WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST J. David Rogers University of Missouri-Rolla Abstract Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are linked by common aquifers that have recently become subject to overdrafting, contamination and negotiation. The present shortage followed a period of unprecedented exploration and exploitation of their water resources, with the Israelis using military force to secure their principal source watershed. The environmental security of the region’s scarce water resources has become a contentious issue and an impediment to regional development because the three entities have been unable to develop protocols for managing their natural resources. In the near future, survivability in the harsh climate of the Middle East will be driven by economic sustainability and environmental security. The most challenging aspect of expanding populations in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority will be finding sufficient supplies of potable water. Water is fundamental to sustainability of life, for bodily intake and maintenance of sanitation. A significant fraction of new water sources will inevitably come from desalination of sea water using reverse osmosis, which requires significant capital outlay and electrical power. Water resource management has emerged as a national priority upon which each country sees its survival depending. Armed conflicts and sporadic clashes will continue if the issue is not resolved. 1. INTRODUCTION Israel and the Palestinian Territories are separated from Jordan by the Syrian-African Rift, the longest valley in the world (Figs. 1 and 2). The three nations are linked by common aquifers, but their groundwater reserves have been over utilized for crop production, even when many foodstuffs might be imported at lower unit prices. Since the mid-1980s, the expanding populations of Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority have found themselves competing for dwindling water resources. Middle East population growth is currently averaging a staggering 3 percent annually. The population of Israel and the Palestinian Territories now stands at approximately 8 million. The population of the Palestinian Authority occupying Gaza and West Bank recently exceeded 1.5 million. Israel’sFigure 1 – Map of border region between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, showing the Golan Heights, the National Water Carrier, the East Gohr Canal and the proposed al Wahda Dam site.growth has come about in large part through three waves of immigration: the first following establishment of the British mandate at end of First World War (1918); a second pulse after the Second World War, particularly 1948, when the State of Israel was created; and a more recent influx of immigrants between 1987-2002, when 2 million Russian Jews settled in Israel. By 2020 the population of Israel is expected to grow to 9 million and that of the Palestinian Authority to exceed 3 million. According to the World Bank, the Middle East has the highest median cost of water supply and sanitation in the world, reaching $300 per capita in 1985, about double what it costs in the United States and about five times the cost of water in Southeast Asia (Starr, 1991). Israel, the Palestinian lands (West Bank and Gaza), and Jordan are jointly facing a combined water deficit of at least 300 to 400 m3 per year, and as much as 500 to 600 million m3, depending on weather patterns and consumption (Casa, 1991). Jordan’s population is increasing at a rate of 3.8 % per year, one of the world’s highest growth rates. Like Israel, Jordan has exhausted her natural water resources and must begin looking seriously at desalination and water import schemes to meet future demands. Security concerns have been an impediment to cooperative resource development by Israel and her neighbor Arab states since the creation of Israel in 1948. The Israelis are concerned that their water resources infrastructure is secure from intervention and terrorism. Armed conflict erupted between Israel and Syria in 1964-65 when Syria attempted to divert flow from the upper Jordan River (Gleick, 1993). Israeli concerns about their environmental security manifest themselves again in the June 1967 war, when Israel doubled their water resources by occupying the Golan Heights and south Mt. Herman, where the waters of the Jordan River coalesce. Israel has refused to relinquish any of this valuable watershed. Figure 2 – Generalized geologic section through the Syrian-African Rift, between Israel and the West Bank territory on the left and Jordan on the right. The Dead Sea occupies the lowest point in a massive graben formed by a pull-apart basin between the Mediterranean and Arabian tectonic plates (modified from Beitzel, 1985).The Palestinian Authority has the greatest need for developing additional sources of water, but no formal agreement has been reached on this issue in the ongoing negotiations with Israel because of the overpowering concerns about security which erupted when the Infantada began in 1999. Development of new water sources has become a bargaining chip for Israel and the Palestinian Authority their ongoing negotiations. The region’s Arab neighbors see America as the only peace broker, capable of funding key infrastructure improvements on the west bank that the Israelis would refrain from targeting in any retaliatory strikes. Water has emerged as the key component in the region’s environmental security. Exploitation of water resources will reign supreme in any economic development in this volatile region in the foreseeable future. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF WATER RESOURCES The first modern water conveyance system in the region was initiated by Jewish settlers in 1935 to bring well water from the Jezreel Valley southward through Palestine, when it was a British mandate, to the northern Negev Desert. Jewish settlers constructed three experimental settlements in the Negev in 1943, followed by 16 more in 1946-47. This first water pipeline leading to the northwestern Negev was only 0.15 m diameter, but stretched 190 km. It was completed in 1947. The first large-scale supply system was a 1.68 m diameter pipeline extending 130 km from the Yarkon River to the Negev completed by the Israelis in 1948. It was capable of supplying 100 million m3/yr. In the late 1950s Jordan and Israel embarked on a race to collect, convey, and disperse