2000
Water crisis worsens in Jeddah
(Jordan Times, 29/05/2000)
A chronic water shortage in Saudi
Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah has worsened with the onset of summer
with demand more than twice supply.
Agriculture Minister Abdullah Ben
Abdul Aziz Mummar heard complaints from frustrated citizens during a tour
of the city this week, the Saudi Gazette reported Saturday.
A spokesman for the regional water
authorities told the daily that consumption increased dramatically in the
summer months as “two million visitors spend part of their summer vacation
in Jeddah.”
The water table has dropped substantially
due to prolonged drought over the western coast of the kingdom, where summer
temperatures climb to 50 degrees centigrade, the spokesman said.
Total water availability in the
Jeddah area is 430,000 cubic metres a day — mostly from desalination plants
— while demand is about 900,000 cubic metres.
German scientists believe solution
to water problems soon will lie in everyone's backyard
(Jordan Times,23/03/2000)
A country that has plenty of water
to spare on the ground is paying more attention to water that falls from
the sky.
Germany is taking a lead in the
development of technology designed to capture rainfall, and presented the
pioneering technology at this week's Second World Water Conference in the
Netherlands. Experts believe that up to 40 per cent of domestic water needs
can be met by applying the new technology.
Houses and gardens are being equipped
with special containers and piping systems to collect water for ordinary
household uses such as washing and gardening, and where the technology
is advanced enough, for drinking as well. New systems for use in agriculture
and industry are being considered, for as well as being simple and environmentally
friendly, the technology is also relatively cheap.
Both its long history of “green”
politics in the country, and financial incentives to families willing to
employ of water conservation technologies in their houses has kept German
minds open to the concept of rainwater harvesting. “Germans are very interested
in the idea of water conservation. The awareness is rising that water is
something very precious,” Klaus Koenig, a German architect and president
of the German non-governmental association for the use of industry and
rainwater, told the audience.
Independent centres or associations
providing information on water harvesting techniques, their costs and the
recommendations of trustworthy architects and plumbers, are also focal
in raising awareness.
“Nowadays, there are so many water-saving
techniques to install in houses on the market. People are grateful when
we can recommend trustworthy companies,” Koenig told the Jordan Times.
Koenig believes that the collection
of rainwater will be one of the common techniques used in the near future
since “it can save around 40 per cent of water used for domestic purposes.”
A study conducted by the Environmental
Ministry of Hessen estimates that 20 per cent of new buildings in Asia,
16 per cent in Europe, and 14 per cent in the U.S. will equip themselves
with a service-water installation by the year 2010.
Koenig said that increased interest
in water harvesting techniques consequently has attracted the interest
of industry in providing such techniques. He also said that it was still
necessary to train plumbers and architects on the special requirements
in houses of customers wishing to install such systems.
Second World Water Forum:
Participants
polarised on assessment of global event - Developing countries find little
consideration (Jordan
Times, 23/03/2000)
The Second World Water Forum ended
on Wednesday with caustic criticism from some participants, who alleged
that international institutions and corporations deliberately sidelined
underdeveloped and developing countries.
During the six-day event at The
Hague, 4,000 country leaders, water experts, representatives of private
companies and NGOs exchanged views on water problems and finalised the
meeting with a ministerial declaration containing recommendations on a
framework of action to solve global water problems.
Every human being, now and in the
future should have access to safe water for drinking, appropriate sanitation,
and enough food and energy at reasonable cost, the declaration stressed.
While some participants praised
the conference as a unique opportunity to bring together the various stakeholders
involved in the field of water issues, many others criticised that the
event was sponsored by multinational water management companies, such as
Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux, irrigation lobbies and corporations and multinational
agencies trying to promote business.
“We were exceptionally unhappy with
the control of the forum by water multinationals and the World Bank, and
we believe that the intention was to attain governments' and NGOs' acceptance
of water privatisation,” said Maude Barlow, volunteer national chairperson
for The Council of Canadians. “It was contrived from the beginning by the
World Bank and the corporations that the view of anyone who does not believe
in privatisation should not be heard. The outcome of the panels were controlled
and the statements were prepared ahead of time.”
