Water use
159 cases in 67 countries, 1883–2026. Most cases: United States (30), Iran (14), Türkiye (13), India (11), Indonesia (9).
Desalination plants hit in the 2026 war: Qeshm Island and Bahrain
Iran's foreign minister said a strike hit a desalination plant on Qeshm Island on 7 March 2026 and cut freshwater to 30 villages; Bahraini officials said an Iranian drone damaged a Bahraini plant on 8 March. CEOBS described the environmental risks of damage to the Gulf's roughly 450 desalination plants.
Paris court finds Volvic recycling claims misleading; Coca-Cola, Nestlé change labels
A Paris court found Volvic's “100% recyclable”, “100% recycled” and “carbon neutral” bottle claims misleading. The sources report label changes by Coca-Cola and Nestlé, and do not report any change in bottle production.
İnegöl bottling plant wins environmental approval as 12 neighbourhoods sue
A planned bottling plant in İnegöl, Bursa, received a positive environmental impact assessment (ÇED) in June 2026, and 12 neighbourhoods have sued, citing drinking water, irrigation and livestock. The cited sources report no court decision yet, and the developer is not named.
Indus Waters Treaty suspension
India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty in April 2025. In August 2025 a Court of Arbitration issued an award on the treaty's general interpretation, which Pakistan welcomed and India did not recognise.
Querétaro data-centre water use (Mexico)
Oxfam said a Microsoft campus in Querétaro, Mexico, held a permit to draw 25 million litres of water a year. An El País estimate put new data centres in Querétaro at 13% of metropolitan water consumption.
Vegetable-oil and fuel spills after strikes on Odesa-region ports, December 2025–April 2026
Strikes on export ports at Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk in December 2025 and April 2026 released vegetable oil into the sea. The Tuzly Lagoons park estimated more than 1,000 dead birds; no case-specific damage sum is on record.
Bottled water sold as mountain water is drawn from boreholes, Indonesian reports say
Indonesian reports say Aqua's water, labelled 'mountain water', is drawn from boreholes 60 to 102 metres deep, and the consumer body BPKN found no violation (Kontan, 2025). The sources do not give the volume drawn from the wells.
Konya Closed Basin records over 740 sinkholes as crops rely on groundwater
Sinkholes in the Konya Closed Basin have passed 740, and press estimates put the number of wells described as illegal at 26,000 to 140,000. The cited sources do not say what causes the sinkholes or how much water is pumped from the basin's wells.
Google data centre, Cerrillos (Chile)
Chile's Environmental Court questioned a Google data-centre design that relied on at least 7.6 million litres of groundwater a day. In September 2024 Google dropped the original design and moved to air cooling.
El Salvador debt-for-nature swap
In October 2024 JPMorgan arranged and lent US$1 billion for a Lempa River programme in a debt-for-nature transaction with El Salvador, backed by political risk insurance from the US Development Finance Corporation.
Nairobi River regeneration and riparian demolitions
After flooding in 2024, Kenya’s national government ordered homes along Nairobi’s riverbanks demolished on 48 hours’ notice. In 2025 the presidency launched a KSh 50 billion river regeneration programme that includes 50,000 housing units in reclaimed areas.
Mangistaumunaigas fines for wastewater injection, drilling waste and furnace emissions (Mangystau, 2024)
On 4 December 2024 the Karakiya District Court fined the KazMunayGas–CNPC joint venture Mangistaumunaigas KZT 31 billion after prosecutors said it had discharged wastewater into subsoil layers and accumulated drilling waste without established limits; a further KZT 1.2 billion fine for furnace emissions followed on 11 December. The company said it would challenge both.
Ili River and Lake Balkhash: inflow from China, Kapshagay releases and a French-funded master plan
Kazakhstan receives much of Lake Balkhash's water through the Ili River, which enters from China, and manages releases from the Kapshagay reservoir to keep the lake's level up. A water-allocation agreement with China is in draft, and a EUR 1.35 million French grant funds a master plan for the lake.
Sea Breeze resort on the Charvak reservoir, Uzbekistan
A resort of about US$ 5 billion on 577 ha of the eastern shore of the Charvak reservoir was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on 1 August 2025 and promoted as the most environmentally friendly project in any country. In August 2026 the state environmental review had passed only its first stage, while shoreline preparation had begun.
Plans to move Iran's capital to the Makran coast, 2024–2025
Iranian officials proposed moving the capital to the Makran coast, citing Tehran's water shortage and land subsidence. The then-interior minister put the cost at around US$100 billion in April 2024; AFP reported in February 2025 that there was no official budget estimate.
Bursa’s bottled-water plants draw 4.4m m3 a year; dams hit 0.54% in 2025
Turkish provinces lease spring flows and lake water to bottled-water companies, and villagers in Gözede, Bursa, say their irrigation water was given to a factory. The cited sources record volumes and tariffs, but do not show what share of Bursa’s water supply bottling takes.
Villagers in Bursa's Gözede cut pipes to city water factory
Villagers in Gözede (Kestel), Bursa, cut the pipes feeding the metropolitan municipality's water factory in August 2024. The municipality says the factory has its own line and that the dispute concerns irrigation.
Villagers in Gözede, Bursa cut pipes to a municipal water factory
Habertürk reported that villagers in Gözede, Bursa, cut the pipes carrying water to a municipal water factory in August 2024. The municipality says the factory runs on a separate line and that the real issue is irrigation; the stake for nature is the water the village uses for its fields and its own supply.
Indigenous people not informed of industrial development for about nine months
DeSmog reported in March 2024 that Indigenous people had not been informed of an industrial development for about nine months, and that the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation had sued the Alberta Energy Regulator and Imperial Oil over the Kearl mine disaster. The cited sources do not describe the environmental impact, so the stake for nature is unassessed.
Google data centre, Canelones (Uruguay)
Google's original design for a data centre in Canelones foresaw about 7.6 million litres of drinking water a day, at a time of drought. Uruguay approved a reformulated project: air-cooled, at about one third of the capacity.
