Transboundary Water Issues in Israel, Palestine, and the Jordan River Basin

This book highlights the search for permanent freshwater agreements between Israel, Palestine, and the western portions of Jordan, and underscores the benefits of shared water management among the three countries.  Throughout the book, efforts are made to share transboundary water in ways that are simultaneously physically feasible, ecologically sustainable, and socially equitable.  Thanks to the Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan, the management of shared water resources has been working well, though future relationships are uncertain at present. However, the current arrangements for Israel and Palestine are, at best, inadequate and, in some cases, counterproductive. In closing, the book argues that trilateral agreements on water can and should be concluded now, before seeking to resolve the full range of issues that remain uncertain in a Final Status Agreement between Israel and Palestine. 

Dr David B. Brooks was educated in geology and economics and spent much of his professional career with Canada¿s International Development Research Centre. His main research interests are split between water soft paths in Canada and water demand management in the Middle East. Among his books are Watershed: The Role of Fresh Water in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (IDRC Books, 1994, co-author) and Making the Most of the Water We Have: The Soft Path Approach to Water Management (Earthscan, 2009, co-editor). In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate of environmental studies from the University of Waterloo. Dr Giulia Giordano is the International Affairs Manager at EcoPeace Middle East, a trilateral organization based in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. Formerly, she was a visiting researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a fellow lecturer at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, where she taughtcourses on Human Rights and International Environmental Law. She received her Ph.D. in Cooperation for Peace and Development from the University Stranieri of Perugia, Italy. Prof Julie Trottier is director of research at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), France. She has conducted research on Palestinian water for the past 25 years. Among her books are Hydropolitics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (PASSIA, 1999) and Managing Water, Past and Present (Oxford University Press, 2004). She has authored numerous journal articles on Palestinian water, and is currently coordinating the research project Managing the Paracommons of Palestinian Water.

1. Introduction.- 2. Water Sources and Water Uses Now and In The Future.- 3. The Existing Oslo Arrangements.- 4. Designing a New Water Future for Israelis and Palestinians.