A Case Study of a Multi-Lateral Water Negotiation: The Jordan River System
Publisher: Conflict Resolution Volume II
Author(s): Radwan A. Al-Weshah
Date: 2009
Topics: Cooperation, Renewable Resources
Countries: Israel, Jordan, Palestine
During the entire process of negotiation for peace in the Middle East, water issues have been at the top of the negotiation agenda. Although plans and ideas to divide water between riparian countries in the Middle East started more than seven decades ago, the actual multi-lateral working group on water resources was initiated as a result of the Middle East peace process after 1992. The aims of the Water Resources Working Group, as expressed in the Moscow Steering Group meeting held in January 1992, are to foster cooperation on water-related issues while creating confidence-building measures, and cooperative efforts to alleviate water shortages in the region. Cooperation and conflict over water resources issues stem from the fact that all the countries sharing the Jordan River system are fully utilizing all their available water resources. Also, all of them are in immediate need of water for inclusion in their post-peace socio-economic development plans.
Even with the end of the active state of hostility in the region, water conflicts can arise and hinder any further political and regional cooperation. Furthermore, water can be used as a factor to exert pressure on different parties for further concessions. After many years of meetings and negotiations since the initiation of the Middle East peace process in Madrid, the gap in the positions among regional parties is still wide. For example, while Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 that included an agreement on water allocation, Jordan has, thus far, not received all the 50 MCM (million cubic meters) of water that Israel had conceded to Jordan. Water is still a major unresolved issue in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and will be equally important in the Israeli- Syrian negotiations, whenever they resume.
The focus of this article is to present a case study of the multilateral water negotiation in the Middle East with special focus on the Jordan River System. A brief background on the hydropolitical water problems in the Middle East is also presented.