Tamil Nadu sand quarries measured by drone
Records showed 28 licensed sand quarries in Tamil Nadu. A drone and LiDAR survey presented by India's financial-crime unit to the Madras High Court measured an excavated area about five times the licensed area and a volume about seven times the recorded volume.
PFAS water utility settlements by 3M, DuPont, Chemours and Corteva
3M's settlement with US public water systems over PFAS received final approval on 29 March 2024; the present value of the payments was put at US$10.3 billion. The American Water Works Association said in 2023 that treating PFOA and PFOS would cost more than US$3.8 billion a year, with the burden falling on customers.
Fukushima treated water discharge and Chinese seafood ban
Japan began discharging treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant into the Pacific on 24 August 2023 after the IAEA found the plan consistent with international standards. China banned Japanese seafood imports, partly reopened in 2025 and suspended them again in November 2025.
Destruction of the Kakhovka dam and drainage of the Kakhovka reservoir (June 2023)
The dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnipro was breached on 6 June 2023 and the reservoir drained within about two weeks. Ukraine and Russia each attribute the destruction to the other; UN and World Bank-led assessments put the ecosystem-service losses at US$6.4 billion to US$14.1 billion.
Sino-Metals Leach tailings dam failure and the Kafue River (Zambia)
A tailings dam at the Sino-Metals Leach site in Zambia's Copperbelt failed in February 2025 and acidic waste reached the Kafue River system. The company's first statement put the spill at 50,000 tonnes; a contractor reported at least 1.5 million tonnes. The government penalty was reported at 1.5 million kwacha, while damages claims exceeded US$420 million and 176 residents sought US$80 billion.
California water board says bottler Arrowhead had no water right for most diversions
California's water board said Arrowhead, a bottled-water brand, had no water right for most of the diversions it directed, and California halted some of its bottling activities, Courthouse News reported in 2023. The sources do not give the volume of water drawn.
New Zealand Supreme Court bars transfer of industrial water permit to bottling
The Supreme Court of New Zealand ruled in 2023 that an industrial water permit cannot be transferred to bottling. The ruling limits the transfer of such permits to bottled-water production.
German waters hold 1.6 million tonnes of munitions; Baltic to be disposal pilot
EUWID reported that German waters hold about 1.6 million tonnes of munitions, with 100 million euros allocated for disposal up to 2025. The cited sources do not set out the effect on the marine environment.
ADM Decatur carbon storage site leaks about 8,000 tons, EPA finds
About 8,000 tons of liquid carbon dioxide and underground fluid leaked from ADM's storage site at Decatur, Illinois, beyond its permitted zone. The site sits above an aquifer that supplies drinking water to about one million people, and the EPA said the leak violated the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Mar Menor legal personhood (Spain)
In 2022 Spain's Law 19/2022 gave the Mar Menor coastal lagoon legal personality, after a popular legislative initiative with 639,826 signatures. The Constitutional Court upheld the law on 20 November 2024.
Amazon's water-positive pledge and a leaked 2022 memo
Amazon Web Services has pledged to be water positive by 2030. A leaked 2022 internal memo, reported in October 2025, discussed whether to leave the water used in generating electricity out of the pledge.
Black Sea dolphin and porpoise deaths since 2022
Monitoring networks counted hundreds of dead dolphins and porpoises on Black Sea coasts in 2022, and published estimates of total deaths range from 37,500 to about 100,000, depending on the method. Ukrainian, Turkish, Bulgarian and Russian-side specialists give different causes.
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant under Russian control, 2022–2026
Russian forces have held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, since March 2022. The IAEA's reports, relayed by BASE, record repeated losses of off-site power and a falling cooling-pond level after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed; Energoatom reported losses of UAH 598.9 billion in lost revenue and delivered a USD 3 billion treaty dispute notice to Russia.
Starbase launch site, Boca Chica, Texas: environmental review, penalties and Starship debris
SpaceX's Starbase launch site at Boca Chica, Texas, sits beside habitat for the piping plover and red knot. The FAA approved the Starship programme without a full environmental impact statement, a lawsuit sought one, state and federal agencies found water-discharge violations, the annual launch cap was raised from 5 to 25, and debris from two 2025 flights fell in the Turks and Caicos.
Danone plant in Puebla occupied by people, then cleared by state forces
A Danone plant in Puebla, Mexico, was occupied by people and cleared by the National Guard, El Universal reported in 2022. The case is a local conflict over a bottled-water plant.
California v. ExxonMobil: plastics recycling claims and the Baytown plant
ExxonMobil describes plastic waste processing at its Baytown, Texas plant as advanced recycling. In September 2024 California's attorney general sued the company, alleging that 92% of the waste processed there becomes fuel; ExxonMobil sued the attorney general for defamation.
Istanbul's municipality and water utility co-own spring-water bottler Hamidiye
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (55%) and water utility İSKİ (45%) co-own Hamidiye, a spring-water bottler. An audit found İSKİ allocated water without tender at low rent, and the cited sources hold no record that the environmental water need of a bottling lease was calculated.
China's ecology-oriented development pilots fund restoration with land revenue
94 ecology-oriented development (EOD) pilots ran in 2021–2022, with restoration financed from surrounding industry and land income. The model ties ecological repair to revenue from the land and industry around it.
Nestlé Waters: banned treatments and the Vittel aquifer deficit
A 2025 French Senate report said Nestlé Waters used prohibited treatments on water sold as natural mineral water and that the state concealed it. In 2024 the company closed the Épinal investigations into the treatments and into alleged drilling without authorisation with a €2 million judicial public-interest agreement. A judicial investigation opened in Paris in 2025 after a Foodwatch complaint remains open.
PFAS insurance disputes (3M, Chemours, DuPont)
Companies facing PFAS settlements worth billions of dollars have turned to their liability insurers. US courts have so far ruled both ways on whether pollution exclusions bar cover, and the largest case, AIG v. 3M, is pending.
