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Becker, N., and F. A. Ward (2014), Adaptive water management in Israel: structure and policy options, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 1-18.
Abstract
Difficulties in integrating technical, economic and institutional factors present a major gap in analytical capacity to guide water policy. This article presents an integrated framework to support water policy and guide water management choices, with application to Israel. That framework rests on the theory of economic policy originally developed by Tinbergen. It sees national water challenges as consisting of external factors, constraints, policy instruments and targets. The need for a modern implementation of the theory of economic policy is motivated by emerging environmental requirements, scarce water, growing demands for domestic use, and ongoing needs to implement existing and potential peace agreements
... That can be supply expansion, demand reduction, or a combination. An earlier and simplified version of the mathematical model is described elsewhere [Becker and Ward, 2014]. Access to the posted model code in GAMS is described in Appendix A. Table 1 shows results of the optimized price and use of water by year, peace treaty obligation, environmental flow requirements, cost of desalination, and type of water use. ...
... The model structure is defined below using the GAMS notation, described by the vendor at gams.com. An earlier and simplified version of this documentation is published [Becker and Ward, 2014]. ...
This paper presents a framework for discovering an economically viable water sharing plan among neighboring communities for promoting peace and environmental protection. Its application is to the Middle East in which Israel may be facing water supply obligations to address environmental requirements and for a possible a peace agreement with its Palestinian neighbors. The framework consists of integrating external factors, constraints, policy instruments, and targets. Our findings from a constrained optimization analysis of Israel's national water system show that the costs of increased deliveries are dependent on two major issues: (1) achieving integrated water resources management (IWRM) in which efficient combinations of expansion from several supply sources and reductions in demands occur over time, and (2) the cost of desalination technologies. We identify a $US 1.46 billion price tag, in present value terms, from using integrated management of demand reduction and supply expansion under current desalination costs. Adjustment costs will decline both with anticipated reductions in desalination costs and with an efficient implementation of IWRM. These adjustments can contribute to moderating regional tensions and protecting key ecological assets while addressing water scarcity in a volatile corner of the world.
... The optimization framework carefully specified, has the potential to perform well in the face of minimum data, a complex objective function, variables that are both under and outside control of the policymaker as well as numerous constraints (Kutcher and Norton, 1982). Integrated optimization models offer considerable utility to address interrelated processes, such as hydrology, economics, environment, institutions, and policy applications (Becker and Ward, 2014;Gohar and Ward, 2010). ...
Quando si va ad analizzare la questione idrica nelle sue più varie sfaccettature si rischia di cadere in errore molto frequentemente. Uno dei primi assunti che si sarebbe portati a credere corretto al riguardo è che la scarsità della risorsa idrica, ad oggi è protagonista in molti dibattiti aventi come tema cardine il cambiamento climatico, possa portare a generare conflitti e che tale condizione rappresenterebbe un attentato alla sicurezza all’interno di qualsiasi contesto spaziale. Non infrequentemente simili teorie vengono sposate anche – e soprattutto - con riguardo allo spazio mediorientale, in special modo per ciò che concerne la questione del conflitto israelo-palestinese. Per avere una visione
geostrategicamente corretta di questo quadro occorre però innanzitutto sfatare tali miti e visioni, i quali vanno dalla pura razionalità biologica a un mero “riduzionismo realista”: i rischi sono quelli di dare una lettura deterministica, semplicizzata e depoliticizzata del problema senza tenere conto degli elementi più importanti da cui partire, ossia le influenze che i fattori geografici ivi presenti hanno sull’agire degli attori in gioco e le loro scelte, le quali possono andare dal puntare su settori produttivi ad alto tasso di consumo idrico all’investire o meno sulle infrastrutture, all’essere in un contesto di pubblica o privata proprietà delle risorse naturali.
Premessa a qualsivoglia tipologia di discorso legato all’idrogeopolitica di un determinato spazio territoriale è il tenere sempre presente che le risorse sono fatti naturali che l’azione umana - culturale ed economica - trasforma, che servono all’uomo: in questo senso non si guarda all’acqua in quanto elemento naturale ma all’acqua di cui l’uomo necessita al fine di implementare i propri processi di sostentamento e produzione. Acqua in geopolitica è la risorsa impiegabile dall’uomo e relazionata al livello disponibile di tecnologia per il suo sfruttamento e alle necessità del sistema economico. Chiarito questo, non ha senso parlare di acqua-risorsa allacciandola a una visione diretta di abbondanza o scarsità, poiché i luoghi vanno riconosciuti come poveri o ricchi di acqua in relazione a quelle che sono le esigenze della popolazione che vi abita, possano essere esigenze di sopravvivenza, politiche, economiche, culturali e via discorrendo. Ciascuna opzione ne lascia fuori altre, ed è proprio la scelta compiuta che andrà a determinare la condizione di abbondanza o scarsità di cui sopra; in tale quadro, le risorse naturali costituiscono un elemento molto importante ma non l’unico.
