War Is Cutting Off More Than Water: UNICEF Warns of Cascading Threats to Children's Survival

Reported attacks damaging or destroying water and sanitation systems in conflict zones tripled between 2021 and 2025, UNICEF warns, exposing children to escalating risks of disease, malnutrition and violence. From electricity failures that paralyse water supplies to severe humanitarian funding shortages, the crisis reveals how interconnected infrastructure disruptions are undermining civilian survival across conflict-affected regions.

Attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure are increasingly threatening civilian survival in conflict-affected regions, with reported incidents causing damage or destruction tripling between 2021 and 2025. Beyond the immediate loss of water supplies, these disruptions are undermining healthcare, worsening children's exposure to disease and creating dangerous conditions for communities struggling to access essential services.

UNICEF's Water Under Fire Volume 4 documents attacks affecting water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, workers and users across 23 countries and territories between January 2021 and June 2026. The findings reveal an expanding pattern of infrastructure disruption, with consequences extending across electricity networks, healthcare facilities and humanitarian operations.

The growing frequency and geographic spread of reported incidents expose a critical weakness in conflict response: restoring water infrastructure alone cannot guarantee access when electricity, maintenance personnel and supply networks remain vulnerable. For children, interruptions can trigger overlapping health, nutrition and protection risks that persist beyond the initial damage.

When Power Infrastructure Fails, Water Security Collapses

Water insecurity during conflict increasingly reflects failures across interconnected infrastructure rather than damage confined to pipelines or treatment facilities. Electricity disruptions can disable pumping, purification and distribution systems even when water installations remain physically intact, widening the consequences of attacks on energy facilities.

Ukraine illustrates the scale of this dependence. By December 2022, attacks affecting energy infrastructure had deprived almost seven million children of sustained access to electricity, heating and water. The simultaneous disruption of essential utilities demonstrates how infrastructure interdependence can amplify civilian hardship across large populations.

In Iraq, a November 2025 drone attack on a gas field reduced electricity production across the Kurdistan Region by approximately 80 per cent. Authorities subsequently rationed power among water projects, hospitals and cities, exposing the difficult allocation decisions that arise when energy shortages affect multiple essential services.

These episodes reveal a broader operational dilemma. Water facilities may survive direct attacks yet remain unable to function because the electricity required to operate them has disappeared. Consequently, infrastructure protection cannot be assessed through physical damage to water installations alone.

The pattern also complicates recovery. Repairing damaged equipment may restore technical capacity without ensuring continuous supply if supporting networks remain disrupted. Reliable water access therefore depends on maintaining several connected services, each exposed to different forms of conflict-related interruption.

Children Face a Compound Crisis of Disease, Malnutrition and Violence

For children, interrupted water access can quickly become a wider health emergency. Unsafe supplies increase exposure to diarrhoeal illnesses, while repeated infections prevent adequate nutrient absorption and weaken resistance to further disease. These pressures can aggravate malnutrition precisely when healthcare services are struggling to function.

Medical facilities face additional constraints when clean water becomes unavailable. Sterilising instruments, conducting safe deliveries and preparing therapeutic milk for severely malnourished children all depend on reliable supplies. Water interruptions therefore undermine both disease prevention and the treatment of conditions threatening children's survival.

The consequences are evident in refugee camps in eastern Chad accommodating people displaced from Sudan. The World Health Organization linked a hepatitis E outbreak to inadequate access to safe water and sanitation. Between January and April 2024, 2,092 suspected cases were recorded, with children aged six to 17 accounting for approximately half.

Water insecurity also exposes civilians to danger while obtaining supplies. UNICEF documents multiple incidents in Gaza involving children killed, injured or otherwise harmed while queuing for water, illustrating how access to a basic necessity can become a serious protection concern.

Women and girls face additional pressures because they collect water in seven out of ten households where supplies must be obtained outside the home. Longer journeys through insecure environments increase exposure to sexual violence and reduce opportunities for education, extending the consequences of water disruption into everyday safety and schooling.

The risks also affect those responsible for maintaining services. During Lebanon's 2024 conflict, the United Nations recorded 14 deaths among Water Establishments personnel. Such losses highlight the vulnerability of essential-service workers whose continued presence is necessary for repairing infrastructure and maintaining civilian access.

Resilient Water Systems Face a Growing Financing Constraint

Humanitarian organisations are adapting water infrastructure to reduce dependence on vulnerable centralised networks. In Afghanistan, approximately 65 per cent of UNICEF-supported water systems now operate on solar power, limiting reliance on fuel supplies and the national electricity grid.

Other approaches include training local mechanics, pre-positioning spare parts and constructing smaller distribution systems. These measures seek to maintain services when individual installations fail, although decentralisation cannot eliminate the security threats facing workers, facilities and communities.

Financing presents a substantial obstacle. UNICEF estimates that 137.9 million people require WASH assistance in countries with coordinated humanitarian responses, yet only 26 per cent of the funding required for 2026 has been received. The shortfall constrains efforts to meet immediate needs while developing infrastructure capable of withstanding repeated disruption.

This creates competing demands for humanitarian resources. Emergency provision, damaged-system repairs, technical training and preventive investments must operate within limited budgets. Decisions about immediate service restoration can therefore affect how much capacity remains available to strengthen systems against subsequent interruptions.

UNICEF is calling for stronger protection of water infrastructure, humanitarian access, locally supported continuity arrangements and systematic monitoring of attacks. Its recommendations also recognise that protecting water supply requires safeguarding energy workers, maintenance personnel and civilians seeking services.

Important uncertainties remain around implementation. More consistent incident documentation would help distinguish changes in reported attacks from broader patterns of infrastructure disruption, while evidence on decentralised systems could clarify their performance under sustained conflict conditions.

The next test will be whether protection measures, humanitarian financing and infrastructure adaptations can advance together. Rising attack reports have exposed the fragility of essential services, but the unresolved challenge is preventing damage to one network from cascading into prolonged deprivation, worsening disease and greater danger for children.