WATERSHED This book is dedicated to the hope that it will contribute to the dynamic that suggests, and not just to the Israelis and Palestinians, that water is one of the few truly limited resources on Earth, and that sharing of water resources is inherent to a peaceful, equitable, and efficient future for all of us. Que n a-t-on fait pour s approprier l eau? Que n a-t-on inventé pour s excuser de l avoir fait? Quel crime n a-t-on commis pour n avoir pas à s en excuser? Quelle raison d état n a-t-on invoquée pour s en assurer la possession exclusive? de Laet (1992) WATERSHED THE ROLE OF FRESH WATER IN THE ISRAELI PALESTINIAN CONFLICT Stephen C. Lonergan and David B. Brooks INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE OTTAWA CAIRO DAKAR JOHANNESBURG MONTEVIDEO NAIROBI NEW DELHI SINGAPORE Published by the International Development Research Centre PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1G 3H9 © International Development Research Centre 1994 Lonergan, S.C. Brooks, D.B. Watershed : the role of fresh water in the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Ottawa, ON, IDRC, 1994. xiii + 310 p. : ill. /Freshwater/, /water supply/, /water quality/, /water distribution/, /conflicts/, /Israel/, /Palestine/ /groundwater/, /water consumption/, /water utilization/, /water conservation/, /water management/, /international agreements/, /peace/, /economic aspects/, /political aspects/, /data collecting/, glossary, bibliography. UDC: 551.579(569.4) ISBN: 0-88936-719-1 A microfiche edition is available. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the International Development Research Centre. IDRC BOOKS endeavours to produce environmentally friendly publications. All paper used is recycled as well as recycleable. All inks and coatings are vegetable-based products. CONTENTS Foreword ~ Malin Falkenmark ix Acknowledgments xiii PART I ~ THE SETTING Chapter 1 ~ Introduction: Image and Reality 3 Different aspects of the conflict 3 A triple crisis 7 Data: a fourth crisis 8 Some definitions and some terminology 10 Organization of this study 13 Chapter 2 ~ Geography, Hydrology, and Climate 17 Varied geography and topography 19 Climate and variations in climate 20 Hydrological conditions 27 Conclusion 33 Chapter 3 ~ Water Supply and Demand 35 Consumption 36 Availability: principal sources 42 Availability: supplemental sources 45 Availability: higher technology options 53 Infrastructure, management, and planning 59 Development and diffusion of irrigation technology 63 Municipal and domestic demand 67 Energy: the hidden input 69 Conclusion 70 This page intentionally left blank PART II ~ THREE CRISES Chapter 4 ~ Water Quantity: The Economic Crisis 73 Effects on the economy 74 Implications for the political situation 85 End-use conservation 87 Longer term prospects for changes in water balances 99 Summary 103 Chapter 5 ~ Water Quality: The Ecological Crisis 105 Overpumping of aquifers 105 Water pollution 107 Nature reserves 115 Some hopeful signs 116 Public support and public action 119 Chapter 6 ~ Distribution of Water: The Geopolitical Crisis 121 Water politics from 1948 to 1967 123 Water politics after 1967 125 A potential surplus on the West Bank 129 A deficit in the Gaza Strip 134 Pretensions to the Litani River 137 The current negotiations 141 Data quality and data availability 143 PART III ~ TOWARD RESOLUTION Chapter 7 ~ Regional Options for Water Management 151 International law of shared water resources 152 Management plans in the Jordan River Basin: an historical perspective 160 Allocation by calculation 171 International transfers of water 180 Militarization and annexation as a solution 186 Planning for a different future 188 Chapter 8 ~ Water and Security in Israel 195 Unconventional threats to security 195 Israel s hydrostrategic boundaries 203 Chapter 9 ~ The Peace Accord and its Aftermath 211 Bilateral and multilateral talks 212 The draft agreement 217 Public and political reactions in Israel 223 Chapter 10 ~ Palestinian Water Management in a Transitional Period 227 Investment in water systems 229 Institutions 233 Community involvement and WRAP 245 Chapter 11 ~ Maintaining the Momentum 248 Nextsteps 251 Establishing priorities 252 Domestic recommendations 256 Regional recommendations 264 Conclusions 267 Afterword ~ Water in the Jordan Israel Peace Treaty 271 Appendix 1 ~ Claims, Counterclaims, Fears, and Concerns: Fresh Water as a Regional Issue 275 Appendix 2 ~ Declarations, Documents, Rules, and Rhetoric: Fresh Water as a Global Issue 281 Glossary 289 Bibliography 293 Index 305 FOREWORD THE WORLD IS HEADING toward a major water crisis in the next few decades. By 2025, there will be 3 billion people living in countries exhibiting