonprofit research group found 420 instances where water was either the trigger, weapon, or casualty of violence last year — up 20 percent from 2023, and 78 percent from 2022.
Approximately 61 percent of these incidents involved attacks on water infrastructure; 34 percent came from disputes over water access, while 5 percent involved intentionally using water as a weapon.
“The growing number of violent incidents involving freshwater resources underscores the urgent need for international attention,” said Peter Gleick, senior fellow and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, in a statement. “Ensuring access to safe, affordable water for all and safeguarding civilian water systems in accordance with international law are critical to preventing further expansion of violence.”
Though the majority of these events occurred as part of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts, other regions experienced notable surges. Over the last five years, the Guardian reports, Israeli armed forces have attacked Palestinian water sources 250 times.
Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia saw the greatest percent increase in violence. In the former, a lack of water access in refugee camps often led to conflict, while in the latter the surge is due to tension between India and Pakistan..
Cyberattacks were also on the rise, the report noted. More than 60 percent of 350 surveyed water and electricity firms in the United States and United Kingdom reported attempted breaches last year, “with a majority suffering serious disruption or permanent corruption or destruction of data or systems.”
In context: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence
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This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
8,300
People evacuated from their coastal and mountain homes in Taiwan before Typhoon Fung-wong makes landfall this week, the Associated Press reports. Heavy rains ahead of its arrival had already flooded several small villages, injuring at least 51 people as of Wednesday morning.
The storm’s path across the South Pacific has left devastation in its wake. On Sunday, with super typhoon strength, Fung-wong killed 27 people in the Philippines and displaced another 1.4 million residents. The storm hit just days after Typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 224 people in the country’s central provinces.
For the Philippines, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, deadly storms are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity.
A study by World Weather Attribution on the country’s abnormally violent 2024 typhoon season determined that “conditions conducive to the development of consecutive typhoons in this region have been enhanced by global warming, and the chance of multiple major typhoons making landfall will continue to increase as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels.”
20 feet
Height to which the water level of a major rainwater retention pond, contaminated with sewage, has climbed in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports. Once a functional facility where water was held and sent to the sea, the destruction of attached pumps has led to the accumulation of standing water, which now threatens nearby tents and homes. Officials worry that the site will become a hotbed for water-borne disease. Meanwhile, with few alternatives, residents are still drinking from contaminated sources.
In September, a United Nations report stated that “freshwater supplies in Gaza are severely limited and much of what remains is polluted.”
On the Radar
In southern Venezuela, Indigenous communities with few economic alternatives have had little choice but to work at regional gold mines whose daily operations destroy massive swaths of forest and contribute to the widespread water pollution on their traditional homelands, Mongabay reports.
The surge in gold mining, exacerbated by informal militias rising to power in rural regions of Venezuela, has advanced into protected areas. Between 2000 and 2023, mining in Canaima National Park grew from 122 hectares to 1,582 hectares — a 1300 percent increase, according to a report from SOS Orinoco. Within 18 miles of Angel Falls, a UNESCO heritage site and the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall, four mining sites have been discovered, all along the shores of the Carrao River.
“Southern Venezuela is riddled with armed groups controlling large areas, villages and national parks,” Cristina Burelli, founder of SOS Orinoco, told Mongabay. “This is the worst situation that Indigenous communities have faced probably since the conquest.”
Wetland Watch
Argentina’s Pampas: Millions of hectares of farmland across Buenos Aires Province have sat flooded for months due to a combination of heavy rains, a lack of drainage channels, and stalled work on improvement projects that would have diverted stormwater elsewhere, the Buenos Aires Times reports.
