Publications

David B. Brooks and Ozay Mehmet, editors
Water Balances in the Eastern Mediterranean
(Ottawa: International Development Research Center, 2000), 160 pages, Cdn$25 (paper)

As a group, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan enjoy just one-sixth as much fresh water per capita as the global average. In light of these severe limitations, a group of water experts convened for a workshop at Carleton University in late 1998 to examine questions about security and regional cooperation that the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean face as a result of such water scarcity. This volume, edited by David B. Brooks, Research Manager for Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Ozay Mehmet of Carleton University, is a compiliation of the papers and discussions presented there.

With its vast implications for development, agriculture, and basic social needs, water has become a major security issue in a region already rife with tension. Moreover, water is distributed unevenly among the countries of the Middle East, and the same reserves are often drawn upon by multiple states. By 2025, the book predicts, a combination of inadequate reclamation efforts, climatic change, and population growth could push the shortage to crisis proportions.

The contributors suggest the establishment of a water market to address these problems. With a rational pricing scheme to regulate demand, water can be allocated to its most efficient uses, ending such abuses as flood-irrigation.

The supply side is the most difficult part. Desalination and recycling increase the overall water supply, but these approaches are not universally available and do nothing to change the zero-sum game that countries play with water resources. Jordan cannot access the sea, for example, and its water supply from the Jordan River remains at the mercy of upriver states.

Under a regional water market system, relatively water-rich countries like Turkey would export supplies to their more arid neighbors. Transport costs (either pipelines or tankers) are not prohibitive if the exporter adopts a reasonable pricing schedule for its supplies. Thus, water would be allocated efficiently across the entire region, reducing the risk of water rights becoming embedded in political sources of conflict. More importantly, the institutions and relationships that would grow up to manage the regional distribution system could "help advance the peace process by clarifying areas of common interest," rather than raise obstacles to peace.

The book is not as sanguine on the water conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, any solution to which is contingent on a broader political agreement that looks far from imminent.

By outlining an answer to the Eastern Mediterranean’s water shortage based on market structures, the book offers some creative - if limited - avenues for achieving broad cooperation in the region. The authors admit, however, that any progress made on water will not, by itself, prove decisive in achieving peace. (Matt Odette)

Bulletin of Regional Cooperation in the Middle East Summer 2001 Copyright 2004 Search for Common Groun