Publications

Eran Feitelson and Marwan Haddad, editors
Management of Shared Groundwater Resources: The Israeli-Palestinian Case with an International Perspective
(Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), 512 pages, US$159.95 (cloth)

Yehezkel Lein
Thirsty for a Solution: The Water Crisis in the Occupied Territories and its Resolution in the Final-Status Agreement
(Jerusalem: B’’Tselem-The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 2000), 109 pages, available free online at

This volume is the result of an extensive study conducted by Palestinian, Israeli, and international experts on the Mountain Aquifer, the most important water resource shared by Israelis and Palestinians. The book aims to identify and analyze options for the management of shared aquifers in general, and to examine alternatives for the Palestinian-Israeli Mountain Aquifer in particular. In the process, it describes the hydrological characteristics of the Mountain Aquifer, the current and potential future arrangements for its use, and contributes to the evolving field of shared groundwater management.

Experts have only recently focused on the problem of managing trans-boundary groundwater. The chapters in Management of Shared Groundwater Resources, written by professionals from a variety of fields, address this issue from the perspectives of international and Islamic law, scientific monitoring and modeling, economic and political institutions, and comparative case studies.

The same problem-how to allocate water from the Mountain Aquifer among Israelis and Palestinians-is considered primarily from a human rights perspective in Thirsty for a Solution, a position paper by B’’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

The first chapter of Management of Shared Groundwater Resources presents an overview of the environmental and logistical problems of maintaining an aquifer. The amount of water extracted, over-extraction, and the preservation of the quality and quantity of the extracted water are serious issues. Research must also address such topics as how the aquifer interacts with other hydrological systems and land use patterns, what happens to the aquifer (and demand for water) during periods of drought, and how to preserve water quality and prevent salinization.

The authors (Haddad, Feitelson, and Shaul Arlosoroff) then outline some important principles of sustainable aquifer management: continuous modeling and monitoring, controlling extraction, managing artificial recharge, preventing pollution, and managing demand. These can only be practiced by institutions that are accountable to the general public and empowered to employ a variety of measures for groundwater protection.

Inter-state aquifers introduce additional complications, as two or more parties must make decisions about how to allocate water resources and regulate the quantity and quality of water in the aquifer. There are four basic possibilities for managing shared aquifers: parties can each manage their sections of the aquifer separately, choose to coordinate some aspects of management but not others, set up institutions to manage the aquifer jointly, or delegate responsibility for making decisions to some outside body.

In the Israeli-Palestinian case, both populations are heavily dependent on the Mountain Aquifer. Israel relies on it for almost a third of its water, and it is the principal water source for Palestinians in the West Bank. The important hydrogeological features of the Mountain Aquifer are presented by Haddad, Arlosoroff, and Yoav Harpaz in Chapter 3 of Management of Shared Groundwater Resources, and in Chapter 2 of Thirsty for a Solution.

The Mountain Aquifer is comprised of three sub-aquifers or basins: the northern basin (fully utilized), located almost entirely in the West Bank; the eastern basin (potential for increased extraction), primarily in the West Bank but extending south into Israel; and the western basin (fully utilized), with its recharge area mainly in the West Bank and its storage area in Israel.

Water is allocated from the Mountain Aquifer to Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank at 440-550 million cubic meters (mcm) per year, compared to 120 mcm per year for Palestinians. Thus, resulting in severe water shortages for Palestinians who have extremely limited access to other shared water resources (the Jordan Basin System and the Coastal Aquifer).

According to Thirsty for a Solution, average per capita Palestinian water consumption is 70 liters per day, well below the amount recommended by USAID and WHO as the minimum necessary to meet basic urban needs (100 liters a day per person). This is in contradiction to the international law of the basic right to water as discussed in the first chapter of the B’’Tselem report. The report argues that because the current distribution of water from the Mountain Aquifer and other shared sources does not provide for minimal Palestinian needs, Israel is violating international law, and that any final status agreement on water issues should include Israeli compensation to Palestinians for human rights violations.

Based on the principle of equitable and reasonable use, Thirsty for a Solution proposes that the shared Palestinian-Israeli water resources be allocated according to the size of each population in an attempt at meeting everyone’’s basic needs. In Chapter 9 of Management of Shared Groundwater Resources, Aaron T. Wolf examines 49 international treaties that deal with water allocation and finds that the successful negotiations and treaties adopt need-based formulas, rather than a "rights-based" approach where states insist on maintaining complete control over all shared water sources lying within their boundaries.

Similarly, in the concluding chapter of Management of Shared Groundwater Resources, Haddad, Feitelson, Arlosoroff and Taher Nasseredin argue that only genuine joint management of the Mountain Aquifer can meet the needs of both peoples while preserving the aquifer for future generations. They concur with the B’’Tselem report that the situation of de-facto Israeli control perpetuated by the Interim Agreement (Oslo 2) is not the basis for a viable long-term settlement between the two parties. Thus, Israelis and Palestinians must ultimately negotiate and cooperate in managing their water, as in so much else.

Management of Shared Groundwater Resources provides critical analysis for the Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations over water, and will also be of interest to those focusing on water management or sustainable development in other areas of the Middle East. Thirsty for a Solution offers a detailed description of the Palestinian water crisis, its causes and ramifications, as well as suggestions for resolving the water conflict based on international law and incorporating a human rights perspective into any eventual Israeli-Palestinian water settlement. (Deborah Hyams)

Bulletin of Regional Cooperation in the Middle East Winter 2001-2002
Copyright 2004 Search for Common Ground