Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

By André Humbert, translated by Katherine Liakos.

World water scarcity in 2025. Courtesy of International Water Management Institute.

Today is Blog Action Day, dedicated to the topic of water. For a long time research on water concentrated on the location and the importance of sources, on their natural quality and the improvement of sampling techniques. If a researcher wanted to contribute to the progress of humanity he must strive to discover new methods of storage and pumping irrigation water. The most useful studies were those whichbrought mankind more water for further and better nourishment: hydraulic engineers represented a virtuous class that enabled the construction of the Aswan dam or the Great Manmade River in the Libyan Desert. The staggering growth in water facilities took place after World War 2.

However by the end of the century more and more competition occurred which could degenerate into conflict. Conflicts over water are certainly becoming more intense than they ever have been until now, at every territorial level on the surface of Earth. The most dangerous conflicts are probably those that oppose political powers, who may be tempted to resolve their differences by resorting to arms, which has already taken place and presently continues to do so.

An exemplary case of the geopolitics of water: the Israeli- Arab conflict

The most emblematic case is without doubt the late conflict in the Near East, between Israel and the Arab countries, over the exploitation of water from the Jordan basin and the Litani River as well as the aquifers of the West Bank.

The crisis began in 1953 when Israel announced the desire to divert Jordanian water from Lake Tiberias (also known as the Sea of Galilee) in order to “make the desert bloom” (Néguev). From the beginning this question took on significant international dimensions, because the Americans attempted to set up a compromise, through Ambassador Eric Johnston, in the form of a development/construction integrated to the Jordan basin, to divide the volume in a way they considered fair, between Israel, Jordan and also Syria.

The plan was a non starter because it assumed that the Arab states recognise the existence of Israel. However an official bipartite agreement is in place between Israel and Jordan to carry out hydraulic projects on the two river banks in Jordan: on the west side, Israelis are proceeding with their major work, the major canal of the National Water Carrier; on the left bank Jordanians divert the Yarmuk river with the King Abdullah Canal, or the East Ghor Main Canal. But the crisis is far from over, and in the early 60s the pan Arab movement led by Nasser demanded that the Jewish state stop siphoning Jordan’s water and set up a river water diversion project (Jordan Diversion Authority), upstream from Lake Tiberias, to direct some of it towards the Yarmuk river and some towards the Litani river.

From then on, the squabbles and violent acts of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party was a prelude to the Six Day War. The Israeli victory not only gave Ben Gourion’s country control over Jordan’s waters, but also what is known as it’s ‘sources’: the network of tributaries and re-emergences coming from the Golan Plateau, whose waters refill Lake Tiberias and ensure over 20% of Israel’s water supply. Control of the Gaza strip and West Bank allowed domination over their subterranean resources, superior in volume to that which Jordan offers.

It’s not only the need to secure the northern border that pushed Israel to control Southern Lebanon in 1978, since its leaders had long dreamt of developing the Litani valley in order to divert some of its water towards the north of their country. Moreover, Ben Gourion maintained that “to succeed in establishing the Jewish state, the Jordanian and Litani waters must be included within Israel’s borders”. The evacuation of southern Lebanon swept aside the hydraulic dream and eased the tension surrounding this issue, although many potential conflicts still remain on the road to peace. Among these, water will always be an issue. However, perhaps less so for Jordan’s water, than water extracted from underground sources in the West Bank by countless Israeli forages, to the benefit of Jewish colonies, which eat away at the future territory of independent Palestine.

Document : The water at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

This document provides evidence for the essential role played by Jordan and its tributaries, for the subsistence of areas positioned on either side of the huge fracture that runs from Mount Lebanon to the Akaba Golf and the Red Sea. It is clear that Israel and Jordan share the bulk of the water flow from the major hydrological routes, owing to two large diversion canals. The contentious projects in the north have not ended in conflict, but they have maintained the military activity between the Arabs and Israelis for several decades.

Maps may show the unfavourable position of Palestinian territory in relation to the manmade waterways established, but they do not indicate the subterranean water sources that currently supply many Israeli colonies dispersed around the West Bank. The presence of these colonies, mainly founded due to the availability of water to irrigate on the land, can only make peace negotiations more difficult. Even completely evacuating these colonies may not solve the problem of water ownership, since it seems that the structure of the aquifers is such that a significant part of the layers could lie under Israeli territory.

Therefore the Israeli-Arab case provides a perfect example of conflict over water, however many other territories, in the Near East or elsewhere, have such circumstances that have provoked or will provoke international tensions and conflicts.