Table Of ContentMANAGEMENT OF SHARED
GROUNDWATER RESOURCES:
The Israeli-Palestinian Case with an
International Perspective
NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND POLICY
Editors:
Ariel Dinar David Zilberman
Rural Development Department Dept. of Agricultural and
The World Bank Resource Economics
1818 H Street, NW Univ. of California, Berkeley
Washington, DC 20433 Berkeley, CA 94720
EDITORIAL STATEMENT
There is a growing awareness to the role that natural resources such as water, land, forests
and environmental amenities play in our lives. There are many competing uses for
natural resources, and society is challenged to manage them for improving social well
being. Furthermore, there may be dire consequences to natural resources' mis
management. Renewable resources such as water, land and the environment are linked,
and decisions made with regard to one may affect the others. Policy and management of
natural resources now require interdisciplinary approach including natural and social
sciences to correctly address our society preferences.
This series provides a collection of works containing most recent findings on economics,
management and policy of renewable biological resources such as water, land, crop
protection, sustainable agriculture, technology, and environmental health. It incorporates
modern thinking and techniques of economics and management. Books in this series will
incorporate knowledge and models of natural phenomena with economics and managerial
decision frameworks to assess alternative options for managing natural resources and
environment.
We witness lately statements about water wars. At the same time we observe efforts to
demonstrate the value of cooperation from sharing water resources, and the possible
institutional arrangements to support a joint management of shared water. This book is
an example of such efforts. It focuses on possible arrangements for joint management of
the Mountain Aquifers underlying the West Bank and Israel, and extrapolate to include
other cases of joint management of groundwater in other international setting.
The Series Editors
Recently Published Books in the Series
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Economics of Water Resources: From Regulation to Privatization, Second Edition
Bauer, Carl J.:
Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile
Easter, K. William, Rosegrant, Mark W., and Dinar, Ariel:
Markets for Water: Potential and Performance
Smale, Melinda:
Farmers, Gene Banks, and Crop Breeding: Economic Analyses of Diversity in Wheat,
Maize, and Rice
Casey, Frank, Schmitz, Andrew, Swinton, Scott, and Zilberman, David:
Flexible Incentivesfor the Adoption of Environmental Technologies in Agriculture
MANAGEMENT OF SHARED
GROUNDWATER RESOURCES:
The Israeli-Palestinian Case with an
International Perspective
Edited by
Eran Feitelson
and
Marwan Haddad
The Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and
The Palestine Consultancy Group
~.
"
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Management of shared groundwater resources : the Israeli-Palestinian case with an
international perspective I edited by Eran Feitelson and Marwan Haddad.
p. cm. --(Natural resource management and policy)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-94-010-3867-6 ISBN 978-94-010-0680-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0680-4
1. Groundwater--Israel--Management. 2. Groundwater--Palestine--Management. 3.
Aquifers--Israel. 4. Aquifers--Palestine. 5. Groundwater--Management--International
cooperation. 1. Feitelson, Eran, 1956- II. Haddad, Marwan, 1950- III. Series.
TD313.175 M36 2001
333.91 '04'095694--dc21
00-053089
Copyright @ 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers,New York in 2001
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2001
AlI rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photo
copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher, Springer ScÎence+ Business Media, LLC
Printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction XI
ERAN FEITELSON & MARWAN HADDAD
Part I: THE PROBLEMS AND APPROACHES TO
GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT
The Management of Shared Aquifers 3
MARWAN HADDAD, ERAN FEITELSON & SHAUL ARLOSOROFF
The Islamic Approach to the Environment and Sustainable
Groundwater Management 25
MARWAN HADDAD
Part II: THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CASE
Overview of the Mountain Aquifer 43
YOAV HARPAZ, MARWA N HADDAD & SHAUL ARLOSOROFF
Water Resource Management in Israel 57
SHAUL ARLOSOROFF
The Need for Joint Management and Monitoring of the Water
"Usage" Cycle 75
KAREN ASSAF
vi Contents
The Turonian-Cenomanian Aquifer 83
YONAKAHANE
Legal and Administrative Responsibility of Domestic Water Supply
to the Palestinians 107
TAHER NASSEREDDIN
Israeli-Palestinian Bargaining over the Mountain Aquifer 115
SINAIA NETA NY AHU, RICHARD E. JUST & JOHN K. HOROWITZ
Part ITI: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN
CROSS-BOUNDARY MANAGEMENT AND
ALLOCATION OF WATER RESOURCES
From Rights to Needs 133
AARONT. WOLF
Institutional Cooperation on Groundwater Issues 167
CAREL DE VILLENEUVE
Centralized vs. Decentralized Approaches to Groundwater
Management and Allocation in the Context of Overdevelopment 177
GREGORY A. THOMAS
The Evolving International Law of Transnational Aquifers 209
JOSEPH W. DELLAPENNA
Water Rights 259
MIGUEL SOLANES
Droughts, Crisis Mangement and Water Rights 285
ARIEL DINAR
Part IV: MONITORING, MODLING AND DATA
COMPILATION AS PREREQUISITES FOR
GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT
From Monitoring and Modeling to Decision Support Frameworks
for the Joint Management of Shared Aquifers 303