One group of participants was disappointed
that not all regions of the world were equally represented and that developing
countries were marginalised by an under- representation of speakers to
the forum. “I feel that Latin Americans as well as people from the former
Eastern European block countries were not sufficiently represented,” said
Emilia Bocanegra, Argentine advisor to the International Association of
hydrologists, from the National University of Mar Del Plata. “Also, the
conference was in English, so it was difficult for us to participate. Most
of the speakers were from Europe, the U.S. and former colonial countries,
such as India and Africa.”
“Voices of the Third World were
not welcome, when someone from the developing world spoke, they were marginalised,
spoken down and treated badly,” agreed Barlow. “Corporation and World Bank
officials behaved as if they had all the answers to all the problems and
they dealt with others as if they were stupid people who had no idea. They
had an air of `We have to teach them.' It was disgusting.”
Representatives of developing countries
said they felt targeted by large corporations at the international conference,
where debate raged on the utility and morality of water pricing. “It is
evident that the large corporations of the world are looking to [Latin
American countries] as a rich source that yet needs to be exploited,” said
Elba Stancich of the Coalition of Living Rivers from Argentina. Latin America
holds 25 per cent of the universal freshwater resources and 85 per cent
of the world's biodiversity, Stancich said, yet it is “very astonishing
that all the Latin American problems were invisible during this forum.”
“Civil societies of Latin America were not invited to participate in this
conference,” Stancich complained. “The sole representatives of these countries
were from the respective governments.”
Others said the recommendations
of the Ministerial Declaration were too general to take into account the
specific water problems of each region of the world.
“The declaration is a little bit
too general, but it is a beginning. This is really a declaration of goodwill
and a letter of intent to the world,” former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon
Perez told the Jordan Times on Wednesday. Perez said it is more important
to find the means to finance water projects planned in the Middle Eastern
region to solve the soaring water scarcity and suggested a donors' conference.
“I think we have to think about how to finance [water projects in the Middle
East]. We have great projects, but we don't have the finances for them,”
Perez said.
But there were also other positive
remarks.
“I am satisfied. The ministers are
very serious about water problems and I hope that the declaration will
be implemented,” said Silva Celebrin-Tevsic, from the Croatian Radio and
Television.
“The biggest advantage of this conference
is that it brought together all the stakeholders involved in water issues,”
said Sian Rahima Abdullah from a humanitarian organisation in Malaysia.
“The conference was very positive.
It showed that people are concerned with water problems. I think that the
African continent was well represented,” said Seydan Zone of Green Cross,
Burkina Faso.
Second World Water Forum:
Participants
polarised on assessment of global event - Organisers claim success
(Jordan Times, 23/03/2000)
Participants in the Second World
Water Forum which concluded on Wednesday called on the international community
to cooperate to end the suffering of the poor and those deprived from access
to fresh and clean water. Water security to all sectors of the community
was the aim of the forum, which ended on World Water Day.
Dozens of seminars and workshops
addressed issues of water sanitation, scientific and technological solutions,
community participation in water conservation, water preservation, availability
of water resources, discovery of new resources and raising awareness.
The last day of the forum highlighted
poverty as a key tangential concern of water problems around the world,
with many participants suggesting that governments are incapable of running
water facilities efficiently, without the participation of national and
international communities. “Poverty is the most toxic element in this world,”
said Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Kalus
Toepfer, who spoke on behalf of U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan. “Water
is an indicator of poverty [and] an indicator of environmental stability,”
he said in delivering Annan's speech. Only harmonisation of water policy
[in order] to stabilise important ecosystems could end the water crisis
in the world, he said. “There is a need for education and capacity building”
to enable local communities, women and children and other sectors to participate
in resolving water-related problems, Toepfer said.
According to the forum's hosts,
the forum was a success because it spread awareness of water issues to
countries around the world. “This forum hopes to put water high on the
political agenda,” said Prince of Orange William Alexander.