In questo lavoro di tesi si andrà dunque ad analizzare la questione idrogeopolitica di uno spazio preciso, ossia quello sul quale si dispiega da settant’anni il conflitto israelo-palestinese, adottando come lente attraverso la quale guardare alle varie problematiche quella dell’approccio transcalare, il quale rivolge la propria attenzione alle relazioni tra le diverse scale, ai processi che le attraversano e a cosa accade nel momento in cui si passa da una scala all’altra.
Analizzare il tutto in prospettiva transcalare significherà individuare e spiegare i condizionamenti dati e ricevuti da ciascuna scala, andando oltre i meri confini statali e sposando una logica transnazionale che non si incentri in maniera soggettiva sugli attori ma che parta da quelle che sono le permanenze territoriali, ossia i fattori geograficamente strategici dello spazio mediorientale, per comprendere gli effetti che questi ultimi giocano sulle relazioni di potere che su di esso si sviluppano, senza dimenticare di relazionarli a elementi quali i soggetti politici, gli interessi, le forze, le culture e i comportamenti: tutto ciò ci permetterà di osservare la questione idrogeopolitica all’interno del conflitto israelo-palestinese da un punto di vista nuovo, certamente più completo, composito e puntuale, spogliando le analisi che su tale contesto vengono portate avanti da assunti troppo spesso scorretti, da logiche deterministe e convinzioni riduttivistiche, le quali non permettono realmente di guardare a questa realtà spaziale per ciò che realmente essa è: uno spazio territoriale sul quale gli elementi geografici senza dubbio vanno in parte a predeterminare e a condizionare l’agire dei diversi soggetti che su di esso implementano le proprie politiche e dispiegano la propria esistenza.
RESUMO-O Canal do Sertão é a maior obra hídrica do estado de Alagoas. Essa obra visa suprir as necessidades da região no que concerne ao déficit hídrico, principalmente em períodos de seca. Atualmente, quase metade da obra está inaugurada e a água já pode ser retirada, para abastecimento, irrigação, entre outros fins. Nos últimos anos, já é possível visualizar um aumento nas áreas irrigadas próximo às margens do canal. Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar áreas irrigadas com água proveniente da oferta do Canal do Sertão alagoano. Foram utilizadas imagens de sensoriamento remoto do sensor LANDSAT-5 e LANDSAT-8 obtidas no período seco adotado. A validação do potencial agrário dessas áreas foi realizada a partir do índice NDVI. Os resultados permitiram reconhecer diversas áreas vegetadas, a maioria dessas de pequena extensão, reforçando presença de agricultura familiar. A metodologia utilizada se mostrou de fácil aplicação, de baixo custo e processamento, permitindo a obtenção de informações e ferramenta de monitoramento e gestão do recurso hídrico. ABSTRACT-The Sertão Canal is the largest water infrastructure in the state of Alagoas/Brazil. This waterworks aims to meet the region's water deficit needs, especially during periods of drought. Nowadays, half of the construction is already inaugurated and water may be withdrawn for water supply, irrigation and others. In recent years, it is possible to see an increase in irrigated areas near the banks of the canal. This paper aims to investigate areas irrigated with water supplied by the Sertão Canal. Images from LANDSAT-5 and LANDSAT-8 sensors in the dry period were used. The validation of the irrigated areas was obtained by the NDVI results. The results allowed to recognize several vegetaded areas, most of them of small extension, reinforcing the presence of family agriculture. The methodology used was easy to apply, with low cost and processing, allowing the obtaining of information and tool for monitoring and management of water resources. Palavras-Chave-irrigação; sensoriamento remoto.
Water availability on the continents is important for human health, economic activity, ecosystem function and geophysical processes. Because the saturation vapour pressure of water in air is highly sensitive to temperature, perturbations in the global water cycle are expected to accompany climate warming. Regional patterns of warming-induced changes in surface hydroclimate are complex and less certain than those in temperature, however, with both regional increases and decreases expected in precipitation and runoff. Here we show that an ensemble of 12 climate models exhibits qualitative and statistically significant skill in simulating observed regional patterns of twentieth-century multidecadal changes in streamflow. These models project 10-40% increases in runoff in eastern equatorial Africa, the La Plata basin and high-latitude North America and Eurasia, and 10-30% decreases in runoff in southern Africa, southern Europe, the Middle East and mid-latitude western North America by the year 2050. Such changes in sustainable water availability would have considerable regional-scale consequences for economies as well as ecosystems.