water stress or having chronic water scarcity. Water will be urgently needed not only for settlements and industries; the largest amounts will be needed to grow the food for the growing population in these countries. Given this situation, there are three main problems that await solutions: • How do we cope with escalating water scarcity? • What should the rules be for sharing water between upstream and downstream users? • How do we overcome the barriers existing in international river basins where the interests of the riparian countries often differ? In the face of this global predicament, the Jordan River is a highly interesting case, particularly because Israel is commonly presented as a model of sound water management. Any solution found to sharing water in the Jordan Basin will have wide relevance to other countries in the Middle East as well as other regions of the world. No state can survive without access to life-supporting water. As a result of millennia-long cultural differences, the water problems in the Jordan River Basin are particularly complex. The problems increased with the 1946 United Nations decision specifying the borders of the new state of Israel. Only an evil water goddess could have come up with such a solution, write the authors of this book. In other words, disputes were built into the geostrategic results of that UN decision a fact that has made many Israelis become obsessed with the issue of water security. One might suggest that a central question raised by the Middle East problematique is Who owns the rain? The title of this book Watershed more or less points to that crucial question. In this book, Stephen Lonergan and David Brooks present a thorough analysis of the current situation in the Jordan River Basin, including its historical background, the environmental preconditions embodied in the local hydroclimate, the landscape topography and the hydrogeography, and the problems of past water management. The book provides some surprising insight: not even in a water-stressed country like Israel does planning start with the reasonable question of How much water is there and how do we best benefit from that amount for socio-economic development? Israel s politicians seem to take the same utilitarian approach to water as the rest of the world, strengthened by their dream of making the desert bloom. Evidently, Israel s political leaders are also suffering from the well-known water blindness so widespread in Northern countries. The results are demonstrated by a water-pollution problem as great as in any other country, and a water administration as fragmented as that in any other country. Organizationally, water policy is even subordinate to agricultural policy. Even in a water-scarce region such as the Jordan River Basin, the conventional question of How much water do we need and where do we get it? is paramount. As Lonergan and Brooks note, in the Israeli submission to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) in 1992, the focus was on rapidly increasing water demands and the huge water deficit that can be expected. This focus is even more remarkable as a substantial portion of the water Israel now uses especially the groundwater that is recharged from the West Bank is under dispute. A recent report from the Israeli state comptroller has brought these national water scarcity problems into the open, so that not only regional but also sectoral tensions over water have become very public. This book reviews what the authors term the three crises of water in Israel: the water quantity crisis, which is economic in character; the water quality crisis, which is ecological; and the geostrategic crisis, which is political. They conclude with a set of regional options and policy recommendations. The analysis is limited primarily to the Israeli Palestinian conflict complex enough for an entire book but Syrian and Jordanian interests are also treated on occasion. It is easy to agree with the authors of this highly interesting book that the peace process provides a real opportunity for recognition of the water entitlements of the different countries involved. Malin Falkenmark Stockholm, Sweden 24 November 1994 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS WE ARE GRATEFUL to a number of people who assisted in the preparation of this book. In particular, Barb Kavanagh and Marjie Lesko of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Development at the University of Victoria, who spent countless hours typing, editing, and proofreading the manuscript; Ken Josephson and Ole Heggen of the Geography Department at the University of Victoria, who provided the maps and figures; Jim Moore of the Department of National Defence and Eglal