Millions of people across the Middle East face drought, scarce drinking water supplies, and poor sanitation due to civil wars and conflict. Meanwhile, resource constraints and foreign military interventions risk more severe humanitarian disasters.

Last week, Islamic State militants in Iraq shut off water supplies below two dams that they control in order to enable military movement. Communities downstream now face water shortages, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, refugees of the civil wars in Syria and Yemen are struggling to secure clean water supplies. Two-thirds of Yemen’s population – some 16 million people – is without clean drinking water and sanitation due to a simmering conflict between the government and rebels from northern provinces, aid agency Oxfam warned, while water supplies are dwindling at Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.

The incidents are the latest chapter in water’s long history as a weapon of war. Military forces manipulate water during conflicts to their strategic advantage by disrupting the transportation of emergency aid, controlling dams, and keeping tight control over water supplies. Communities suffer the fallout from displacement and destroyed infrastructure. The practice is not unique to the Middle East. Rebel forces in Colombia attacked a water treatment plant over the weekend and interrupted supplies for 13,000 people, AFP reported. In eastern Ukraine, fighting over past year severely damaged much of the region’s water infrastructure.

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