IMIP nickel waste landslides and Obi island (Indonesia)
Nickel-waste storage at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park collapsed in March 2025, killing three subcontract workers, and a further landslide killed one worker in February 2026. On Obi Island, residents of Kawasi village and an OCCRP-led investigation reported chromium-6 readings above Indonesia's drinking-water limit near a nickel smelter; the operator disputes the findings.
Hyphen green hydrogen project (Namibia)
A planned green hydrogen and ammonia export project inside the Tsau //Khaeb National Park near Lüderitz, in which the Namibian state holds 24%. Its final investment decision was postponed to the end of 2027.
India fly ash utilisation and the Singrauli ash dam breach
India's official figures count about 96% of fly ash as utilised. In 2021–22, 13.14% of that was low-lying area filling, a term without a definition. In April 2020 an ash dam breached in Singrauli and six people died.
Avacha Bay marine die-off, Kamchatka, autumn 2020
In September and October 2020 the water off Khalaktyrsky beach in Avacha Bay discolored and dead marine animals washed ashore. A study co-authored by Russian Academy of Sciences Vice-President Andrei Adrianov described a Karenia algal bloom; Greenpeace Russia and others pointed to the Kozelsky pesticide landfill and military ranges. The money on record is the budget for clearing the landfill.
Caspian seal mass deaths, 2020–2025
Repeated mass strandings of the Endangered Caspian seal were recorded in Dagestan (Russia), Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan between 2020 and 2025. Official explanations differ by country and year, and NCOC, operator of Kazakhstan's Kashagan field, funded seal research programmes.
CME Group launches futures tied to a California water price index
CME Group launched futures tied to a California water index in December 2020, and more than 100 groups asked for them to be suspended. The cited sources do not show who traded the contracts, and at stake for nature is whether water in California becomes a traded financial asset.
Rio governor cited sabotage for CEDAE water crisis without evidence
In January 2020 Rio de Janeiro's governor said he believed the CEDAE water crisis was linked to sabotage, without showing evidence. The utility was sold in a 2021 auction worth 22.69 billion reais, and at stake is the drinking water supply of Rio.
Groundwater pumping by nearby farms sank California's Friant-Kern Canal
The federal canal lost about 60 percent of its capacity, and repairs were put at about 1 billion dollars, High Country News reported. Eastern Tule farmers rejected a per-acre repair fee in 2022, and in 2024 the state placed the subbasin on probation.
Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Renew Oceans (Ganges)
An industry alliance founded in 2019 pledged $1.5 billion over five years and a 15 million tonne goal. Its Ganges project collected less than one tonne before closing in 2020, and its later progress reports and independent analyses give different figures for what it has removed.
Salar de Atacama lithium extraction
Albemarle and SQM extract lithium brine from the Salar de Atacama in Chile; SQM and the state company Codelco have formed a joint company to operate there to 2060. Albemarle's site received a responsible-mining rating and, separately, a regulator's penalty for brine extraction above its limit, which a court upheld in September 2026.
Johor and Batam data centres for Singapore
After Singapore limited new data centre capacity, planned capacity grew in neighbouring Johor (Malaysia) and Batam (Indonesia). Johor paused approvals of water-intensive facilities in November 2025, and residents of Batam's Nongsa area, without piped water for three to six months, blocked the road to a data centre park in October 2026.
China small hydropower closures, Yangtze Economic Belt
China's Ministry of Water Resources said in May 2021 that a rectification of small hydropower plants in the Yangtze Economic Belt had closed more than 3,500 plants by the end of 2020. It said water had returned to more than 90,000 km of river sections where flow had been reduced or cut.
Afforestation of the dried Aral Sea bed in Uzbekistan
The Government of Uzbekistan states that protective plantings were set up on about 2 million hectares of the dried Aral Sea bed in 2018–2025 to hold down sand, salt and dust. The government releases state no budget and no survival rate; a forestry scientist put sapling survival at 50–70% in wetter years and about 30% in low-rainfall years.
Badila produced-water spill into the Nya Pendé river (2018) and the UK National Contact Point's Glencore statement
The earth bank of a produced-water basin at the Badila oilfield in southern Chad collapsed in September 2018 and released water into the Nya Pendé river. In November 2024 the UK National Contact Point found that Glencore UK Ltd did not comply with two OECD Guidelines due-diligence provisions and did not find it directly responsible for the spill.
Pakistan Supreme Court sets Rs1 per litre levy on groundwater pumped by bottlers
Pakistan's Supreme Court set a levy of one rupee per litre on groundwater pumped by bottled-water companies, which were reported to draw about 7 billion litres a month. At stake is the groundwater the companies draw; the sources do not say how much the levy has collected.
Michigan allows Nestlé to take up to 576,000 gallons of groundwater a day
In 2018 Michigan approved a Nestlé groundwater withdrawal of up to 576,000 gallons a day for an annual fee of $200, despite more than 80,000 public comments against it. The case concerns the low price of groundwater and the effect of pumping on local waterways.
Nestlé settles French bottled-water probe as Vittel aquifer runs a deficit
Nestlé Waters closed French investigations into suspected banned treatment and suspected illegal drilling with a payment of 2 million euros, and the French Senate reported the state concealed the treatment. The Vittel aquifer runs an open annual deficit, and Michigan granted a pumping permit despite 80,945 public comments against it.
Duke Energy coal ash cleanup cost recovery (North Carolina)
Duke Energy's coal ash cleanup in North Carolina was estimated at $8 to 9 billion. Regulators allowed part of the cost to be recovered from customers, and a January 2021 settlement with the state attorney general kept about $1.1 billion off customer bills.
Golfrid Siregar death and Batang Toru hydro
A WALHI lawyer who was litigating against the 510 MW Batang Toru hydropower project in Indonesia was found injured in Medan in October 2019 and died three days later. Police concluded it was a single-vehicle accident; WALHI disputes this.