The Dead Sea is a hypersaline terminal lake formed about 14,000 years ago along the central part of the Dead Sea Rift after the desiccation of its precursor Lake Lisan. The Dead Sea drains an area of approximately 40,000 km2 with the Jordan River as its main source of inflow (Fig. 12.1). While in the past the Dead Sea level changes were caused by climate changes, in recent years its level is controlled primarily by anthropogenic activity. At present the Dead Sea level is approximately 425 m below sea level (BSL) while the lake’s deepest point at 730 m BSL is the deepest terrestrial spot on Earth. This chapter summarizes the principal technical and environmental findings of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance Project. This is the main solution that is being currently discussed that can potentially resolve some of the issues the Dead Sea is facing.
This article explores the reasons efforts to attain water security by states and the international water policy community often fall short of their goals, and suggests a conceptual tool as partial remedy. The main shortcomings of prevailing water security policy and thinking are found to stem from narrow and determinist analysis that is based on a separation of biophysical and social processes of water resources and their use. Undue confidence is placed in physical scarcity thresholds, for example, while distributive issues are ignored. Water resources are also found to be treated in isolation, as if independent of the food, climate or energy security of individuals, communities and states. The 'web' of water security introduced here emphasises combined readings of the social and biophysical processes that enable or prevent national water security. These processes are mediated by a socioeconomic and political context replete with power asymmetries, such that water security for some rests on the water insecurity of others. Sustainable national water security in the long term, it is suggested, will be guided by principles of balance between related security areas, and equitability of distribution of resources between the actors involved.
Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, with a population of 9.9 millions in 2005, wants to improve its water supply, by increasing service coverage from 41% in 1996 to 100% in 2022 and reducing its non-revenue water (NRW) from 57% in 1996 to 26% in 2022. This target is set against the fact that wastewater service is very poor, with only 1.9% coverage in 2000. In 1995, in an effort to improve the Jakarta water supply system, and in spite of being deficient in law and regulations as well as lacking experience with regard to Private Sector Participation (PSP), the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) invited two reputable international water operators, Lyonnaise des Eaux of France and Thames Water International of UK, to conduct feasibility studies for developing clean and potable water for Jakarta under a framework of 25-year concession contracts. Those pertinent contracts were signed in June 1997 and became effective in February 1998. However, the Asian monetary crisis that hit Indonesia and at the same time caused a change of government regime, had caused social unrest which created desire for reform and improvements of many facets of government. As a result, the contracts were renegotiated and, on 21 October 2001, the Restated Cooperation Agreements (RCA) were signed and concurrently led to the establishment of the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body (JWSRB).The main challenge being encountered by JWSRB with regard to the regulatory approach is how to perform as an independent and impartial body to regulate contracts between the private operators and the local government, represented by PAM JAYA as a former operator of the Jakarta water supply. To this end, the JWSRB should be seen to have a clear legal mandate, accountability and independence, transparency and due process, expertise and credibility, and efficiency and fairness in order to achieve a reasonable balance of interest between the consumer and water provider. These five parameters could then be used to judge the efficacy of the system. So far, the multiple issues being faced are technical, including concerns with technical challenges, and the establishment and operation of the regulator which involves balancing a range of interests. These are (i) technical matters (information, benchmarking, and competition); (ii) challenges in establishment and operation of the regulator; (iii) putting the consumer first; (iv) using the resource efficiently and effectively; and, (v) building the capacity. A learning curve during the first four years following its establishment for gaining the trust from Jakarta water stakeholders is also discussed in the paper in reasonable depth.
Climate change and recurrent drought in many of the world's dry places continue to inspire the search for economically attractive measures to conserve water. This study analyzes water conservation practices in irrigated agriculture in a sub-basin in North America's Rio Grande. A method is developed to estimate water savings in irrigated agriculture that result from public subsidies to farmers who convert from surface to drip irrigation. The method accounts for economic incentives affecting farmers' choices on irrigation technology, crop mix, water application, and water depletion. Findings show that farmers will invest in technologies that reduce water applications when faced with lower financial costs for converting to drip irrigation. Subsidies for drip irrigation increase farm income, raise the value of food production, and reduce the amount of water applied to crops. However, an unexpected result is that water conservation subsidies that promote conversion to drip irrigation can increase the demand for water depleted by crops. Our findings show that where water rights exist, water rights administrators will need to guard against increased depletion of the water source in the face of growing subsidies for drip irrigation. Our approach for analyzing water conservation programmes can be applied where water is scarce, irrigation is significant, food security is important, and water conservation policies are under debate.
When the Rivers Run Dry. Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century. Fred Pearce. Beacon Press, Boston, 2006. 336 pp. $26.95. ISBN 0-8070-8572-3.
