The good news is that the Kinneret is filling up.
Thanks to the rains and
the melting snow, the country’s most important water reservoir is likely to
finish the winter season at its highest level for some years. The water experts
and hydrologists tell us that if we have two such years in succession, the lake
will reach its upper limit, perhaps necessitating the opening of the dam which
prevents the free flow of water south into the River Jordan – or at least what
used to be the River Jordan but is no more than a slow moving stream at
present.
It is not only the abundant precipitation which has caused the
lake to fill up. In recent years, Israel has finally started to desalinate water
on a scale such that the pumping of water from the Kinneret though the national
water carrier into the underground aquifers in the center of the country is not
as critical as it used to be. For years, due to a combination of political and
economic factors, the government refused to promote the construction of new
water desalination plants, but given the severity of the water problem in recent
years, they finally went ahead with the new projects, resulting in a significant
increase in the amount of available sweet water for domestic
consumption.
Regulating the pumping of water from the Kinneret in such a
way that by the end of the rainy season, the country’s aquifers are filled to
the maximum is a very delicate task for the country’s hydrologists and water
planners. Storage in the underground aquifers is better than leaving water in
the Kinneret if only because the rate of evaporation during the hot summer
months is far lower. But pumping too much can deplete the Kinneret to levels
which are too low, while pumping too little can bring about the potential
flooding of the communities around the lake, including the city of Tiberias. The
latter is offset by the opening of the dam, allowing surplus water to escape
south into the Jordan River.
While this is positive in terms of the
rejuvenation of the Jordan River and the tourism potential along the Jordan
Valley, it is perceived as an exercise in water wastage given the long-term
scarcity of water in the region as a whole. This, in turn, affects the amount of
water flowing into the Dead Sea, which has been receding at the rate of almost a
meter a year during the past decade. The northern section of the Dead Sea is, in
effect, little more than an artificial lake, with much of its water – especially
in the hotel tourism areas – flowing through a canal from the now disconnected
southern section of the sea.
The renaissance of the idea of a Dead-Red
Canal, in which a canal and pipeline would bring water into the Dead Sea from
the Gulf of Aqaba to the south, increasing the country’s hydroelectric capacity
on the way, would signify a total reversal of the of the direction of water flow
into the Dead Sea. The canal idea, which is supported by Jordan, but which is
strongly opposed by the environmental lobbies in Israel, would enable the
production of hydroelectric power which in turn could be used for even more
water desalination.
AN UNDERSTANDING of water geopolitics is central to
any future conflict resolution in the region. From the mid-1960s, when the
Israel Air Force bombed the dams being constructed along the Yarmouk River by
Syria in an attempt to prevent the natural flow of water into the Jordan
headwaters, and through to the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in the 1990s when
Israel agreed to transfer 50 million cubic meters of water per annum to a
country which has an even greater water scarcity than Israel, along with the
multilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which have discussed the water
quotas which will be available to both sides, water has always constituted a
major geopolitical factor in this region.
Although a water transfer
arrangement with Turkey was signed, it has never been implemented and, given
today’s changed water economy on the one hand, and Israel’s worsened political
relations with Turkey on the other, it never will be.
Within Israel as
well, the allocation and pricing of water has always been a topic of major
political contention.
The continued allocation of relatively large water
quotas to a diminishing agricultural sector, at considerably lower prices than
those available to the rest of the population, is a sensitive issue. The recent
rains and the increase in desalination has not brought about the expected
decrease in water prices for the consumer, and this is perceived by many as
being due to the powerful political lobby of the agricultural sector – even
today – rather than any logical balance between water supply and
demand.
Ever since the construction of the national water carrier back in
the 1960s, enabling the distribution of water from the Kinneret to the center of
the country and even further afield, the country has lacked a longterm water
planning policy. During periods of scarcity, there have been constant demands
for a major restructuring of water exploitation, allocation and pricing. But
each time there has been a rainy season, such as this year, and the debate has
been shelved, the plans put away, with the result that the country goes on from
one water crisis to the next one without making any major structural
changes.
The demands for water in the Israel of today are vastly
different to those of 40 years ago, when the current water policy was
instituted. The population has increased six-fold, individual consumption needs
have also increased as today’s Israelis irrigate lawns, wash cars and use
water-consuming appliances such as washing machines and dish washers to a much
greater degree than in the past. At the same time, the needs of a declining
agricultural sector in an era when Israel imports agricultural produce, are
completely different to the era when, for geopolitical and ideological reasons,
it was considered of utmost importance to be totally self sufficient and not
reliant on any external sources.
This year’s rains, coupled with the
increase in desalination, has once again given the country a brief
respite.
But the new government should not interpret this as yet another
reason for shelving the water debate until the next crisis which, given the
changing global climate, will only be a year or two into the future. We should
be thankful for the daily rise of the water levels in the Kinneret and, at the
same time, should demand a new and comprehensive water policy for the country
which reflects both the internal and external realities of the present era,
rather than continuing to rely on criteria which were relevant four decades
ago.
The writer is dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
at Ben-Gurion University. The views expressed are his alone.
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