Australian government water purchase from Eastern Australia Agriculture (Cayman-linked firm)
In 2017 the Australian government bought flood-water licences in Queensland from Eastern Australia Agriculture, a company whose parent was registered in the Cayman Islands, for about A$80 million as water for the environment. A minister had founded the company, and a June 2020 press report said the deal had provided no water.
Talnakh Concentrator tailings facility: wastewater pumped onto the tundra, 2017–2020
Wastewater from the Talnakh Concentrator tailings facility near Norilsk was pumped onto the tundra in June 2020, after earlier discharges recorded from 2017. In July 2024 five people were charged under Article 246 of the Criminal Code; no court outcome is on record.
Ontario bottled-water fee about 0.0005 CAD a litre; 2017 proposal to raise it
Ontario charged bottled-water companies about 0.0005 CAD a litre for water taken, CBC reported in 2017, and proposed a higher fee that year. The case concerns water taken at near-zero cost.
Factories draw about 3.9 million cubic metres a year from Sapanca Lake
Istiklal reported that factories drawing water from Sapanca Lake in Sakarya are charged six times the normal tariff. A Bursa news site reported in 2025 that the lake is at a critical level and that protective work would follow.
CAG found delays in 26 of 46 Namami Gange schemes in 2017
The Namami Gange hybrid annuity model pays contractors 60 percent of capital over 15 years, and a 2017 CAG audit found delays in 26 of 46 schemes. At stake are the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, which the reporting says still receive untreated sewage.
Akyazı company bottles water leased for a thermal hotel; permits cancelled
A company that leased water for a planned thermal hotel in Akyazı, Sakarya, bottled and sold it, Hürriyet reported in 2017. Villagers objected for about ten years until the provincial governor's office cancelled the company's permits in 2025.
Persian Gulf and Oman Sea desalinated water transfer to Kerman, Yazd and Isfahan
A pipeline and desalination programme carries seawater from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea to mines and steel plants in Kerman, Yazd and Isfahan, financed by the National Development Fund, Iranian banks and the mining and steel companies that receive most of the water. The first 850 km line was reported at US$1 billion for 180 mcm per year.
Hidroituango dam and the Ríos Vivos defenders (Colombia)
Two members of Ríos Vivos, a movement that opposed the Hidroituango dam in Colombia, were killed in May 2018, weeks before communities complained to the Inter-American Development Bank, which had financed the dam. The bank group's private-sector arm exited the project in February 2022; no court outcome for the killings was found.
Vietnam named a Taiwan company as the source of 2016 pollution months later
Vietnam said in June 2016 that pollution from a Taiwan company had affected 200,000 people. A 2017 report put the number above 260,000 and said the state advanced compensation before the company committed 500 million dollars.
Belo Monte hydrograph and Volta Grande flow reduction
Federal prosecutors in Brazil reported that the flow schedule for the Volta Grande reach of the Xingu River below the Belo Monte dam had failed, and a court ordered it revised in December 2025. Reports cite fish deaths at the turbine intakes and the loss of fish species in the reduced-flow reach.
DuPont, Chemours and Corteva: PFAS cost-sharing and water-system settlement
In 2021 DuPont, Corteva and Chemours agreed to share the costs of legacy PFAS claims. In 2023 the three companies agreed to a US$1.185 billion fund for US public water systems, and further settlements with Ohio and New Jersey followed. The companies deny the allegations.
K+S: Werra salt discharge and Monte Kali
The potash company K+S discharges saline wastewater into the Werra river in Germany and is seeking a permit to continue until 2039. It also holds a salt heap of about 150 million tonnes at Monte Kali.
Chennai water-body restoration evictions and Perumbakkam resettlement
Since 2015, 19,817 families have been evicted from 83 settlements in Chennai, 95 per cent of them for water-body restoration. Of these, 12,045 families were resettled at Perumbakkam, which flooded six times in nine years.
US coal ash ponds, groundwater contamination and EPA delay
A 2022 report found that 91% of US power plants with coal ash ponds were contaminating groundwater. In February 2026 the deadline for groundwater monitoring at such sites was reported extended to 2031.
Greens report: parts of German glyphosate assessment copied Monsanto file
A Greens/EFA report says up to half of some sections of Germany's BfR glyphosate assessment were taken from Monsanto's licence application file. The cited sources do not show whether the safety assessments of the weedkiller glyphosate were independent.
Coca-Cola reports replenishing 115% of the water it used in 2015
In 2016 Coca-Cola said it had returned 115% of the water it used in 2015, through 248 initiatives. What is at stake for nature is whether water taken from a basin is actually returned to that basin.
Fondomonte groundwater pumping in Arizona
A Saudi dairy company's subsidiary grew alfalfa with groundwater in Arizona and, according to the state's Attorney General, pumped more than 81% of the water drawn from one basin in 2023. Residents' wells have dried, and the state sued the company in December 2024.
Jakarta evictions, Ciliwung normalisation and the Giant Sea Wall
Civil-society counts record 113 forced evictions in Jakarta in 2015, and residents evicted under the Ciliwung normalisation programme later won a court ruling. In 2025 the Indonesian president approved a US$80 billion sea wall along Java's north coast.
Sengwer evictions from Embobut forest and the EU Water Towers programme (Kenya)
A Sengwer herder was shot dead in January 2018 in Embobut forest, Kenya, by Kenya Forest Service guards during evictions linked to an EU-funded water-tower programme. The EU suspended the programme the next day and closed it in 2020; evictions continued in 2024.
Electricity and diesel for groundwater pumping in Iran: subsidies and payments
The IMF estimated Iran's explicit energy subsidies at US$58.7 billion in 2019, almost 10% of GDP, according to the World Bank. Programmes to electrify diesel-powered agricultural wells were estimated at US$1.2 billion in 2019, and in 2024 the state utility Tavanir began paying farmers to cut pumping at peak hours.
