Water Infrastructure Under Threat in Ongoing Middle East Conflict
As conflict intensifies across parts of the Middle East, recent analysis by Erika Weinthal and Jeannie Sowers (Stimson Center) highlights a growing concern: the increasing targeting and vulnerability of civilian infrastructure, including critical water systems.
The article points in particular to reported strikes affecting desalination facilities, essential lifelines in water-scarce regions. Such disruptions have immediate consequences for civilian populations, limiting access to safe drinking water, increasing health risks, and compounding already fragile humanitarian conditions.
These developments raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law, which explicitly protects civilian infrastructure, including water systems. Yet, as the authors underline, patterns observed across recent conflicts suggest that such infrastructure is increasingly exposed, and, at times, strategically targeted.
The analysis also echoes a broader body of work to which the Geneva Water Hub contributes, particularly on the protection of water infrastructure in armed conflict and the risks associated with its weaponization.
As a Centre of Competence on Water for Peace, the Geneva Water Hub works to strengthen legal frameworks, document impacts on water systems, and support global advocacy efforts to better protect water resources and infrastructure.
In this context, ensuring access to water is not only a humanitarian necessity, it is also central to stability and peacebuilding.