Asymmetric Abstraction and Allocation: The Israeli‐Palestinian Water Pumping Record

Abstract

The increased attention given to international transboundary aquifers may be nowhere more pressing than on the western bank of the Jordan River. Hydropolitical analysis of six decades of Israeli and Palestinian pumping records reveals how ground water abstraction rates are as asymmetrical as are water allocations. The particular hydrogeology of the region, notably the variability in depth to ground water, variations in ground water quality, and the vulnerability of the aquifer, also affect the outcome. The records confirm previously drawn conclusions of the influence of the agricultural lobby in maintaining a supply-side water management paradigm. Comparison of water consumption rates divulges that water consumed by all sectors of the farming-based Palestinian economy is less than half of Israeli domestic consumption. The overwhelming majority of "reserve" flows from wet years are sold at subsidized rates to the Israeli agricultural sector, while very minor amounts are sold at normal rates to the Palestinian side for drinking water. An apparent coevolution of water resource variability and politics serves to explain increased Israeli pumping prior to negotiations in the early 1990s. The abstraction record from the Western Aquifer Basin discloses that the effective limit set by the terms of the 1995 Oslo II Agreement is regularly violated by the Israeli side, thereby putting the aquifer at risk. The picture that emerges is one of a transboundary water regime that is much more exploitative than cooperative and that risks spoiling the resource as it poisons international relations.

Virtual water trade and the contestation of hydrosocial territories

“…In Central and Northern Mexico, agricultural production for export to the United States deprives many smallholders of access to groundwater (Peña, 2011). Similar cases can be found in the Palestine territories (Zeitoun, Messerschmid, & Attili, 2009), India and Pakistan (Chapagain, Hoekstra, Savenije, & Gautam, 2005), and East Africa (Awange et al, 2013). Large-scale export agriculture, mining, oil extraction and industry can also cause water contamination and reduce biodiversity (Defries, Rudel, Uriarte, & Hansen, 2010;Longo & York, 2008).…”

Conflict and social vulnerability to climate change: Lessons from Gaza

“…Israeli over-pumping of the Israeli portion of the Coastal Aquifer in the 1960s and 1970s led to high rapid salinisation through seawater intrusion. The risk of serious damage to the aquifer was countered by reducing abstractions, and the flows replaced through increased abstractions from other water sources (the Lake of Tiberias or the Western Aquifer Basin, whose recharge zones are transboundary with the West Bank) as well as from artificial recharge of the Israeli portion of the aquifer (Zeitoun, et al, 2009).…”

Can Integrated Water Resources Management Contribute to Sustainable Peace in the Middle East?

“…"When it comes to the common water resources shared with Palestinians and other Arabs, Israel ... acts like a great sponge" (Elmusa 1993). Jordan River has three watercourses: Hasbani in Lebanon, Banias in Syria, and Dan in IS (Zeitoun et al, 2009; Fig. 1).…”