Río Sonora copper sulphate spill and repair fund
In August 2014 about 40,000 cubic metres of acidic copper sulphate solution from a Grupo México mine entered the Sonora River in Mexico. A fund committed at 2,000 million pesos was closed in 2017 after about 1,000 million had been deposited; the Supreme Court later held the closure invalid, and in February 2026 the federal government said 500 of an agreed 1,500 million pesos had been deposited.
Veolia settles Flint water claims for 53 million dollars, admitting no fault
Michigan's Attorney General announced in February 2025 a 53 million dollar settlement with Veolia North America, which did not admit fault. The state had earlier settled for 626 million dollars, and at stake is a lead-contaminated public water supply and who pays for the harm.
Alaşehir village springs tendered for 39-year bottling plant
Springs of the Horzumalayaka village in Alaşehir, Turkey, were tendered for a bottling plant for 39 years, and a lawsuit brought by the village headman was rejected. The cited sources do not show a Council of State (Danıştay) ruling.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch and The Ocean Cleanup
A Dutch foundation set out in 2013 to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with floating systems. By the end of 2023 its ocean catch totalled 346,435 kg, against a patch estimated at 79,000 tonnes or more.
Olkaria geothermal projects (Kenya)
Four Maasai villages were moved in 2014 to make way for the Olkaria IV geothermal plant in Kenya. In 2015 the World Bank Inspection Panel found the Bank had not applied its indigenous-peoples policy.
Wadi El Ku catchment project, North Darfur
In August 2013 UNEP launched an EU-funded catchment management project of EUR 6.45 million in Wadi El Ku, North Darfur, where it said more than 700,000 people depend on the wadi for water and livelihoods. A second phase began in 2018.
Sheridan 6 farmers have capped pumping since 2013; High Plains aquifer still falling
Farmers in the Sheridan 6 local enhanced management area in Kansas have limited groundwater pumping since 2013 under state law. The Kansas Geological Survey says pumping must fall further to halt the High Plains aquifer's decline.
Producers funded 90% of EDF's 2013 methane study, HPPR reported
The Environmental Defense Fund's 2013 methane study received 90% of its budget from producers, including Shell and Exxon, which also gave the study field access. The cited sources do not say whether that funding shaped the findings.
Berta Cáceres killing and Agua Zarca dam
Berta Cáceres, a Lenca leader who opposed the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras, was killed in March 2016. Seven men and the dam company's former president were later convicted, and the Dutch and Finnish financiers left the project in 2017.
Harita Nickel, Kawasi chromium-6 water and sago loss (Obi Island)
An April 2025 investigation reported chromium-6 in Kawasi village’s drinking-water source above Indonesia’s limit, next to Harita Group’s nickel operations on Obi Island. Harita disputes the findings; a 2026 report recorded a fall in sago palm area in the district.
Indian court closes 700 Tiruppur dye units; river solids at 3,000 mg/l
A court closed 700 dye units in Tiruppur, India, in 2011, when the river carried 3,000 mg/l of dissolved solids against a norm of 250, according to Down To Earth. Operators of shared treatment plants say they recover 95–98% of water and 70–80% of salts, a claim the cited sources do not verify.
Permian produced water discharge and North Dakota brine spills
Oilfield wastewater, known as produced water, has grown about 30-fold in the Permian Basin since 2010, and most of it is injected underground. In North Dakota, brine spills have recurred every year, and the land they damaged has never been calculated.
Lake Maracaibo chronic oil leaks
Oil leaks from ageing underwater pipelines and installations have been reported in Lake Maracaibo, Zulia state, for years, with new spills and gas leaks reported in September 2026. A clean-up plan announced in July 2023 came without a stated budget or timeline, and no compensation to fishers is on record.
Sabarmati Riverfront Development (Ahmedabad)
Ahmedabad's Sabarmati riverfront project was presented as reclaiming the river for the city and won awards. Sources report thousands of families moved 7 to 15 km away and a river that downstream carries industrial effluent and sewage.
Mongolia's 2009 ban on mining at river headwaters and in forests: licence cancellations, compensation duty, 2015 amendment and artisanal gold-mining programmes
A law adopted on 16 July 2009 banned mineral exploration and mining at river headwaters, in water protection zones and in forests, and made the government pay compensation to holders whose licences were cancelled. An amendment in February 2015 let existing holders inside the zones apply to continue.
Crude-oil pipeline spills into Khuzestan rivers: Karkheh 2009 and Marun 2025
A pipeline rupture in February 2009 contaminated about 90 to more than 100 km of the Karkheh River and cut drinking-water supply to several towns; the Department of Environment said the Oil Ministry would not be fined. In May 2025 a crude line crossing the Marun River ruptured, and the Khuzestan Department of Environment demanded repairs and compensation from the National Iranian South Oil Company.
Riachuelo cleanup resettlement (Buenos Aires)
After a 2008 Supreme Court ruling made the cleanup of the Riachuelo basin binding, families living on the riverbank were to be rehoused. Twelve years after a 2010 framework agreement, 5,893 of 17,771 families had a completed housing solution.
Malibya concession in the Office du Niger and the Inner Niger Delta water balance
A 2008 convention between Mali and Libya granted 100,000 ha in the Office du Niger area to a Libyan state company for 50 years, with Macina canal water "without restriction" from June to December. Land Matrix records the project as abandoned. A 2016 Wetlands International study projected reduced inflow to the Inner Niger Delta from Office du Niger expansion generally, not from Malibya specifically.
South Africa's captive lion industry sells cubs, hunts and bones
South Africa had 519 captive lion facilities holding about 7,400 lions in 2023, against an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 wild lions. Cub-raising programmes, trophy hunts and bone exports sustain the captive trade.
Mekong sand mining (Cambodia, Vietnam)
Sand is dredged from the Mekong in Cambodia and Vietnam for construction, roads and land infill. Researchers estimate extraction far above natural replenishment; records of volumes, licences and exports differ between declarations and measurements.