President of the World Water Council
Mahmoud Abu Zeid said the forum's call for a “blue revolution” which will
help the world move “from vision to action” was molded with the contribution
of more than 15,000 people from more than 150 countries. The success of
the forum, he said, was manifested in the participation of 4,600 individuals
from different aid agencies, private companies, ministries, parliaments,
media agencies, non-governmental organisations, and research groups. “This
is a sign of globalisation of political will,” Abu Zeid said.
He called on the world to keep up
the momentum and to support the WWC in creating a world commission for
peace as a mediator in resolving international conflicts stemming from
water issues.
President of the World Bank James
Wolfensohn stressed the principle of “water sharing” in order to stop the
suffering of 1.5 million people who are deprived of access to water, and
thousands of others who are subject to unclean and contaminated water.
“The approach towards water should be holistic,” Wolfensohn said in a televised
speech. He stressed the World Bank's commitment to “working in teams or
partnerships, or happily withdraw” to help countries overcome technological
limitations and the lack of managerial capacities.
In a symbolic dance, leaders of
the world stood on an artificial water stream on the largest stage of the
Dutch Congress Centre and passed on water from hand to hand. An African
child entered the scene and was cuddled and taken from leader to leader
until she reached the hands of Prince of Orange William Alexander — to
symbolize sharing the responsibility of the poor.
“If I had the globe in my hands,”
a voice echoed in the Amazon Hall, “I would make sure each and everyone
had access to fresh, clean and sanitised water.”
The Third World Water Forum will
be held in Japan in 2003, Abu-Zeid said.
Annan urges 'blue revolution'on
World Water Day (Jordan Times, 22/03/2000)
United Nations Secretary General
Kofi Annan on Tuesday said the world's water must be valued and safeguarded,
since even in the age of technological revolution, there is still no technology
that can replace, manufacture or duplicate water.
On the occasion of World Water Day,
Annan said in a written statement to the press around the world that: “We
cannot live without water. “It is essential to every aspect of living.
In many regions of the world, water tables are failing, underground aquifers
are drying out, rivers and lakes are shrinking, and chemical pollution
from farming threatens water quality. Lack of access to safe water supply
and water management contributes to an estimated 80 per cent of disease
and death in the developing world.”
The secretary general of the world
body said that spreading water shortages due to rapid population growth,
urbanisation and increasing urban poverty have made the goal of water for
all seemingly unattainable, particularly in developing countries.
“In many parts of the world, the
main problem will continue to be supplying water to growing populations
for drinking and waste disposal, particularly in the megacities,” he said.
“The international community must exercise its rights and responsibilities
to provide water for rich and poor alike, for all competing users, equitably,
reliably and affordably,” Annan said. “The challenge before us is to manage
human activity for the conservation of water quality and quantity.”
He added that women, as managers
of families, have a central part to play in water conservation. “Global
awareness of the role that water plays in sustainable development is vital,”
Annan continued. “The peoples of the world must upgrade their knowledge
of the water cycle and thereby increase their capacity to better manage
this scarce resources. “This can be achieved by drawing from the well of
human wisdom to develop and promote a culture of conservation and a `blue
revolution',” he concluded.
Syria rejects regional scheme
to buy water from Turkey (Jordan Times, 22/03/2000)
Syria on Tuesday reiterated its
refusal to be included in a regional plan to buy water from Turkey — one
of suggested solutions to water scarcity in the Middle East. “Our neighbouring
countries are free to buy water according to their internal policies, but
Syria's policy is against buying water from Turkey,” said Abdul Aziz Al
Masri, head of the Syrian delegation to the Second World Water Forum now
being hosted in The Hague. “Syria will not buy water from anybody and will
not sell water to anybody,” Masri told the Jordan Times.
Masri, who is also head of the international
water bureau in the Syrian Ministry of Irrigation, stressed that water
relations with Turkey were restricted to river and dam issues.
He continued that Syria did not
object on Turkey building dams, but objected to “the way these projects
were implemented, especially if affect Syria.” “Syria hopes to get a fair
share from the Dijla and Furat rivers,” Masri said.
Moreover, Masri said Syria opposes
water pricing, a much discussed subject at the water forum. “During the
ministerial conference, the Syrian delegation called for changing the concept
of water pricing to `cost recovery' where citizens pay for services only,”
Masri said.
