Center for Security Policy and Conflict Research & Swiss Peace Foundation - August 15, 1995 - Back to Resources Page

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Introduction

Since the mid-1980s, much has been written on the subject of imminent "Water Wars"
in the Middle East (e.g. Bulloch & Darwish 1993; Starr 1991). Such statements,
although drawing attention to an important problem, are exaggerated and misleading. It
is true that the region remains one of the tensest areas of the world and the danger of
war is not yet averted. But conflicts are still determined by deep political differences.
However, hydrological matters undeniably represent an additional dimension to the
Arab-Israeli conflict; a dimension the relative importance of which has been growing
over recent years. Water resources in the Middle East are scarce by nature, and most of
them are transboundary. Competition over the utilization of shared resources is
therefore pre-programmed. Moreover, the catchment areas of water systems often
coincide with disputed land. Israel, e.g., receives more than half of its water resources
from occupied Arab territories. Therefore territorial and hydropolitical interests are
highly intertwined in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Water scarcity is increasing year by year
due to persistent population growth, over-exploitation, and pollution of existing
resources. A solution to the hydrological crisis is certainly not a sufficient condition for
a lasting peace in the region, but it is nevertheless an indispensable one.

The present study deals with this context. It analyzes the water crisis in the subregion
covered by the Jordan River Basin and its surrounding areas and examines the role
water plays in the historical conflict between Arabs and Israelis. Special emphasis is
given to the current Middle East peace process which started in Madrid in October
1991. The signing of the Declaration of Principles between Israel and the PLO in
September 1993, the following Gaza-Jericho Agreement, and the Israeli-Jordanian
Peace Treaty of October 1994 triggered a dynamic which makes a turnabout unlikely.
The results achieved so far in the negotiations are analyzed in respect to their waterrelated
stipulations and whether these arrangements might serve as a model for the
resolution of the remaining hydrological disputes.

The study is part of a comprehensive "Geography of Environmental Conflict" which is
under elaboration by the Environment and Conflicts Project (ENCOP). To assure its
comparability with the other case studies of the program, the present one also follows
the main lines of ENCOP’s analytical framework as presented in Occasional Paper no.
1. According to it the analysis of environmental conflict has to evolve along four steps:
1) describing the environmental situation in light of the human activities which lead up
to it, in our case with particular consideration of the water crisis; 2) deducing the social
and economic effects of environmental transformation and degradation; 3) analyzing the
political implications of these socioeconomic effects and the conflicts arising from
them; 4) evaluating approaches to peaceful conflict management and resolution on
different levels of analysis (Libiszewski 1992; Böge 1992; Bächler 1993).

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Center for Security Policy and Conflict Research & Swiss Peace Foundation - August 15, 1995 - Back to Resources Page