1.1 HISTORY

A long history, in fact since the dawn of history, of threats to drinking water systems during conflicts has plagued humans. Water has been a strategic objective in armed conflicts throughout history. Gleick (1994, 1998, 2000) has developed a water conflict chronology in which he categorizes the conflicts as the following: control of water resources, military tool, political tool, terrorism, military target, and development disputes. Terrorism is defined as, water resources, or water systems, are either targets or tools of violence or coercion by nonstate actors. There are many historical conflicts that caused flooding by diversion or eliminated water supplies by building dams or other structures, whereas in the following only a few examples of some of the water conflicts that included water supply systems are summarized.

During the time of King Hezekiah the period of the First Temple (the latter part of the eighth century B.C.), Jerusalem was under military threat from Assyria (2 Kings 20:20; Isaiah 22:11; 2 Chronicles 32:2-4,30). The Gihon spring, located just outside the city walls, was the main water source for the ancient city of Jerusalem (Bruins, 2002), requiring strategic planning on King Hezekiah s part. He had a water tunnel (533 m) dug to channel the water underground into the city, with the outlet at a reservoir known as the Pool of Siloam. Two crews of miners dug through solid limestone from both ends of the tunnel, meeting at...