According to Masri, the state should
be entirely responsible for bearing the costs of subsidies to the poor
“without adding costs on the regular citizen.” “In Syria, the state is
the only body responsible for water-related [issues]...and it shall pay
the subsidies from the state's budget,” Masri said.
Masri stressed Syria's strict objection
to “handing over public institutions to others,” and said: “We are absolutely
against privatisation [as] water belongs to everybody.”
Masri said Syria's water policy
is rooted in Islamic rulings and quoted Prophet Mohammad as saying that:
“People are partners in three [matters]: water, food and fire.”
However, Jordanian Minister of Water
and Irrigation Kamel Mahadin said that the entire region should be included
in an “integrated regional project.” “We [Jordan] will not import water
from outside the region unless through a regional framework,” Mahadin told
Arab reporters on Tuesday.
Mahadin said Jordan has water commitments
to neighbouring countries and stressed that “without sharing we will go
nowhere.”
But the Syrian understanding of
sharing, Masri said, was through the separate agreements signed between
the Baathist state and its neighbours. He sited the Al Wahdah Dam project
between Syria and Jordan as an example. “Because of certain circumstances,
we were not able to proceed with the 1987 agreement to build the dam,”
Masri said. But now that the dam is on its way to being constructed, Masri
said: “The project will serve both countries' interests.”
When asked about the Syrian-Israeli
talks, Masri stressed it was “premature” to talk about water issues in
relation to Israel. “Israel is stealing water in the Arab, Syrian and occupied
Golan Heights,” Masri said. He explained that discussions with Israel on
water would only follow the “liberation of the Golan Heights.”
Gorbachev calls on Mideast to
cooperate in water affairs (Jordan Times, 22/03/2000)
Former Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday said all countries in the Middle
East need to cooperate in order to alleviate the chronic water problem
in the region and to avert a serious confrontation over water.
Speaking at a press conference with
Arab journalists, during the Second World Water Forum, Gorbachev, who is
president of the Green Cross, an organisation bringing together water experts,
private sector representatives and NGOs working in the field of water issues,
said: “All the leaders (of the region) have said the same thing: unless
we find a solution to this problem in the next 10 to 15 years, we might
see a conflict in the Middle East that will be worse than the current conflict.”
Asked about Russia's
future role in the Middle East, Gorbachev said Russia is very much involved
in its own domestic affairs. “..Russia became much weaker, economically,
politically, the Russian Federation has weakened, Russian science has weakened,
and the Russian role in the world has also become less than before. Russia
is absorbed with its domestic problems,” he said.
Government's role in water projects
should be limited to monitoring — Serageldin (Jordan Times, 20/03/2000)
Vice President
of the World Bank Ismail Serageldin said on Saturday that governments should
step back from implementation of water and development projects and should
limit their role to creating a suitable environment for the private sector
to take over. “The public sector proved to be not efficient,” Serageldin
said in a press conference in the 2nd World Water Forum and Ministerial
Conference. “I think we have to change the role of the public sector. It
shouldn't be a service provider. [It] should create the framework which
enables the empowerment of local communities, and international investors,”
he said.
Serageldin is
also the chairman of the World Commission on Water for the 21st century,
which convened in 1998 to guide the World Water Vision. The vision was
set in the 1st World Water Forum held in Dublin and recommends strategies
to manage the world's water. Serageldin is also chairman of the Global
Water Partnership which is preparing the Forum's Framework of Action to
achieve the vision. The role of governments, Serageldin said, should be
in “monitoring” the developmental projects of their countries through “right
legislation.” He added: “The old way of managing water does not meet the
demands” of the consumers in Third World countries in particular, adding
that achieving sustainable use of resources was neccessry to stop environmental
degradation.
According to
Serageldin, “There are no checks on state-owned factories and institutions”
in the underdeveloped countries, which in effect, he said, further polluted
the environment. The public sector's institutions “lacked transparency
and openness,” something he said which could be offered by local and international
investors.
