Mr. Chair, Excellencies, esteemed colleagues,
Water is an issue of immense humanitarian concern that cannot be emphasised enough and cannot be placed high enough on states’ agendas.
I thank the Permanent Mission of Slovenia and co-sponsors for their leadership in placing this topic squarely on the Security Council’s agenda.
Because water is life, it is health, it is dignity, and it is survival.
And yet, in conflict zones, water infrastructure is increasingly degraded, disrupted and very deliberately used as a weapon against civilians.
This triggers immediate, severe, and cascading humanitarian consequences because children die from unsafe water; hospitals shut are down; people flee their homes; food insecurity deepens.
These are not hypotheticals. They are realities that the ICRC confronts every day, and in nearly every armed conflict in which we operate.
International humanitarian law provides vital safeguards for water resources and the civilian infrastructure that delivers them – installations, systems, and the personnel who keep them running.
In other words, all parties to an armed conflict have non-negotiable legal—but also moral—obligations to ensure that water remains accessible during war.
Objects indispensable for civilians’ survival, including drinking water installations, irrigation systems, and related supplies receive additional protection under IHL.
Belligerents must avoid actions that expose water sources and related infrastructure and personnel to attack or incidental harm. This means they should also avoid using them for military purposes.
Because of its importance to all life, using weapons or tactics intended or expected to cause widespread, long-lasting, and severe damage to the natural environment directly or indirectly–for example by poisoning or contaminating water sources—is prohibited.
And starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, including by targeted or indiscriminate deprivation of water, is strictly prohibited.
This Council has reinforced this legal framework through resolutions 2573, 2417, and 2730. These resolutions are important and must be translated into action.
IHL is only as effective as our collective commitment to uphold it. Protecting water is included in the protection of civilian infrastructure, a vital workstream within the global initiative on IHL launched by the ICRC together with six states last September. I commend and thank Slovenia, Algeria, Costa Rica, and Sierra Leone for taking an active lead in this important process.
When civilian infrastructure is not spared, or even deliberately targeted, civilians suffer the consequences not just for the weeks and months to come – but long after the conflict has ended. We see this in Syria, in Iraq, and many places around the world.
An essential component of our work, whether in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, or elsewhere, is supporting—either financially or as a neutral intermediary—efforts to repair, rebuild, and sustain essential infrastructure.
This approach represents a sustainable form of humanitarian intervention because the cost of the collapse of water or electricity distribution systems would lead to catastrophic consequences in already dire humanitarian circumstances.
If humanitarian aid budgets are to significantly reduce, as we can see today and is debated in these times, more must be done by states and non-state armed groups to protect civilian infrastructure, notably water distribution plants—because both are linked together. You don’t have water if you don’t have electricity, and you don’t have hospitals if you don’t have water.
The costs—both human and economic—are simply too high.
The ICRC and others have put forward concrete operational guidance on how states can respect the rules protecting water systems, critical infrastructure, and the natural environment in military planning and in the conduct of hostilities.
This includes:
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Avoiding permissive interpretations of IHL that could undermine humanitarian objectives – especially where fighters and civilians coexist.
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Incorporating protections for water resources, infrastructure, and personnel into national law.
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Integrating water-related legal norms into military doctrines and military training.
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Including multidisciplinary experts in military planning, such as engineers, legal advisers, and environmental specialists.
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Embedding environmental considerations into operational decision-making.
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Providing adequate water for populations under their control and facilitating humanitarian access.
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Adopting practical improvements to environmental protection; and
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Recognizing that protecting water is a matter of survival.
To conclude, I urge this Council to take meaningful steps to uphold the protection of water in armed conflict, and to remind all parties–state and non-state—of their clear and legal obligations under international humanitarian law.
We invite the international community to engage actively in the Global Initiative to galvanize political commitment for IHL because this is one of the questions that is at the forefront of reducing the humanitarian cost of conflict.
Seventy-five states as I mentioned yesterday in the Security Council have joined us so far in this effort and I hope after this meeting many more of you will do so.
Water is not a bargaining chip. It is not a target. It is not a weapon.
It is a lifeline that must never become a tool of war.
Thank you.
We acknowledge Source link for the information.