Cambodian sand exports to Singapore (Koh Kong, Mekong, Bassac)
Singapore's recorded sand imports from Cambodia for 2007 to 2015 were 72.7 million tonnes; Cambodia recorded exports of 2.8 million tonnes. Sand licences on the Koh Kong coast, the Mekong and the Bassac went to firms linked to senators and officials, and activists who documented the dredging were jailed.
Patancheru pharmaceutical effluent and Hyderabad drug resistance
A 2017 study found an antifungal at high concentration and drug-resistant bacteria in Hyderabad sewage. India proposed discharge limits for 121 antibiotics in 2020 and left them out of the 2021 final rule.
Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: environmental pledges and the Mzymta valley
The 2014 Winter Games were built partly inside Sochi National Park and along the Mzymta river, with a UNEP advisory role and a 2011 declaration of commitments. Peer-reviewed studies recorded the loss of Black Sea trout spawning grounds along 57 km of the river, and an environmental defender from the group that documented the damage was imprisoned and later released.
Hoor al-Azim wetland, oil-field development and dikes in Khuzestan
Parts of the Iranian side of the transboundary Hawizeh marshes in Khuzestan were enclosed by dikes and roads around the Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields. Reuters quoted Iran's oil minister in 2025 as saying "We are the ones who dried up the wetland"; no compensation or restoration budget specific to the wetland is on record.
North Aral Sea restoration via Kokaral dam (Kazakhstan)
Kazakhstan's Kokaral dam is credited by the Kazakh ministry with enlarging the North Aral Sea by 36% and halving its salinity. The cited sources hold few independent figures.
Iran's Groundwater Restoration and Balancing Plan: unlicensed wells, sealing, meters and budgets
A state programme run through the Ministry of Energy and the Supreme Water Council set out to seal unlicensed wells and meter licensed ones. The Majlis Research Center said in 2018 that over 50,000 billion rials were needed and about 24,000 billion rials had been allocated; national counts of unlicensed wells ranged from 220,000 to 380,000.
Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine: Gobi water, Undai River diversion, herder complaints and project finance
Oyu Tolgoi, a copper-gold mine in Mongolia's South Gobi, draws groundwater from the Gunii Hooloi aquifer and rerouted the ephemeral Undai River around its open pit. Herders complained to the IFC/MIGA accountability office and to the EBRD, and a US$4.4 billion project finance package was signed on 15 December 2015.
Guri dam, drought and the 2010, 2016 and 2019 power crises: catchment, emergency contracts and prosecutions
The Guri reservoir on the Caroní, fed by a catchment that includes Canaima National Park, fell to low levels in drought years and was followed by emergency decrees, rationing and a 2019 national blackout. Contracts with Derwick Associates, Duro Felguera and Corpoelec suppliers are on record, including guilty pleas in a US court over 2016 Corpoelec contracts and a pending case in Spain over the Termocentro contract.
Greenpeace says fisheries scientist Ray Hilborn got $3.56m from seafood groups
Greenpeace's 2016 review of public records found that only 26 of Ray Hilborn's 138 papers disclosed company funding. Hilborn said he had no conflict of interest, and a University of Washington review found no violation.
EU taxonomy hydropower exemption and California large hydro exclusion
In 2021 the EU taxonomy exempted hydropower above 5 W/m² power density, and run-of-river plants, from life-cycle emissions analysis. California has not counted hydropower above 30 MW towards its renewable quota since 2002, citing river ecology.
Merowe Dam: financing, displacement and environmental assessments
The Merowe Dam on the Nile in Sudan, financed by a USD 608 million China Eximbank loan and Arab funds, flooded the homelands of the Manasir, Amri and Hamadab communities; estimates of the number displaced range from over 50,000 to about 70,000. A German criminal investigation into two managers of Lahmeyer International was closed in April 2016 without charges.
Mexico avocado: US inspection suspensions and Michoacán deforestation
The United States suspended inspections of Mexican avocados three times between 2022 and 2026 after threats and attacks in Michoacán. Reports link the export boom to forest clearing, extortion and, in Chile's Petorca, to water shortages.
Plachimada Coca-Cola plant (India)
A Kerala commission assessed compensation of Rs 216 crore against Hindustan Coca-Cola for groundwater withdrawal and the distribution of cadmium-containing sludge as fertiliser at Plachimada. Down To Earth later reported that the compensation had not been paid.
Altyn Asyr (Golden Age) Turkmen Lake: a drainage-water reservoir in the Karakum
Turkmenistan built a system of collectors to channel saline drainage water into a reservoir in the Karashor depression in the Karakum desert. Reported costs range from USD 4 billion to USD 6.5 billion, and the government has not published a precise figure.
Cargill's Turkish factory kept operating despite court annulments
Cargill's Orhangazi factory in Bursa kept running after Turkish courts annulled its permits and the European Court of Human Rights found the non-enforcement violated a fair trial. The cited sources do not confirm the factory's groundwater use.
South Sudan oil fields: pollution in Unity and Upper Nile
Studies and a 2017 German government answer to the Bundestag recorded contaminated groundwater near the Thar Jath, Mala and Unity oilfields in South Sudan, while the operator rejected the allegations. A government environmental audit contracted in September 2022 had not been released as of 23 January 2025.
Jakarta water privatisation
From 1998 to 2023 Jakarta's piped-water network was run by two private concessionaires. Indonesia's Supreme Court found the arrangement unlawful in 2017; records differ on what that ruling changed.
Jakarta's private water concessions and the groundwater wells that filled the gap
Jakarta's piped water ran through two private concessions, Palyja and Aetra, from 1998 to 2023, while households without a network drilled wells. The Supreme Court annulled the privatisation in 2017, and PAM Jaya restructured contracts to avoid compensation of 6.7 trillion rupiah.
Philippine Supreme Court fined Manila's water firms over untreated sewage
The Philippine Supreme Court fined Manila Water, Maynilad and the state agency MWSS in 2019 for collecting sewerage charges while no treatment plant was built. The fine was cut to 404 million pesos in 2022, and untreated sewage reached Manila Bay.