On the other
hand, the International Rivers Networks, an NGO which stirred many protests
and demonstrations at the forum, said the vision's “process has been controlled
from the start by a small group of aid-agencies,” mainly from the Global
Water Partnership, the World Water Council, the World Bank and Suez Lyonnaise
Des Eaux.” In a statement, the IRN accused the agencies — which they called
“the global hydro-aid complex — of “thriving on corrupt, non-transparent,
unaccountable, non-participatory, unsustainable and inequitable water management.”
The IRN added that those agencies “have promoted water and agricultural
policies which have left billions of people without access to safe water,
sanitation or adequate nutrition and ever more at risk from floods and
drought.”
IRN interrupted
many of the forum's sessions and were led by Arudhati Roy, writer of the
“God of Small Things” which won the Booker Prize, a prestigious British
literary award. Roy extended similar accusations to the World Bank in the
Water and Ethics session on Saturday, saying that “many projects funded
[by the Bank] destroyed people's lives and the environment.” Roy lent her
name to the protest against the construction of the Narmanda Dam in her
native India. The dam itself was a focus of debate at the forum.
However, Serageldin
said the World Bank lends the global public sector around $70-80 million,
and that “no real use of the money” has been achieved. Therefore, he said,
the world should shift from a top-down strategy to a bottom-up approach.
The economist said it was high time for local communities to take the lead
in solving their countries' chronic problems, including water and environmental
issues. Once communities are involved in taking over the responsibility
of water, fewer ecological “mistakes” will occur, Serageldin told reporters,
and the result would be a “water-secure world.”
World Bank Senior
Water Advisor John Briscoe told the Jordan Times that “governments are
the clients of the World Bank,” but some of the funding was given to them
was conditional. `We lent Jordan money to improve the water sector,” he
said, adding the World Bank told Jordan that it “must bring someone else”
to implement the water rehabilitation programmes of the Greater Amman Municipality,
which is now run by LEMA, a partnership between the French firm of Suez
Lyonnaise Des Eaux and Jordan's Montgomery Arabtech Jardaneh. Briscoe,
who is head of the World Bank delegation to the forum, said: “We are trying
to develop our global policy,” in order to achieve sustainable development
in the world.
Those with lion's share of water
resources must share — Queen Noor
(Jordan Times, 20/03/2000)
Her Majesty Queen
Noor on Sunday urged those using the lion's share of the world's water
to share resources, expertise and challenges with those who have less,
in order to safeguard future water security and ecological preservation.
“It is unfair to place the bulk of the burden of ecological preservation
on those very countries already staggering under supreme shortages of resources,
education, infrastructure, and money,” she said at the Second World Water
Forum in the Hague on Sunday.
Queen Noor, speaking
in her capacity as patron of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), also
called on developed countries to transfer know-how and expertise in water
management and ecological preservation to less developed regions.
Queen Noor forecast
a bleak outlook for the year 2025 unless the world changes its approach
to water resource management. In order to prevent the current global water
crisis from becoming a global disaster, it is necessary to change the way
scarce water supplies are managed, she told the major international conference
which opened in The Hague on Friday.
“If humanity continues to misuse
water resources, then individuals and societies will continue to suffer,”
she added. “Social and economic insecurity will come from severely, degraded
rivers, lakes and groundwater reserves. In times of scarcity, we see rising
stress over water and water resources. The environment today is a cause
of political tension around the globe and risks becoming a substantial
source of conflict in the years ahead,” she said. “I do feel that there
is a great deal we can do to improve our use of water” as the infrastructure
is one fundamental responsibility that we have, Queen Noor told the Jordan
Times on the sidelines of the session.
“We lose a lot of water that we
can much better make use of,” she added, referring to Jordan's worn-out
water network. In Amman alone, an ageing, leaky water network contributes
to a loss of over 50 per cent of all water pumped to the capital, officials
have said.
Queen Noor also
said it was necessary to spread the idea that social well-being, economic
stability and the natural environment are interdependent, and degradation
of any one endangers of all three. “Keeping ecosystems alive should be
a guiding principle in the decision we make as different parts of the world
have their own reasons for ignoring environmental needs,” she said. “Wealth
breeds indifference, while poverty breeds desperation,” she said.