Weaving together scientific, economic, and historical aspects of water resources, the author argues that the solution to the
growing worldwide shortage of water lies in greater efficiency and new ethics of use.
The definition of sustainable forest management (SFM) in Israel is unique, because the majority of its forests are constructed and the availability of natural or historical forest references to serve as benchmarks is very limited. The aim of this article is to propose a definition and a suitable framework for the sustainable management of Mediterranean planted coniferous forests (MPCF) in Israel. We consider the unique historical and ecological characteristics of the MPCF and discuss their implications for SFM. We propose a list of indicators specifically designed to suit the MPCF and a framework for evaluating sustainability according to forest objectives. We discuss the possibility of adopting a more extensive management scheme based on natural processes of regeneration and succession. Our approach, which is based on the definition of forest objectives, on one hand, and the understanding of the local ecological and socioeconomical conditions, on the other hand, may be appropriate for SFM in other constructed forests throughout the world.
The multi-dimensional approach to poverty, with specific reference to the Capability Approach, is a useful development framework that can be used to consider development achievements in the water sector. Drawing on notions of social justice and human capabilities, the case study develops the argument that the enhanced capabilities of self-respect, empowerment and agency are critical attributes that enable individuals to gain control over their social and physical environments. The discussion in the study considers the practical application of IWRM at a village level, Mpumalanga Province (South Africa), within a broader development framework where enhanced capabilities contribute not only to improved human development but also to improved management of the ecosystem.
Even though water policy has generally been considered to be an important issue, its rational formulation and implementation have basically received lip service in the past. Water policies in the 21st century must consider the important changes that have occurred during the past decade, and also the changes that are likely to occur in the coming years. All water policies have risks and uncertainties associated with them. The main changes and constraints are analysed. Water policies cannot be static: they should be considered to be a journey and not a destination. Future policies must address rapidly diversifying social interests and agendas that are likely to be awash in chaos, conicting views, rapid technological changes, globalization, relentless economic competition, politi-cal uncertainties and steadily increasing human aspirations. Theoretical and conceptual approaches, irrespective of their attractiveness, are not enough, unless they can be operationalized. This will not be an easy task, but one that must be undertaken.
Costs for seawater desalination have dropped significantly over the past decade due to technological ad-vances. This has increased the attractiveness of desalination to policy-makers as a means to address water supply shortages. Israel, a country that faces chronic water scarcity, is in the process of developing wide-scale desalination capacity that is projected to supply all of the nation's domestic water use within a few years. Two issues are often neglected, however, by policy-makers pursuing desalination. The first is that seawater desalination is associated with a number of external costs, consideration of which may influence the optimal scale and timing of desalination implementation. The second is that alternative measures for manag-ing water scarcity, including conservation techniques, are often more cost-efficient. This study estimates the full cost of desalination in Israel, including externalities, and then compares this to the costs of several alter-native options for addressing water scarcity, including both demand management and supply augmentation measures. We find that desalination, despite being the primary policy option pursued by Israel, is among the least cost-efficient of all the alternatives considered, even without taking into account the externalities in-volved.
When peace negotiations do one day resume between Israelis and Arabs, shared water resources will again take centre stage, acting both as an irritant between the parties, and as a tremendous inducement to reach agreement. The 'hidden' hydropo-litical issues that will need to be resolved between Israel, Lebanon and Syria in the course of eventual boundary talks are considered. Two of these issues, the village of Ghajar and its relation to the Wazani Springs, and the possibility of groundwater flow from the Litani to the Jordan headwaters, change the fundamental understanding of the relation-ship between hydrologic and political claims, and could threaten the entire approach to water negotiations both between Israel and Syria and between Israel and Lebanon. Fortunately, other agreements within the basin can inform the path solutions here might take. The most critical step towards conflict resolution is separating the concepts of territorial sovereignty from water security. This can be done most effectively by offering joint management, monitoring and enforcement strategies, as well as encouraging greater transparency in water data across boundaries.
Water has become an issue of national security for most countries of the world, Singapore being one of them because of its dependence on imports of water from Malaysia. In order to reduce its dependence on external sources, this city– state has developed and implemented extremely efficient demand and supply management practices. In addition to imports of water and land reclamation, this strategy is a combination of rainfall storage, desalination and very sophisticated technology for recycling used water. As the paper analyses, Singapore has successfully managed to find the right balances between water quantity and water quality considerations; water supply and water demand management; public sector and private sector participation; efficiency and equity considerations; strategic national interest and economic efficiency; and strengthening internal capacities and reliance on external sources.
