As elusive as it may seem, water security — a sine qua non 

 for lasting peace in the region — is within reach. 



the approximately 425 -mile stretch of wall and fencing, 

 which in many areas extends considerably east of the Green 

 Line, is necessary to protect Israeli cities and towns from 

 Palestinian suicide bombers, and that security concerns 

 alone determine the barrier's route. The Palestinians dispute 

 this, viewing the barrier instead as a land-and-water grab. 

 According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem 

 (ARIJ), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the 

 Palestinians' natural resources, the barrier could ultimately 

 isolate Palestinian villages from 134 wells and 62 springs, as 

 well as from some 260,000 acres (about 405 square miles) of 

 productive farmland. 



Of course, the Pales- 

 tinians themselves also 

 bear some responsibility 

 for their water predica- 

 ment. Years of infighting 

 between the two princi- 

 pal factions, Fatah and 

 Hamas, have distracted 

 officials from the basic 

 needs of their people, a 

 problem compounded 

 by a severe lack of fi- 

 nancial and technical 

 resources. 



The water infrastruc- 

 ture is decaying, pollu- 

 tion is rampant, and the 

 coastal aquifer is nearly 

 destroyed. The water for 

 1.4 million Gazans comes 

 from shallow groundwa- 

 ter that has long been overpumped — depleted faster than it 

 can be replenished — and is already so contaminated by salt 

 and pollutants that most of it does not meet the drinking- 

 water standards of the World Health Organization. 



As elusive as it may seem, water security for all — a sine 

 qua non for lasting peace in the region — is within 

 reach. Thanks to cooperation between scientists and 

 citizen groups, advances in water-management technology, 

 and agreements reached during peace talks in the early 

 1990s, there is a foundation on which to build lasting and 

 more equitable water-sharing arrangements. 



The Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty signed in October 

 1994, for instance, included water-sharing provisions 

 that largely resolved the tensions between the two coun- 

 tries. Relying on the 1955 Johnston Plan to formulate 

 his negotiating position, Jordan's lead water negotiator 



limited Israel's share of the Yarmuk River, critically 

 important to his country's water security. 



Nothing nearly as conclusive emerged from the Israeli- 

 Palestinian talks culminating in the 1993 and 1995 Oslo 

 Accords, though some progress was made. Because Jordan 

 had disengaged from the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 

 1988, it was up to the Palestinians, then represented by the 

 Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, to negotiate their 

 own water deal with Israel. In the Taba Agreement, or Oslo 

 II, signed by Israel and the PLO in September 1995, Israel 

 formally recognized for the first time that the Palestinians 



have legitimate rights 

 to West Bank ground- 

 water — an important 

 first step. How much 

 water each side was 

 entitled to, however, 

 was left for the "final 

 status" talks, which are 

 yet to occur. 



Coupled w 

 ther dip] 

 initiate 



Drip irrigation pipe in Netiv Ha'asara, Israel, rations out a precise 

 sip of water to a plant. Israel and Jordan depend heavily on this 

 technology for the efficient use of their limited water supply. 



with fur- 

 diplomatic 

 ives to 

 share water more eq- 

 uitably, a stronger push 

 for straightforward 

 measures to curb de- 

 mand, expand supply, 

 and use water more 

 productively could 

 generate enough water 

 to satisfy the region's 

 needs. And few countries have more technical know-how 

 in water management than Israel does. 



Haifa century ago, Israeli engineers developed highly 

 efficient drip irrigation methods, and they've been perfect- 

 ing them ever since. Drip systems deliver water directly 

 to the roots of plants at low volumes through perforated 

 tubing installed on or below the soil surface. Drip systems 

 nearly eliminate wasteful evaporation and runoff and 

 compared with more conventional irrigation, they can 

 double or triple the crop yield per unit of water. Israel 

 now applies drip and other micro-irrigation methods on 

 two-thirds of its cropland. With the help of Israeli engi- 

 neers, Jordan, too, has adopted those methods, and now 

 applies them on 55 percent of its farmlands. 



Israel has also moved aggressively to treat, recycle, 

 and reuse its urban wastewater. Seventy-three percent of 

 treated sewage from Tel Aviv and other cities gets used a 



November 2007 naturai HISTORY 



63 



