Istanbul: Parts of Jordan receive running water just once a week, for 24 hours. In summer months, the number of hours could be halved. In war-torn Syria, the affluent rent rooms in the few hotels that remain open to have showers due to a shortage of water supply. And in the West Bank, Palestinians under occupation face similar water shortages while Israeli colonists swim in their backyard pools.
The Middle East is one of the driest regions in the world. Jordan, a state that is poor in most resources, faces a demand for water that vastly outstrips supply. Compounding to that is the not only a fast growing population but also the influx of refugees the country has witnessed in the past decade – first from the war in Iraq and then from the Syrian civil war.
While conflict and politics play a significant role in the water shortage that the Middle East faces, experts say much of the problem lies in bad water management and lack of cooperation between countries. Many of the rivers and aquifers that supply freshwater to the region’s countries transcend borders, but few agreements exist between countries on how the resource should be shared.
It is however the very terminology of sharing that experts believe should be done away with for real cooperation to take place. Sharing, a term that denotes division, should be replaced with management, and ownership of water should be replaced with universal rights.
A study by India-based think tank Strategic Foresight has laid out options for Middle Eastern states to cooperate to ensure that their shared water resources are distributed equitably, but also in ways to find new sources of water and reverse the depletion of their sources of water. In its report, Blue Peace, the group brought together experts and journalists in Istanbul to discuss ways to promote a cooperation mindset among the region’s states.
One such solution is a Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal, which would connect the two seas through a pipeline to give a lifeline to the Dead Sea that may otherwise disappear in the next 50 years. The Red Sea would flood the Dead Sea with water while generating hydro-electricity as the Red Sea’s water drops 400m to the lowest point on earth into the Dead Sea. The project is said to benefit Jordan, the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Hurdles are plenty, however, some of which include the politicization of water. Jordanian officials say for example that the agreements signed with neighbouring states, particularly Israel, are unfair and should be reviewed. Syrian officials say neighbouring countries closely guard information on the usage of water from shared sources, considering it a matter of sovereignty. Iraqis blame Turkey for not entertaining their concerns about water because it is politically at odds with their government.
An ambassador from a south Asian country in a neighbouring country said that as his government was about to conclude a water management agreement with the neighbouring country, information was released in the media that the neighbouring country was in fact stealing water from his government. The news proved to be false and was believed to be disseminated by the intelligence agency in a third, neighbouring country, said he ambassador.
Similarly, Israel’s superior military capabilities have allowed it to force its neighbours into accepting a status quo which sees Israel take the bulk of the water from shared rivers.
Mahmoud Labadi, a senior advisor to the ruling Palestinian faction Fatah, said it was futile to discuss cooperation in trans-boundary water resources when states like Israel did not recognize boundaries of lands Palestinians lived on, and controlled more than 80 per cent of the West Bank’s water resources. “We fail to talk about the stealing of water from the Palestinians, and the fact that Palestinians have to pay Israel for the water that is taken from their own aquifers. Water is a human right issue, and we are totally dependent on the occupier for this”.
He said that Israel had in the past suggested providing the Palestinians with desalinated water during negotiations, but rejected the idea as it would involve waving Palestinians’ right to water they see as belonging to them.
Mohammad Abu Zaid, president of the World Water Council, however argued that Israel should be given solutions by the Arab states for its own water needs as well as those of the Palestinians, suggesting that only when it is confident about its own water security will it stop taking its neighbours’ resources.
He said that while he understood the rejection of the offer for desalinated water, it may be one of the few remaining options. “We can’t afford another war”.
DESALINATION IS THE FUTURE
The growing populations of the northern Arab states and the rising demand of water is likely to cause severe shortages in the future that will inevitably lead them to turn to desalinating seawater.
Long seen as a feature of Gulf states, which have 60 per cent of the world’s desalination capacity, the process may be moving towards states that had until recently relied largely on surface and groundwater to meet its domestic needs.
Long shunned by a number of states for the amount of energy it used, desalination was made possible in Gulf states due to the large energy resources available to them. Experts however believe that the falling cost of desalination coupled with the falling supply of water from renewable sources makes desalination more attractive to Middle Eastern states.
“Desalination opens endless possibilities… the cost of desalination has almost come down to that of treating wastewater, the product of which is not of such high quality,” said Mohammad Abu Zaid, president of the Arab Water Council.
Experts believe that as technology develops, desalination may be able to do more than just allow states to become more self-sufficient in meeting their food and water demands, but be able to play a role in ending thirst in some of the most arid parts of the world. They point out that there could be a commercial utility in desalination that could work to end thirst through the sale of affordable water to these countries.