JAC A.M. VA N DER GUN
Contents VII
Hydrological Planning Aspects of Groundwater Allocation 323
YOAVHARPAz
The Potential of GIS in Water Management and Conflict Resolution 329
JAD ISAAC & MAHER OWEWI
Part V: ISSUES AND INOVATIVE OPTIONS FOR
GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT
AND ALLOCATION
The Use of Economic Instruments for Efficient Water Use 349
STEVE LONERGAN
Water Markets, Water Rights and Strategis for Decentralizing
Water Management 363
K. WILLIAM EASTER & ROBERT HEARNE
Water Demand Management 385
DAVID B. BROOKS
Water Rights within a Water Cycle Framework 395
ERAN FEITELSON
The Legal Framework of Joint Management Institutions for
Transboundary Water Resources 407
Ey AL BENVENISTI
Crisis Management 429
ISMAIL NAJJAR
Land Use Management in the Context of Joint Management
of Shared Aquifers 445
NUMAN MIZYED
Part VI: AN ACTION PLAN FOR THE MANAGEMENT
OF SHARED GROUNDWATER RESOURCES
A Sequential Flexible Approach to the Mangement of
Shared Aquifers 455
ERAN FEITELSON & MARWAN HADDAD
VIII Contents
A Porposed Agenda for Joint Israeli-Palestinian Mangement
of Shared Groundwater 475
MARWAN HADDAD, ERAN FEITELSON,
SHAUL ARLOSOROFF & T AHER NASSEREDDIN
List of Contributors 495
Preface
Most of the world's freshwater resources in liquid state (i.e. not in
glaciers and polar caps) are underground. As the population grows and
demand for water rises the reliance on groundwater increases. Many parts of
the world already rely on groundwater. In many cases the groundwater
underlies boundaries, or is part of a hydraulic system that crosses
boundaries. In such cases there is always the danger that the "prisoner's
dilemma" will run its course and all parties will compete over who will
pump the most water, ultimately destroying the storage potential to the
detriment of future generations of all parties based on the groundwater. This
book explores the options and means for averting this all too realistic
scenario by managing these shared groundwater resources.
Nowhere is the likelihood of excessive use of groundwater greater than in
the water scarce Middle East, and especially in the Israeli-Palestinian case.
Here both sides are heavily reliant on a shared aquifer, the Mountain aquifer,
and are embroiled in long standing highly complex feud. Many see this
conflict over the Mountain Aquifer as a major obstacle for peace between
Israelis and Palestinians.
This book is the outcome of a seven year effort to find ways to manage
the Mountain aquifer, perhaps the most important resource shared by Israelis
and Palestinians. As part of this cooperative study four workshops were held,
in which a selected number of Palestinian, Israeli and foreign experts were
invited. Most of the chapters in this book were originally presented in one of
these workshops. To these papers introductory and concluding chapters were
added. Essentially, these additional chapters set the scene of the study and
advance the main points raised in the final report of phase two of the study.
The study was conducted under the auspices of the Truman Institute for
Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Palestine Consultancy Group. Sari Nusseibeh, Dan Bitan, Moshe Maoz,
x M Haddad & E. Feitelson
Amnon Cohen and Edi Kaufman gave the continuing leadership as directors
and deputy directors of these bodies. Issa khater and Idit Avidan facilitated
alI the meetings and administrative matters.
This study began before anybody could guess the twists and turns the
peace process will take. We have experienced them all. Continuing this
project through many difficult periods, as welI as short time periods of
elation, has made us and our colIeagues, Shaul Arlosoroff and Taher
Nassereddin from mere co-researchers to partners in what turned out to be a
long, difficult voyage into uncharted water. It soon became obvious to us
that the experience with shared groundwater is so meager that we'lI have to
come up with new and innovative options. In this book we present the
highlights of our journey. We present the context, the most important views
we heard along the way and the conclusions we reached. These pertain first
and foremost to ourselves, Israelis and Palestinians. However, as we realized
some time ago they could be of great use to people in other places who will
sooner or later face the same predicaments we face today. It is our hope that
this book may help them shorten their journeys.
The study was funded by the International Development Research Centre
(IDRC) of Canada and the Charles R Bronfman Foundation. We are most
grateful to David Brooks of the IDRC not only for his support, but also for
his active interest and participation in this study throughout. Supplementary
funds were provided by the Dialogue Fund of the Government of Canada
and the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. We are grateful to
all. Needless to say none but the authors bear any responsibility for the ideas
and views expressed in this book.
In bringing this book for print we were greatly assisted by Lisa Perlman,
who helped make the often convoluted prose into a readable text and Anat
Segev who prepared the camera ready manuscript for publication.
While the main highlights of the journey are presented herein, the ideas
expressed in the chapters, and particularly our concluding recommendations,
benefited greatly from the discussions with alI participants in the four
workshops. We would like to thank, therefore, all the participants in the
workshops and along the way.
Finally, we would like to dedicate this book to our wives, Rachel and
Hana, who always supported our work in innumerable ways.
Eran Feitelson and Marwan Haddad
March 2000
