Madar (International) - Reported attacks that damaged or destroyed water and sanitation systems in conflict rose threefold between 2021 and 2025, heightening children's risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and violence, according to a new report released by the UN children's agency UNICEF in New York on Thursday, 5 November.
The report, the fourth volume of the "Water Under Fire" series, documents attacks harming water, sanitation and hygiene systems, workers and users in 23 countries and territories between January 2021 and June 2026, and finds attacks becoming more frequent and varied and affecting wider geographic areas.
In Burkina Faso, more than 145 water points were destroyed in attacks between 2020 and 2025, cutting off access for around 830,000 people, more than half of them children, the report said.
"Attacks on water and sanitation systems deprive children of safe drinking water and the essential services that rely on water to function effectively," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. "Humanitarian workers do their best to keep water flowing despite increasing attacks. However, repairs cannot substitute for the protection of these facilities that is required under international humanitarian law."
The report describes seven types of attacks, ranging from strikes on treatment plants, pipelines and wells to the contamination of water sources and restrictions on spare parts and treatment chemicals. In Sudan, by March 2024 only one of Khartoum State's 13 water treatment plants was still functioning. In Gaza, more than 130,000 metres of sewage pipeline had been damaged since October 2023, according to the report.
Water can be cut off even where pipes and pumps are intact: in Ukraine, by December 2022, attacks harming energy infrastructure had left almost 7 million children without sustained access to electricity, heating and water.
In camps in eastern Chad hosting refugees from Sudan, the World Health Organization linked a hepatitis E outbreak to poor access to safe water and sanitation. Half of the 2,092 suspected cases recorded between January and April 2024 were children aged 6 to 17.
Where families must collect water outside the home, women and girls do so in seven out of ten households. Longer, more dangerous journeys raise their risk of sexual violence and take time away from school, the report said.
UNICEF warned that the response is at risk from severe funding cuts: in countries with a coordinated humanitarian water, sanitation and hygiene response, 137.9 million people need assistance, and only 26 per cent of the funding required for 2026 has been received.
The agency called on parties to conflict, member states and donors to treat these systems as indispensable to civilian survival, create a mechanism to systematically collect data on attacks, protect children and water and energy workers, enable safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, and invest in conflict-resilient approaches.
