The Chouta Range Water Wars

The Conflict

Prelude

The Chouta range is the major mountain range separating the southwest corner of the Principality of Etoile (The District of Terman, containing Windwell Port Town) from the rest of the south towards the east (mostly desolate grasslands of the District of Vannis). The prevailing wind pattern in Saibh is from the southwest up through to the northeast; storms tend to 'drop' most of their water to the west of the Chouta, leaving the rest of the continent drier. This is largely a good thing, as it makes the rivers and flood patterns across the rest of the Principality more predictable. Agriculture west of the Chouta is riskier due to the unpredictable occurrence of floods and damaging storms.
The advent of Power, however, caused a significant change in the demand for water; now not only did the rivers feed irrigation works and farmland, it was also a necessity to ensure that as much water as possible made it to the power generation works at Patino, the Machine City or at the Etoile Capital City, or any other city with major power demands. By necessity, this meant that water had to be split between agricultural and power usage, as water diverted to farms would never make it to any cities that existed at river deltas or outflows into the sea. 
Engineering teams from the Principality of Etoile began to survey the Chouta for the first time around the year 645, a drought year where the Inix River's flow to Patino was so poor that The Patino Falls failed to produce enough power to drive all of the linked manufactory lines, forcing emergency disconnects. Their goal was to figure out how to route as much water east as possible, towards the major Consortium agricultural concerns and the main power generation wheels, and away from the relatively thinly populated western shores.
This plan was put into place towards the end of the First Princeps' reign as he was grappling with the crisis of succession, and his following quote entered the records during Ministerial debate:

If you ask me to balance the needs of the two hundred thousand living west of the Chouta mountains against the tens of millions requiring stable Power supplies east of the Chouta, the answer seems obvious enough to be beneath my proclamation.

Deployment

Between the years of 645 and 650, several geographic locations were identified in the Choutas as valleys that could be modified to encourage water flow in the other direction, by way of damming and demolition. The western ends of these valleys would be dammed with heavy earthwork and gravel, and the eastern ends mined through with tunnels, to change the flow of water for much of the watershed. While the literal act of moving mountains was obviously not possible, general estimates were that an additional 3 to 5% of water could be re-routed to the east, and impounded in several new reservoirs for controlled release during dry seasons.
Farmers and locals in the District of West Saibh (a catch-all district for a somewhat thinly populated expanse of stormy coast and wet swamp) were up in arms, with rumors that they would have all of their water supply cut off or the rivers entirely re-routed east. This was in addition to a new academic trend towards natural conservation, with influential members of the nobility advocating against the idea of pristine natural valleys and canyons being inundated with water. Several men were spotted observing the civil works and construction in the Chouta, though they never did anything other than watch.

The Engagement

Upon the completion of the new dams and water diversion projects, water flows to the east were greatly improved, with huge reservoirs established in flooded river valleys. However, several incidents occurred that were at first deemed accidents - a dam washing out in a heavy storm, causing a loss of a reservoir, or water tunnels being blocked with sediment and causing water to flow to the west again. Magisterial investigation eventually concluded that these were acts of intentional sabotage.
Over the course of roughly twenty years, in what was later termed the Water Wars, acts of repeated sabotage would destroy canals and earthworks, while perpetrators were found, arrested, and imprisoned. Several of these incidents turned violent, with most notable of these was the defense of the Avrila Retention Dam by a hastily contracted mercenary team against a small army of miners, resulting in multiple deaths and the deployment of the Etoilean Ground Forces for a period of time.

Historical Significance

Legacy

Ultimately, the principal impetus of the Water Wars was found to be moot, as plenty of water continued to flow to the west and agriculture in West Saibh was not subject to any water-based constraints. The Wars came to a halt, not because the saboteurs from the west believed in the cause less, but because they were literally aging out of the enterprise, and were only carrying on for the sake of grievance. 
The hard lesson learned by the Principality was that governance by pure command fiat was costly; it was far easier to engage everyone involved and convince them that a given project was a good idea rather than deal with a multi-year campaign of harassment and sabotage. A mass amnesty for any criminal acts committed during the Water Wars was enacted in 675, putting them to rest.

Technological Advancement

The advent of Power itself was in many ways the primary driver of this conflict, both in the sense of power requirements in the downstream industrial cities, as well as Power making large scale earthworks possible. Power engineers built water-driven excavators that could dig out tons of rocks and soil at a speed that teams of laborers couldn't hope to match; the same is true for Powered rockbreakers and demolition tools. The art of large scale geological engineering was in its infancy in this era, and the waterworks of the Choutas were the first major civil engineering project commissioned by the Principality of Etoile. Lessons learned here would be applied in other water engineering projects across Saibh as well as general improvements to power distribution.

Conflict Type

Covert Operation

Start Date

651

Ending Date

675

Conflict Result

Status Quo