The Middle East is among the least stable and most fragile regions. It is not surprising, therefore, that concerns have been raised regarding the potential implications of climate change. This article critically examines the potential interactions between climate change and conflict in the Israeli–Palestinian case. Based on a review of the possible effects of climate change, water is identified as the main issue which may be affected, and it also has transboundary implications. We illustrate the potential implications of reduced freshwater availability by assessing the ability to supply normative domestic water needs under rapid population growth scenarios, including return of refugees. In addition, the ability to supply environmental needs and the needs of peripheral farmers under extremely reduced availability scenarios is examined. The normative domestic demand in Israel and the West Bank can be supplied on the basis of natural resources, though re-allocation of water from Israel to the Palestinians is necessary. The Gaza Strip cannot supply the normative domestic needs under any scenario and hence requires immediate augmentation, regardless of climate change. Desalination can supply Gaza’s needs and augment water resources in Israel and the West Bank, thereby partially decoupling domestic and agricultural use from climate. Thus, it is unlikely that climate change will directly affect the conflict. However, framing water as a security issue, along with the potential for furthering such securitization with reference to climate change, may adversely affect the readiness of the parties to take adaptive measures and lead them to rigidify their negotiating positions. Possible effects of climate change on other regional players, particularly Egypt and Jordan, may have indirect effects on the Israeli–Palestinian scene. But this hypothesis requires further study.
Through an examination of global climate change models combined with hydrological data on deteriorating water quality in the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA), we elucidate the ways in which the MENA countries are vulnerable to climate-induced impacts
on water resources. Adaptive governance strategies, however, remain a low priority for political leaderships in the MENA region.
To date, most MENA governments have concentrated the bulk of their resources on large-scale supply side projects such as desalination,
dam construction, inter-basin water transfers, tapping fossil groundwater aquifers, and importing virtual water. Because managing
water demand, improving the efficiency of water use, and promoting conservation will be key ingredients in responding to climate-induced
impacts on the water sector, we analyze the political, economic, and institutional drivers that have shaped governance responses.
While the scholarly literature emphasizes the importance of social capital to adaptive governance, we find that many political
leaders and water experts in the MENA rarely engage societal actors in considering water risks. We conclude that the key capacities
for adaptive governance to water scarcity in MENA are underdeveloped.
The likely effects of climate change on the water resources of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region are investigated using a high-resolution regional climate model (PRECIS) by comparing precipitation simulations of 2040–2069 and 2070–2099 with 1961–1990. The simulations show about a 10% decline in precipitation across the region by both the middle and the end of the century, with considerable variation between countries and international river basins. Results suggest that per capita water resources will not change particularly significantly in southeastern Europe, where they are relatively plentiful and population growth is minimal. However, in much of the Middle East, climate change coupled with population growth is likely to reduce per capita water resources considerably. This will inevitably result in major social, economic, and environmental change in the region. Countries where the required adaptation is likely to be particularly challenging include Turkey and Syria because of the large agricultural workforces, Iraq because of the magnitude of the change and its downstream location, and Jordan because of its meager per capita water resources coupled with limited options for desalination. If the internal water footprint of the region declines in line with precipitation but the total water footprint of the region increases in line with population, then by midcentury, as much as half the total water needs of the region may need to be provided through desalination and imported in the form of virtual water.
In recent years, numerous large-scale seawater desalination plants have been built in water-stressed countries to augment available water resources, and construction of new desalination plants is expected to increase in the near future. Despite major advancements in desalination technologies, seawater desalination is still more energy intensive compared to conventional technologies for the treatment of fresh water. There are also concerns about the potential environmental impacts of large-scale seawater desalination plants. Here, we review the possible reductions in energy demand by state-of-the-art seawater desalination technologies, the potential role of advanced materials and innovative technologies in improving performance, and the sustainability of desalination as a technological solution to global water shortages.
"Many international efforts have been made to encourage integrated water resources management through recommendations from both the academic and the aid and development sectors. Recently, it has been argued that integrated water resources management can help foster better adaptation of management and policy responses to emerging water crises. Nevertheless, few empirical studies have assessed how this type of management works in practice and what an integrated water management system implies for institutional adaptation and change. Our assessment of the Israeli water sector provides one view of how they can be shaped by an integrated structure in the water sector. Our analysis of recent efforts to adapt Israel’s water management system to new conditions and uncertainties reveals that the interconnectedness of the system and the consensus decision-making process, led by a dominant actor who coordinates and sets the policy agenda, tends to increase the complexity of negotiations. In addition, the physical integration of water management leads to sunk costs of large-scale physical infrastructure. Both these factors create a path dependency that empowers players who receive benefits from maintaining the existing system. This impedes institutional reform of the water management system and suggests that integrated water resources management creates policy and management continuity that may only be amenable to incremental changes. In contrast, real adaptation that requires reversibility and the ability to change management strategies in response to new information or monitoring of specific management outcomes."