Gotvand dam on the Karun: a reservoir on a salt formation
The Gotvand dam on the Karun river in Khuzestan was impounded in July 2011 with a reservoir touching the Gachsaran salt formation. Aftab reported about 7.7 million tonnes of salt in the reservoir by the end of 1391 (March 2013), and sources differ on how much of the Karun's salinity the dam causes.
Mexico water concessions concentration
A study by IBERO, reported by the newspaper Crónica in August 2026, found that fewer than 1% of Mexico's water-concession holders hold about one-fifth of the water under concession.
Brent Spar decommissioning controversy (North Sea)
Sources describe the Brent Spar controversy only through later references: a 1995 trade-press headline on a Greenpeace admission of error and the later cost to the UK public of North Sea decommissioning.
Lake Urmia decline and the Urmia Lake Restoration Program
Lake Urmia in north-west Iran lost about 90% of its area in the two decades after 1995, according to NASA. A state restoration programme set up in 2013 is reported with differing spending totals, and a Majlis investigation report on it was sent to the judiciary in May 2024.
Sihwa tidal station was built to address pollution in a seawall lake
South Korea's 254 MW Sihwa tidal station was built to circulate water and address pollution in a lake cut off from the sea by a 1994 seawall. Two larger tidal schemes were postponed over threats to tidal flats and fishers' livelihoods.
Dutch nitrogen crisis and farm buyouts
The Netherlands cut its agricultural nitrogen surplus by 57% between 1990 and 2023, but its national institute for public health and the environment (RIVM) said in 2024 that the legal 2035 target for nitrogen-sensitive nature could not be met under current policy. By September 2026 a voluntary livestock buyout scheme had 279 finalised files.
England and Wales water privatisation and Thames Water: debt, dividends and the record Ofwat fine
Since privatisation in 1989 the water companies of England and Wales have paid out large dividends while their debt grew. In May 2025 the regulator Ofwat fined Thames Water £122.7 million, reported as a record, and customers are due to pay higher bills for a £104 billion investment programme.
Sandoz Schweizerhalle fire and Rhine recovery
In November 1986 a fire at a Sandoz warehouse near Basel sent pesticides and a mercury compound into the Rhine and killed fish along about 400 kilometres. The river was later declared a living river again, but its salmon population depends on stocking.
Gulf of Mexico dead zone (Mississippi nutrient runoff)
Every summer a zone of low oxygen forms on the Louisiana and Texas shelf, linked to nutrient pollution carried down the Mississippi–Atchafalaya basin. The government size target set in 2001 has not been met, and farm fertilizer runoff sits outside the Clean Water Act permit system.
Great Man-Made River Project (Libya) and the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer
Libya's Great Man-Made River draws non-renewable fossil groundwater from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System through pipelines to the coast. A NATO strike near the Brega pipe plant in July 2011 and damage to wells in 2018–2019 affected the system, which about 1.5 million people relied on in 2019, according to the UN.
DuPont PFOA (C8) at Washington Works, Parkersburg, and the Tennant farm
DuPont used PFOA to make Teflon at its West Virginia plant for more than 50 years, and drinking water in six districts was contaminated. Penalties and settlements followed from 2004 to 2025, including a 2005 US EPA penalty for failing to report risk information.
Petorca residents rely on tanker water as avocado orchards draw on scarce supply
Chile's 1981 Water Code let water rights be sold apart from land, and villagers in Petorca have relied on tanker deliveries during drought while avocado irrigation continued. At stake is the local water supply.
Saudi wheat cut and 2018 fodder ban; Almarai's alfalfa farms in Arizona
Saudi Arabia dropped irrigated wheat in 2008 after saying its fossil aquifer was largely depleted, then banned green fodder in 2018. Almarai's subsidiary Fondomonte grew alfalfa in Arizona, where nearby wells and a church well have dried.
Lake Biwa phosphate-detergent ban
After a freshwater red tide in 1977, Shiga Prefecture banned the sale and use of phosphate-containing detergent around Lake Biwa in an ordinance of 1979–1980. The prefecture's page says the ordinance remains in force.
Lake Valencia: rising level, sewage and compensation for flooded homes
Water imported for the Central Regional aqueduct has drained into Lake Valencia, which has no outlet; its level rose from about 401–402 m in the late 1970s to about 414 m, against a security level of 408 m. The Constitutional Chamber of Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal ordered compensation for flooded homes in 2006 and 2007, and in 2017 about half of the affected owners were still waiting.
FPL St. Lucie nuclear plant cooling-water intake and sea turtles, Hutchinson Island, Florida
The cooling-water intake canal of the Florida Power & Light St. Lucie nuclear plant has drawn in sea turtles since 1976. In 2006 the plant exceeded its incidental take limit, and in 2016 NMFS issued a new biological opinion and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission amended the plant's environmental protection plans.
Arlit and Akokan uranium waste: Cominak closure, remediation provision and radioactivity measurements
The Cominak underground uranium mine in northern Niger stopped production on 31 March 2021 and left about 20 million tonnes of waste beside the towns of Arlit and Akokan. Remediation was reported at €150 million, Orano kept a €70 million provision after losing control in December 2024, and the works were suspended.
Boké bauxite mining and the CBG expansion
Bauxite mines in Guinea's Boké region took farmland and affected water for nearby villages, according to Human Rights Watch, Inclusive Development International and Reuters. A 2016 expansion loan to Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée was financed in part by IFC and DFC, and 13 villages complained to the IFC's accountability office in 2019.
Hamoun wetlands, Helmand water and the EU/UNDP restoration project
The Hamoun lakes on the Iran–Afghanistan border, fed by the Helmand river, were nearly gone by 2001, according to NASA. A 1973 treaty sets Iran's share of Helmand water, and sources give different volumes for it; an EU-funded, UNDP-implemented project of €10 million has run from 2020.
Chlorothalonil metabolites in Swiss groundwater
Breakdown products of the fungicide chlorothalonil, used in Switzerland since the 1970s, were found in groundwater in a 2017 pilot study. The substance has been banned since 2020.