The Queen presented
six goals that will lead to a sustainable water world: care for the planet's
ecosystems, adopting an ecosystem-based approach, empowering people, creating
political will and good governance, raising awareness and strengthening
capacity to change human behaviour and developing and sharing knowledge
and technology to improve water resources management.
The Queen presented
the audience with the Vision of Water and Nature: the environment and ecosystem
component of World Water Vision during the IUCN's “Water and Nature” session.
Within the framework of the Vision Process of the World Water Council,
the IUCN was asked to develop the Vision for Water and Nature — a world
strategy for conservation and sustainable management of water resources
in the 21st century. In over one year, hundreds
of experts and grassroots NGOs from around the world were consulted and
involved in drafting this vision.
Debate rages on utility of water
pricing, farm subsidies (Jordan Times, 21/03/2000)
Communities should
participate in sharing water costs in order to facilitate global water
pricing, said President of the World Water Council Mahmoud Abu Zeid. “Water
consumers should take part of the responsibility of bearing the costs of
water, and the rest should be taken care of by the state,” Abu Zeid told
Arab reporters in a closed conference on Saturday.
The Second World
Water Forum's vision statement has described “water as an economic good,”
provoking a debate on water pricing and subsidies to the agricultural sector
and to the poor.
Abu Zeid, who
is also the Egyptian minister of water resources and irrigation, said:
“Water is a commodity and water should be seen from a totalistic view.”
“The globalization of water is very important. You should produce food
in areas where it is feasible, and to import whatever agricultural products
you can't produce in your lands,” Abu Zeid said. Once countries control
their use of water and make sure they don't waste it on water-consuming
agricultural products, “they can move from farming into other agricultural
activities.” This way, farmers do not lose their source of income, Abu
Zeid said. “Agriculture is a wide concept. Farmers can turn to food production
activities. [Traditional] farming is not the only agricultural activity,”
he said. However, Abu Zeid reminded the audience that “in agriculture,
socials reward is much higher than the financial returns.”
Heated debates
focused on subsidies to the poor and to the agricultural sector in relation
to issues of water pricing. According to Vice President of the World Bank
Ismail Serageldin, subsidies to the poor help empower local communities.
Serageldin told a press conference on Sunday the poor suffer most from
water pricing.” “The poor are paying water vendors prices which exceed
the market prices by 15 times,” said Serageldin, who is also head of the
World Commission on Water for the 21st Century and chairman of the Global
Water Partnership.
But Harvard professor
Peter Rogers challenged the protection of the poor against water pricing,
saying: “You cannot price water while still paying compensation to farmers.”
In a session on Water and Economics, Rogers said: “This may seem very harsh,
but agriculture is an economic activity. States should view agriculture
as a serious economic activity.” “You don't expect industry to run on subsidies
for ever,” Rogers said.
But one of the
audience objected saying that the “Third World will pay the price.” The
participant argued against including communities in water costs for fear
of denying farmers their living which, in his opinion, would inspire social
disturbances around the globe. “Here we are talking about standards and
theories of the industrialised countries. These standards don't work for
the Third World,” the participant said, adding “certain communities cannot
bare tariffs on agriculture.”
However, a session
on Water and Nature offered a different perspective on subsidies. The session
began with three key questions which included one related to finding a
realistic alternative for infrastructure development to meet the water
needs of both man and nature in the coming decades. Jane Madgwick, head
of the European Freshwater Programme in the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWFN), said that subsidies for agriculture are a consequence of “lost
water.” “Instead of fixing the water leakage problems in cities, governments
are paying subsidies, and, by that, are covering up the real problem,”
Madgwick said. Madgwick added: “Solving water problems should [mean] stopping
the depletion of water resources.” She said that correcting mismanagement
is what countries should place atop their national agendas.
Definitions of food security
must change say water experts at world water forum (Jordan Times, 21/03/2000)
The role of the
agricultural sector has to be diminished to reallocate scarce water in
the region to more important sectors, experts at the Second World Water
Forum said on Monday. Others said a comprehensive peace and regional corporation
would help alleviate the pressure of the region's water resource challenge.