The role of water has featured prominently in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process, and in Arab-Israeli disputes in general. The allocation or reallocation of water rights is a particularly thorny problem. Recent work (Fisher, 1995) seeks to sidestep the issue of rights allocation by appealing to the Coase theorem, which provides conditions under which the efficient use of a good does not depend on the allocation of property rights. It instead emphasizes the small use value of the water in dispute, and concludes that a trade of “water for peace” should be eminently possible. Here, we provide a critique of this conclusion, based on two central ideas. First, the conditions of the Coase theorem are not satisfied, even approximately, and therefore the valuation of the use of water cannot be analytically separated from the allocation of property rights. Second, the existence of subnational interests, and the need to have an agreement acceptable to important actors at this level, creates a further difficulty for negotiating a resolution of any dispute. Even if a trade at the national level can be agreed upon, domestic losers must be compensated enough to make it politically feasible for the national government.
Climate change, water supply limits, and continued population growth have intensified the search for measures to conserve water in irrigated agriculture, the world's largest water user. Policy measures that encourage adoption of water-conserving irrigation technologies are widely believed to make more water available for cities and the environment. However, little integrated analysis has been conducted to test this hypothesis. This article presents results of an integrated basin-scale analysis linking biophysical, hydrologic, agronomic, economic, policy, and institutional dimensions of the Upper Rio Grande Basin of North America. It analyzes a series of water conservation policies for their effect on water used in irrigation and on water conserved. In contrast to widely-held beliefs, our results show that water conservation subsidies are unlikely to reduce water use under conditions that occur in many river basins. Adoption of more efficient irrigation technologies reduces valuable return flows and limits aquifer recharge. Policies aimed at reducing water applications can actually increase water depletions. Achieving real water savings requires designing institutional, technical, and accounting measures that accurately track and economically reward reduced water depletions. Conservation programs that target reduced water diversions or applications provide no guarantee of saving water.
• agriculture
• sustainability
• institutions
• hydrology
The question of what explains policy changes has been of much scholarly and practical interest. Of no less interest is the question of what explains long periods of policy stalemate, especially in situations where the risks generated by prolonged inaction due to policy impasses are obvious. This chapter attempts to explain the stalemate in Israel’s water policy during the two decades between 1980 and 2000, a stalemate that persisted despite consensus on the gravity of the status quo, the inadequacy of existing policies and the risks of the continuing impasse. The chapter also tries to identify the factors that account for policy changes in the 2000s. We analyze both policy impasse and policy change using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) theoretical frameworks developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (Policy change and learning: an advocacy coalition approach. Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).
The international community has limited support for Third World countries that apply politically unacceptable measures to their water crises. For political reasons, the community also selectively dismisses international instruments governing military actions, the United Nations Charter and the International Law on Water, worsening the crises. The Middle East conflict offers testimony where instruments have been continuously violated, allowing expropriation of the water of weaker nations and groups. Israel, with a population twice that of the Palestinian territories, uses 95% of the fresh water utilized in Historic Palestine, leaving 5% for the Palestinians. Though alarmed with Aral Sea conditions, the community ignores the polluted lower Jordan River, the declining Dead Sea and the destruction of the Palestine aquifers. Middle East agreements will set precedents for addressing international water crises. The community must reverse its past silence and provide equitable, effective reallocation of the Middle East's resources. It cannot afford to leave a destabilizing legacy.
The need to adapt irrigation patterns to water shortages in the world’s dry regions continues to inspire economically attractive measures to sustain food security and improve farm incomes. Ongoing evidence of climate variability and growing populations amplify the importance of this search. Motivated by recent severe drought in the southwestern United States, this study analyzes vulnerability, impacts, and adaptability by irrigation technology in a sub-basin of North America’s Rio Grande. The study accounts for economic incentives affecting choices on irrigation technology, crop mix, and water source in the face of water conservation subsidies under various levels of surface water shortage. Findings show that when surface water supplies are reduced, farmers shift to aquifer pumping even when pumping raises the cost of production or reduces yield. An important on-farm drought adaptation mechanism comes by converting from surface irrigation to water conserving irrigation technologies when faced with lower financial costs for conversion. Public subsidies to convert from flood to drip irrigation offset many of the negative impacts of drought on farm income. These subsidies also raise the value of food production, reduce the amount of water applied to crops, but can increase crop water depletions. Our approach for analyzing drought adaptation impacts and adjustment mechanisms can be applied where water shortages loom, food security is important, and water conservation policies are under debate. Results provide insights for the design of adaptation mechanisms for the world’s dry regions for which policymakers need to reduce economic damages from future climate variability and change.
