Management and conflict aspects of waters between Palestine and Israel

Palestine utilizes four groundwater basins, three of which are transboundary or shared waters. Palestine is a riparian country in the Jordan River but it is denied its water rights. Palestine and Israel signed an interim water agreement in 1995 (called Oslo II accord) and a final agreement is yet to be negotiated and signed. There is still a serious conflict between Palestine and Israel over water resources whether they are either endogenous or shared. This conflict is about water rights and management of these water resources. This conflict has to be settled and solved in the final status negotiations between the two parties. The final status negotiations are yet to start seriously. This paper addresses the core issues of differences and concentrates on the management of water resources and identifies the Palestinian water rights for the final status negotiations. The difficulties and shortcomings of Oslo II accord are that the interim agreement never addressed all water resources and it was in favor of Israel. Israel controls now 100% of the Palestinian water rights in the Jordan River and 86% of the Palestinian groundwater resources (shared and endogenous) resulting in an unequal per capita water consumption ration of 4:1 in favor to Israel. Also, Israel's mismanagement of the transboundary waters lacks the holistic and integrated approach and is based on putting huge pressure on the aquifers (abstraction scenario for Israeli use) in drought periods which only increase the suffering of Palestinians in terms of meeting their water needs. The paper analyses both the Palestinian and the Israeli positions about the conflict over water in the final status negotiations. This paper shows that there is a need to a final agreement between the two parties in which the International Law will be used to solve the conflict over water. This paper concludes that the Palestinians should recover their absolute sovereignty over their endogenous water resources and recover their fair share in shared water resources

Globalization and water resources management : the changing value of water

The Jordan River system, which is shared by Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Palestine, is a major issue in the current Middle East peace negotiations. Although we believe that the International Water Law is the most suitable basis to solve the disputes between Arab countries and Israel, it is worthwhile developing multi weighting approximation criteria for determining the water rights for the above riparian countries. The paper provides an overview of current resolution principles and procedures and presents the conflict resolution process in theory. The aim of this paper is to develop multi-criteria decision tool to the problem of allocating the waters of the Jordan River Basin between all riparian parties. The prime principle of the criteria is equitable and reasonable allocation factors identified by the International Law Commission in its draft articles on the non navigational uses of water. A general mathematical model was derived that found the optimal allocation outcome based on the weight of each factor. The approach presented here should be seen as a trial to deal with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over water rights in such complex trans-boundary water resources system. It is hoped that, water negotiators review this approach

Hzard and risk assessment of pollution on the groundwater resources and residents’ health of Salfit District, Palestine

Study region: The study area is the Salfit District which is located in the northern part of the West Bank of Palestine. This district is located on the outcrops and recharge areas of the karstified dolomitic limestone aquifers of the study area. Study focus: As these aquifers are the main sources of drinking water for the residents of the district, this paper aims at evaluating groundwater pollution and assessing the vulnerability, hazards and risks of pollution on groundwater resources and on the residents’ health. New hydrological insights for the region: There are many pollutants in the Salfit's aquifer recharge area and thus percolating and polluting the groundwater aquifers. Using a Durov diagram, the sources of water proved to be polluted and, therefore, the health of the residents of Salfit District is directly threatened. A hazard map was developed to classify all polluting activities in the district. Microbiological analysis of the drinking water revealed higher levels of total and fecal Coliforms. The high incidence rate of water related diseases is an indication of the drinking water pollution. This paper contains research findings and policy recommendations to help Salfit District alleviate health and pollution problems associated with this vital resource of groundwater. In addition, Salfit governorate is encouraged to begin addressing the institutional issues and improving public awareness