The hall housing
the session was crowed with enivornmental experts, economists and journalists,
reflecting the importance of the subject and centrality of water issues
to peoples of the Middle East.
The panel of
speakers that included experts on water issues, and prestigious members
like former president Russian President Michael Gorbachev, Minister of
Water and Irrigation Kamel Mahadin, and President of the Center For Middle
East Peace and Economic Cooperation Wayne Owens. Water should be used by
the sectors that return the highest economic benefits to economies of the
region, namely industry and commerce, the experts maintained. They further
contended that the regional concept of food security — understood in the
region to mean a state's ability to produce its food needs independently
of other countries — has to be redefined, since water scarcity makes independence
in food production untenable.
“We will import
our food security by importing `virtual' water... and with the money we
earn in commerce, industry and tourism, we will buy food,” said Hillel
Shuval, professor at the division of environmental sciences of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. When asked about the Israel's excessive use of
water for irrigation of agricultural exports, Shuval insisted that “Israel
has an historical right to use water in its rivers, and under [its territory]
for its economic benefit and development, as any other country in the region.”
According to
the World Bank, 70 per cent of Israel's water goes to the agricultural
sector. Shuval says the figure is 60 per cent. The professor noted
that there will be a change in Israeli policy in the future. “The stated
policy of the Israeli government is to give first priority to urban, domestic,
commercial and industrial use, second priority to agriculture. The long-term
water resources development policy of Israel will be to transfer water
from the agricultural sector to the urban sector as it grows. My prediction
is that 30 years from now, 90 per cent of Israel's water resources will
go to the urban sector, only about 10 per cent will remain for agriculture,”
Shuval told the Jordan Times at the sidelines of the session. The Jordanian
government is said to have similar plans. However, it faces criticism by
some local experts who claim the reduction of water allocated to agriculture
will destroy jobs for people working in this sector.
Uriel Safriel
of the Blaunstein Insitute for Desert Research at the Ben Gurion University
of Negev also believes the amount of water allocated to agriculture in
the Middle East has to be reduced. Currently agriculture consumes 66 per
cent of the region's total water resources. However, Safriel argues that
water should be transferred from agriculture to the environment, rather
than to industry. He believes that the services provided by both terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystems have a high value both in their capacity as controllers
of renewable water resources in the region as well as recreation areas,
tourist sites and in their roles as flood preventors.
Minster of Water
and Irrigation Kamel Mahadin drew a bleak picture on Jordan's water situation,
saying that the country is facing a water deficit that will rise from the
current 220 million cubic metres in 1999 to 250 MCM by the year 2010. Jordan
has to consider exploiting brackish groundwater, desalination or water
imports to meet its growing water demands. Mahadin believes that a key
to improving the efficiency of the Kingdom's water management is the participation
of the private sector, which will also have the side effect of accessing
new sources of financing. “Transferring infrastructure and services from
the public to the private sector will also improve the performance and
upgrade the level of the service and efficiency in the water sector,” Mahadin
said. He stressed the importance of regional cooperation to alleviate part
of the water shortage problem. “Regional cooperation is advantageous because
substantial amounts of money could be saved through a cooperative and integrated
approach to water resources management,” the minister said.
John Friedman,
advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is looking for a regional
solution rather than a national water peace solution. “We need no national
solution for peace. There is only a regional solution for peace,” he said.
He continued that peace, and with it the solution of the regional water
problem, should come as soon as possible. “We need to do that (make peace)
in the coming month, otherwise we are criminals,” he said.
Palestinian Ambassador
to the Netherlands, Yousef Habab, took a slightly different approach, insisting
that Palestinians should first gain full control of their water resources
before discussing how to share them with the others. "The right of the
Palestinians to have their own water resources (is important). Then we
can share them, and then it can be discussed with an open mind,” he said.