Water claims in many of the world’s arid basins exceed reliable supplies. Water demands for irrigation, urban use, the environment, and energy continue to grow, while supplies remain constrained by unsustainable use, drought and impacts of climate change. For example, policymakers in North America’s Upper Rio Grande Basin face the challenge of designing plans for allocating the basin’s water supplies efficiently and fairly to support current uses and current environments. Managers also seek resilient institutions that can ensure adequate supplies for future generations. This paper addresses those challenges by designing and applying an integrated basin-scale framework that accounts for the basin’s most important hydrologic, economic, and institutional constraints. Its unique contribution is a quantitative analysis of three policies for addressing long term goals for the basin’s reservoirs and aquifers: (1) no sustainability for water stocks, (2) sustaining water stocks, and (3) renewing water stocks. It identifies water use and allocation trajectories over time that result from each of these three plans. Findings show that it is hydrologically and institutionally feasible to manage the basin’s water supplies sustainably. The economic cost of protecting the sustainability of the basin’s water stocks can be achieved at 6–11 percent of the basin’s average annual total economic value of water over a 20 year time horizon.
Water management in the Levant often focuses on a ‘hydraulic imperative’. This was recently illustrated by the peace discussions between Israel and Syria, with their emphasis on the Golan's water. Such a focus limits policy makers to a purely hydrological perspective, and leads to a focus on securing water access and controlling ‘hydrostrategic territories’. This excludes or underestimates other salient issues, and disregards potentially useful managerial-technical solutions. For any peace settlement to be sustainable, a more comprehensive approach is needed, unbound by the single-issue ‘hydraulic imperative’ to better take into account the multifaceted aspects of the water.
Caution is called for in endorsing the direct transfer of technology and experience in water management from one situation to another in the expectation that the outcome will be more effective water use. This can best be illustrated by reference to the potential for transfer of developed-world standards and practices to the developing world. Questions arise as to the extent to which such transfers are possible, given contrasting political structures and priorities and different living standards, cultural traits, systems of land tenure, technological and literacy levels and financial and infrastructure constraints. Pursuing over-optimistic expectations that North-South replication and exchange of experience and technology offer a ready solution to the water problems of developing countries is likely to lead to frustration in seeking unrealistic and unachievable outcomes. The preferred approach is to build bridges between water managers and water-using sectors in emerging nations of the developing world, and to encourage a benchmarking process involving the South-South transfer of successful experience and better practice in water management.
This paper focuses on defining the concept and process of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), and in particular what is being 'integrated'. In the 'natural system' integration traditionally involves land and water; surface water and groundwater; water quantity and quality; and upstream and downstream water-related interests, including the upstream freshwater catchments and the downstream coastal zone. However, equally important, but less traditional, is the integration in the 'human system' involving a holistic institutional approach; mainstreaming water in the national economy; cross-sectoral integration in national policy development; linkages to national security and trade regimes; and involvement of all stakeholders across different management levels.
Although ephemeral streams constitute critical natural resources in dryland environments, water regulations and monitoring protocols typically focus on perennial streams, and may not always be appropriate for characterizing intermittent systems. The article presents findings from a comprehensive evaluation of environmental conditions in two ephemeral transboundary streams: the Hebron/Besor and Zomar/Alexander. The streams are representative of numerous watersheds which originate in Palestinian land and flow into Israel. Transboundary streams in the region exhibit high concentrations of point and non-point sources of pollution. Many of the region's streams that in the past had no flow except for isolated storm incidents have emerged as perennial streams, channelling raw or partially treated industrial or municipal wastes. Management of these natural resources constitutes a unique challenge because of the complex local political circumstances. The article presents chemical and biological monitoring results, identifying high levels of non-point source nutrient runoff during rainfall events and high percolation of contaminated stream water during its flow that should be addressed in future restoration strategies. The practical challenges associated with the monitoring of ephemeral streams are also discussed with suggestions for future studies and management efforts.
This paper deals with a cost effective analysis of two options to increase the water supply in Israel. The first policy is to divert 300 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) of water from the Sea of Galilee (SOG) to the central part of Israel. This policy is the existing one. The second policy is to replace this diversion with desalinated water plants that will be built on the Mediterranean Coast (MC). These two options carry both market and non-market consequences. The first policy has a negative effect on the SOG itself due to the lower lake level. It also carries some negative consequences on the Jordan River (JR) and the Dead Sea (DS) which are located downstream. The second policy involves water production at a higher cost and has negative external effects of scarce coastal land usage and high energy consumption. A Payment Card (PC) Contingent Valuation (CV) survey was performed at the four sites (the SOG, the DS, the JR and the MS). We show that when one takes these non-use values into account, the preferred solution will shift from the usage of the SOG to the desalination policy.
