The following post is by David B. Brooks, an Associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Mr. Brooks can be contacted at david.b.brooks34 [at] gmail.com.
Many people have said that the last thing on which Israelis and Palestinians will be able to agree is fresh water. They are very likely wrong. Over the past year, the two governments have been discussing a draft water agreement that was designed by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian environmental NGO that focuses on border issues.
Failings of the Oslo Process
Since the start of the Oslo process in 1993, all attempts at the peace process have been predicated on the belief that that a peace agreement must provide a simultaneous solution to all issues (i.e., “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”). This approach has failed.
Based on the development of a draft water agreement for FoEME by two Canadians, David B. Brooks and Julie Trottier, as well as informal discussions with the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies and the Palestinian Water Authority, the best chance for reviving the floundering peace process is to start by tackling “easier” issues, particularly fresh water.
Given the Palestinian need for more water, Israel’s new water supply from large-scale desalination, and a mutual need to deal with untreated sewage, bringing water from last to first in the peace process makes economic, ecological, and, most importantly, political sense. For Palestinians, it would provide fresh water in every home; for Israelis, it would remove pollutants from rivers that flow through its main cities. The goal in sight is a Final Accord on Water, not just another interim step.
Breaking Away from the Oslo Model for Water
In addition to the broad tradeoff – more water for Palestinians; better water for Israelis -– the FoEME Proposal is put forward on the basis of two political questions: First, why wait for conclusion of a final status agreement? If, instead of fixed allocations, as with the Oslo agreements, one thinks of ongoing joint management, agreement can be reached right now. Second, why not shift from a static to a dynamic form of agreement? The Oslo agreement is dependent on a particular set of borders; the FoEME Proposal is adaptable to any set of borders. The Oslo-designed Joint Water Committee can only deal with what is deemed Palestinian water; the FoEME Proposal includes joint management of all shared water, which is to say any water that flows along, across, or under the border. The Oslo approach looks at water as primarily a supply issue; the FoEME Proposal gives as much attention to reducing demand as to increasing supply. Finally, but perhaps most important, the Oslo agreements propose fixed quantitative allocations of water to Israelis and to Palestinians; the FoEME Proposal incorporates an ongoing review process that adjusts water allocations over time, and ensures that total withdrawals stay within sustainable limits.
One cannot share water as if it were a pie. Transboundary agreements can divide land this way, but not water. Water may start as rainfall, but it is then typically used over and over again, sometimes by a group of Palestinian farmers cooperating in a decentralized way, sometimes by the highly centralized Israeli water network, before it finally evaporates or flows into the sea. With each stage of use, water quality is altered, generally for the worse. The Oslo approach treats water as if it were both immobile and constant in quality. The FoEME Proposal recognizes that water is mobile in space and variable in quality.
The Structure of the FoEME Proposal
The FoEME Proposal suggests creation of two key bodies:
- Bilateral Water Commission replaces today’s Joint Water Committee with responsibility for all shared water (non-shared water sources would remain managed nationally). The BWC makes key decisions on rates of extraction and of delivery of shared water, and the removal and treatment of waste water. Its decisions are based on advice from an Office of Science Advisors (OSA) made up of professional staff appointed or seconded by the two governments. Because it is potentially so powerful, the BWC is not allowed to make decisions independently; rather, it can only accept or reject recommendations from the OSA, but not alter them. This format avoids giving either side the ability to leverage water issues in endless horse-trading on other, wider issues.
- Water Mediation Board comes into play whenever the BWC finds itself unable to accept a decision of the science advisors, or if a group or community opposes its decision. The WMB would have a wide range of tools available to guide a process of seeking resolution ranging from scientific investigations to public forums. All of these tools must be used in as transparent a way as possible, so as to give credence to its recommendations.
Both the BWC and WMB should be composed of an equal number of Israeli and Palestinian representatives plus possibly one person from outside the region. If voting is necessary, the rules are designed to prevent either side from dominating the other. For example, if the BWC has seven members, any majority decision would have to have to have the support of least one Israeli and one Palestinian.
An Israeli-Palestinian water agreement is possible – Right now! Though not designed for any purpose other than managing shared water, it could become the first step in creating the final status agreement that has eluded negotiators for so many years.
The full 180,000 word version of An Agreement to Share Water between Israelis and Palestinians: The FoEME Proposal (with Arabic and Hebrew translations of key chapters) by David B. Brooks and Julie Trottier is available here. An abridged version, entitled Changing the Nature of Transboundary Water Agreements: The Israeli-Palestinian Case by Brooks, Trottier and Laura Doliner, is available here.
This is very good news. Such framework based on the ressource and on an objective diagnosis built in a transparent way is indeed solid foundations for establishing a shared vision of water.
I understand that the attempt to assess water demand, supply and ressources is embodied into the Office of Science Advisors. Therefore, great care should be given to the choice of its members and to its technical tools as well as field observation so as to ensure that political considerations will be left aside from the advice.