Land subsidence on the Tehran plain and across Iran
Satellite radar studies measured about 56,000 km² of Iran, 3.5% of the country, sinking between 2014 and 2020, with the Tehran plain, Rafsanjan and Kerman among the fastest-sinking areas. In August 2025 the National Cartographic Center said its national subsidence atlas had been supplied to agencies in confidential reports.
Miteni PFAS contamination
Eleven former executives of the Miteni chemical plant at Trissino, Veneto, were sentenced at first instance in June 2025 to 141 years in total over PFAS contamination that affected about 350,000 people. The company, sold for €1 in 2009, went bankrupt in 2018.
Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill: closure and waste clean-up
The Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill discharged treated wastewater into Lake Baikal from 1966 and stopped production in 2013 after bankruptcy proceedings. Millions of tonnes of pulp-production waste remained in storage ponds on the shore, and federal clean-up funding has been set by successive programmes since 2013.
Mekong upstream dams and the decline of Tonle Sap flow reversal
Each monsoon the Mekong pushes the Tonle Sap River backwards into Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake. A 2022 peer-reviewed study found this reverse flow fell by 56.5% between 1962–72 and 2010–18, and attributed about 21% of the fall to dams.
Rafsanjan pistachio plain: aquifer decline, subsidence and export revenue
The water table of the Rafsanjan plain in Kerman Province fell about 17 m between 1983 and 2017, and satellite studies measured subsidence of 30 cm per year or more. Iran reported pistachio exports of US$614 million in the first seven Iranian months of 2024.
Lake Chad: the 90% shrinkage figure, the Transaqua water-transfer plan and a proposed USD 50bn Lake Chad Fund
The FAO reported in 2009 that Lake Chad had shrunk by about 90% since 1963; a 2020 satellite study found its extent stable over the previous two decades, with the large loss falling between the 1960s and the 1980s. A transfer of water from the Congo/Ubangi basin and a Lake Chad Fund of about USD 50bn were proposed in the lake's name.
Phosphate detergents and Lake Erie eutrophication; phosphate bans
Phosphate made up 15–17% of household detergent by weight in 1969, up from 7–12% in 1959. US states, Germany and the US industry itself later limited or dropped it.
Garagum Canal and Amu Darya: conveyance losses, salinisation and the money around them
The Garagum (Karakum) Canal takes 10–12 km³ a year from the Amu Darya, and FAO recorded conveyance losses of more than 30% of intake since 2000. FAO gave the direct economic loss from salinised land at USD 142 million for 2001; a South Korean builder signed a memorandum on modernising a 250 km section in September 2026.
Zayandeh Rud and the Gavkhouni wetland: water transfers and farmers' protests in Isfahan
The Zayandeh Rud, which runs through Isfahan to the Gavkhouni wetland, has been dry in its lower reach for long periods since about 2000. The wetland's legal water right of 176 million m³ a year was approved by the Supreme Water Council and never implemented, according to Mehr.
Mongooses brought to Hawaii to eat rats now prey on endangered birds and turtle eggs
The sugar industry brought the mongoose to Hawaii in 1883 to eat rats, and state officials say it now eats the eggs of eight endangered bird species. A 1999 estimate put its annual damage in Hawaii and Puerto Rico at US$50 million.
Afghanistan's Qosh Tepa canal to divert 6 to 13 km³ of Amu Darya water a year
Afghanistan's Qosh Tepa canal is set to take 6 to 13 cubic kilometres of water a year from the Amu Darya river. Times of Central Asia reported that no environmental impact assessment had been carried out and that the canal raises water security concerns.
EU court finds Spain ignored illegal water abstraction in Doñana
The EU Court of Justice found that Spain had not taken illegal water abstraction in Doñana into account. The Doñana aquifers are the nature at stake, and three of its five aquifers are reported in poor condition.
Changing water use cited in background to Menindee fish kills
A 2023 report citing the New South Wales Chief Scientist places changing water use in the background of fish deaths at Menindee, Australia. The fish of the Menindee waters are the nature at stake.
Annual sewage entering Lebanon's Litani equals its natural inflow
An-Nahar reports that about 50 million cubic metres of sewage enter Lebanon's Litani River each year, equal to its total natural inflow in 2025. The river's water quality is the nature at stake.
CAG audit finds 12 of 44 Ganga sewage plants discharge untreated water
India's Comptroller and Auditor General found 12 of 44 sewage treatment plants on the Ganga discharged untreated water. The river's water quality is the nature at stake.
Paris brings water under municipal control; operator says it cut costs and prices
Paris brought its water service under municipal control. The public operator says this brought savings and lower prices; the cited sources give no independent figures.
In Uzbekistan's Aral basin, water is tied to cotton contracts
NPR reported in October 2024 that the Aral Sea, one of the world's largest inland lakes, had dried up after Soviet-era irrigation plans. A farmer in the basin was quoted as saying there is no water without a cotton contract.
Vieques and Culebra military clean-up expected to cost about $800 million
The US military's clean-up of Vieques and Culebra in Puerto Rico is expected to cost about $800 million and to last until 2032. NBC News reported that about 32,000 bombs had been removed. The cited sources do not describe the land or water affected.
Expert found unpermitted water intake at Bıçkıdere, Sakarya
DHA reported in January 2018 that an expert witness found water had been taken at Bıçkıdere, Sakarya, from a source other than the licensed one. The stake for nature is local spring water drawn beyond what the licence allowed.
Court of Accounts found İSKİ allocated springs without tender at low rent
Sayıştay, Turkey's Court of Accounts, found that İSKİ, Istanbul's water utility, allocated springs without tender and collected very low rent. The stake for nature is public control over the city's spring water.
Senate motion cites Chiapas bottler concession of about 420,000 cubic metres a year
A June 2020 Senate gazette entry in Mexico cites a Chiapas water concession of about 420,000 cubic metres a year for a bottler. The stake for nature is who controls the local water supply in Chiapas.