Iraq repeats call for water sharing
with Syria, Turkey (Jordan Times, 28/02/2000)
Iraq on Sunday reiterated its calls
to neighbouring Syria and Turkey to reach an accord on sharing water resources,
the official INA news agency announced. “Iraq is always working to open
talks with the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers aimed at reaching
an agreement that would guarantee the rights of each state under international
norms,” Irrigation Minister Mahmoud Diab Al Ahmad said, cited by INA. “Water-sharing
talks have been broken off since the 1960s and there is still no agreement
on the quotas for each country,” he said, repeating Baghdad's complaint
that Turkey was responsible for a “major water shortage.” Iraq and Syria
accuse Turkey of building dams that unfairly capitalise on the resources
of the Euphrates while Ankara has insisted the claims are “unjustified.”
Water awareness not just for
those with little (Jordan Times, 12/8/1999)
Dr. Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh
MUNICH — As global awareness of
the seriousness of the water crisis which many countries are now facing
and which many more will inevitably face heightens, awareness of both the
importance of water conservation itself as well as of water conservation
strategies needs to be effected more forcefully than at present, not only
in countries in which water resources are scarce but (more importantly)
in those in which water is abundant.
In some parts of the globe — the
so-called developing part — the unthinkable has already happened. Due to
geographic, climate considerations, water mismanagement at the official
level, abuse of water resources by both influential citizens and citizens
of little or no influence, overpopulation, pollution, and many other factors,
a lot of people are having a truly hard time finding water to drink, let
alone water for other purposes.
In these same unlucky countries,
the quality of the water which people drink is either remarkably inferior
to that which citizens of luckier countries drink or simply unacceptable.
A recent CNN report puts deaths resulting from consumption of bad-quality
water worldwide at 3 million annually. This is alarming.
What is equally alarming is the
abuse and waste of water in countries which have an abundance of it. In
many Western countries which I have visited in the past decade, I have
personally seen a great deal of carelessness on part of many with regards
to water consumption. I am no expert on how Western governments, governmental
bodies, private firms, farmers and other large consumers deal with the
water at their disposal; so I will leave this dimension alone. But I have
been amply familiar with how many private citizens deal with water, at
home and in public facilities. Generally, I have not liked in the least
what I have seen.
Faucets are turned on full capacity
when one is brushing one's teeth or washing one's face, showers are taken
lavishly and abundantly, baths are more frequent than necessary, cars are
washed generously, many public water fountains are on 24 hours a day, lawns
are watered when the rain stops falling even for a couple of days, and
so on.
The other day, I saw a couple of
young men chatting at a public facility next to a faucet which they had
turned on to wash their hands and kept the water running for over five
minutes.
The premise seems to be this: Since
water is available in abundance why bother to be careful.
Such premise is both short-sighted
and harmful. The drought from which many states in the U.S. have suffered
(the worst in recent memory) comes as a reminder that no one is immune
from water shortage. More importantly, what happens in one part of the
world affects other parts, unavoidably, politically, socially, economically,
healthwise and — yes — with respect to water.
I know, of course, that some people
(perhaps many) in the West are very conscious and cautious in the way they
deal with water. I personally know some Western friends in some countries
where rain falls in great amounts who are as conscious and cautious as
if they were living in countries with very limited water resources. I also
know that many public facilities have timed their water faucets so as to
give as little portions of water as possible. The noticeable increase of
awareness programmes and advertisements is a very positive development.
The CNN is doing a good job in this respect, globally.
But I also know, as I have just
pointed out, that there is a great deal of waste going on at the level
of daily use. And there is also a great deal of ignorance about the importance
of water in the short run and in the long run for each and all.
I would like to think that globalisation
has one fundamental virtue: That we have started (perhaps more instantly
now than at any other time before) to think of ourselves collectively.
During much of the twentieth century (as well as centuries past) world
states thought either of their own interests or of those of their allies.
There is an opportunity for us now to think of our overall interests, hopes,
dreams, aspirations, challenges and problems.
Since water is a world problem,
all are supposed to chip in. The Western part of the hemisphere can do
a lot more than it has both with respect to water conservation in many
of its parts and with respect to elimination of ignorance and the spreading
of awareness of the importance of water globally.
The tragedy is much of the waste
in the countries I have been referring to is of water which is of super
quality. Something effective needs to be done about it. Faucets at home
and at public facilities need to be controlled more carefully.