Past and Future Groundwater Conflict

The United Nations has warned that water scarcity, including that produced by climate change, has the potential to produce major conflicts over water.  The March 2009 UN World Water Development Report quoted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as recognizing that increasing spatial and temporal paucity of water has the potential of “transforming peaceful competition into violence”.  As surface water supplies diminish, more competition is placed on groundwater resources.  There is a history of groundwater being used in wartime as a strategic tool in winning conflicts, including the stopping of springs in 701 BC to keep water from Assyrians advancing on Jerusalem,  the purposeful drying up of wells by to adversely impact Elamite soldiers from 669-626 BC, the Assyrian poisoning in the 6^th Century BC of enemy wells, Caesar’s blocking springs near Uxellodunum, Saladin’s 1187 AD sanding up the wells on the Crusaders approach, retreating German troops poisoning South African wells in 1915, and the 1939-1942 use of chemical and biological poisons by the Japanese in wells during World War II.  Several regions of the world can be identified as regions of potential future conflict involving groundwater, based on water scarcity, climate change predictions, and projected population growth.