The perceived shortage of water within Israel and the Palestinian authority raises the need to explore the ways and means to ameliorate existing and expected water scarcity. This study stresses the need for demand management and market allocation that will shift water from agriculture to other uses. Since the real price of water in this region is too high, water should not serve as input for many of the crops that are currently grown by the local population. The hidden and visible subsidies that are currently supporting the prices of water would be better used to create substituting employment to shift more farmers away from agricultural occupations. Such policy will ease the shortage of water that is created by policies and behavior that were aimed indirectly, to increase the use of water.
Transboundary environmental degradation often poses serious health and security threats to regional residents. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict further aggravates an environment already characterized by water scarcity, environmental distress and polluted waterways. Yet, common ground appears to emerge from a recent contingent valuation study in which both Israelis and Palestinians reveal common water use and riparian restoration preferences, as well as comparable willingness to pay for proposed restoration efforts. These surprising results – especially that despite vast economic hindrances, Palestinians have revealed similar willingness to contribute financially to stream restoration – indicate the seriousness of regional health issues and demonstrate a foundation for future cooperative restoration efforts. A simple cost–benefit analysis is conducted, which sheds light on future policy formation, especially with regard to water treatment and allocation decisions for both societies.
This paper deals with water as a human right. It examines several international agreements which refer to water as a human right to review whether these agreements are legally binding to states that signed them and/or became members to them, and whether water is considered in these instruments as a ‘human right’. These documents pertain to both branches of international law, in time of peace and in time of war. The paper then examines the ‘status of water’ in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel since 1967 in order to evaluate Israel's attitude towards water in these territories and whether it respected the right of the Palestinian population to their water rights.
The powerful forces of market-based globalization have been the central concern in the consideration of the development policies of individual developing countries for several years and will increase their salience in the coming period. Water policy should not be an exception. Market-based globalization having diametrically opposite forces, namely integration into the world economy and marginalization from it, the developing world has been divided into three categories, each requiring a different set of policy responses, including water policies. They are: (1) those countries that are being integrated into the world economy; (2) those that are marginalized from it; and (3) those where both forces (integration and marginalization) are at work simultaneously. Relevant policies, such as full cost pricing, environmental considerations, water productivity in agriculture, conflict in water allocation and others, need to be elaborated along the lines of these three categories of countries.
This paper analyses a number of possible standards for wastewater treatment in Israel from a cost–benefit perspective. Specifically, the paper examines the possibility to introduce stricter standards with respect to both sanitary quality and salinity levels, under the assumption that the treated wastewater is then reused in agriculture. The costs associated with each standard are compared with its expected benefits, and the economically efficient standard is identified. As wastewater reuse in agriculture is an attractive option for countries suffering from water scarcity, it is important to develop guidelines for optimal public policy in the field, and herein lies the main contribution of the paper.
The Mediterranean ecosystem of the Carmel Mountain ridge in Israel is subjected to an increasing number of forest fires of various extents and severities due to intense human activities in the region. On 8 April 2005, a low-moderate severity forest fire occurred at the northwestern part of the ridge and burned more than 150 ha of natural vegetation. Soil water repellency (WR) is a property usually modified by the litter and soil organic matter combustion as a consequence of fire, which has implications for the hydrological balance in the affected soils. A field study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) to investigate in situ WR changes at three soil depths as a consequence of the fire, 2) to evaluate the short-term evolution of WR under field conditions, and 3) to study the relationship between pre-fire vegetation type and slope aspect on the persistence of WR in the burned area. Soil WR was measured by the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) test. Measurements were conducted monthly at 31 field sites within the burned area over a period of seven months (April 2005–November 2005), and compared to adjacent unburned areas. Soil WR measurements included more than 3400 WDPT tests at soil surface and at 5 and 10 cm depths. The results indicate that fire induced WR in previously wettable soils exhibited high levels of persistence at the soil surface during the first six weeks after the fire, while at 5 cm depth WR persistence was lower. At 10 cm depth soil was mostly wettable. After six weeks the frequency of WR occurrence diminished at the soil surface and at 5 cm depth. In addition, WR was found to be highly related with the pre-fire vegetation type and with slope aspect.
The water management policies adopted to address Israel's chronic scarcity have not been without environmental consequences. Yet, through a trial-and-error process, a combined strategy of water transport, rainwater harvesting, and wastewater reuse and desalination, along with a variety of water conservation measures, have put the country on a more sustainable path for the future.
It is the nature of nature in the Middle East that, like everything else, all things are political. Even water is laden with politics as raindrops fall either on Jewish or Arab soil. Long before the Israelis described in “Seeking sustainability: Israel's evolving water management strategy” (A.
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