~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ---------- : From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] : To: @thequest.net : Subject: Water Wars : Date: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 6:54 AM : : - _______ ____ ______ : / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S : / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East : /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ http://www.MiddleEast.Org : : W A T E R W A R S : __________________________________________________________________ : News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, : and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know! : ------------------------------------------------------------------ : To receive MER regulary email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] : ___________________________________________________________________ : : : WATER WARS : : MER - WASHINGTON - 3/16/99: There have been lots of secret deals and : conspiracies between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom over the years. : Most important after the division of land, has been the division of : water, a subject brought far more into the open recently with the public : Israeli-Jordanian "peace", itself rushed into being by Israel and the : U.S. while King Hussein was still around to do the deed. : But as with most things in the area that use to go by the name : Palestine before the British and the French carved up the region, the : Israelis are now way on top, the Palestinians at the very bottom. : Militarily and economically little Israel now dominates when it : comes to water as well as everything else. Substantially further helped : by the new alliance with Turkey, in a very important sense Israel now : has the Arabs by the tap. This telling article is from the weekend : INDEPENDENT, published in London. : But as usual, missing from the analysis is how much the Arab regimes : have squandered their own wealth and resources, continually allowing : themselves to be drained of their resources and wealth year after year. : While Arab economies languish, while Arab regimes keep buying more : and more American weapons (to use against each other and their own : peoples), whiles Israelis water their gardens and swim in their pools, : and while Americans get a gallon of gas at the pump for less than a : gallon of water at the supermarket, now Arabs are finding their own : basic water needs in the hands of Israel and Turkey. : : : : ISRAELI DROUGHT CUTS OFF JORDAN'S WATER SUPPLY : : By Patrick Cockburn in Jerusalem : : The worst drought in 50 years has led Israel to cut : the supply of desperately needed water to Jordan, in : a move likely to provoke a crisis in relations between : the two countries. : : The failure of the winter rains - only 40 per cent of : normal in Israel - will have a devastating impact on : Jordan, which suffered a severe water shortage last : year. In Amman, the Jordanian capital, householders : found that when they turned on their taps they : received only a trickle of grey liquid. : : "It is very, very serious," says Gershon Baskin, : director of the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research : and Information in Jerusalem. "By summer people in : Amman may be getting only one or two days' water : a week. It is destabilising for the regime." : : Israel is pledged by treaty to supply Jordan with 45 : million cubic metres of water annually, but has told : the Jordanian government that it can only send 40 : per cent of this. Israeli farmers have already had : their supply cut by a quarter. The hills east of : Jerusalem, usually carpeted with grass and : wildflowers at this time of year, are as barren as in : high summer. The government is expected to declare : an official drought in April. : : In Jordan the situation is much worse. Its own water : resources are limited. In the east Jordan valley, the : centre of Jordanian agriculture, one of the main : canals has grass growing along its bottom. Last year : the filtration plants at the Amman reservoirs stopped : working, leading to toxic water flowing into the : system. : : Mr Baskin, who has studied regional water problems : for 20 years, says: "For Israel it is an economic issue; : for Jordan it is a survival issue." He says that Jordan : might lose half its crops in the east Jordan valley. : : Jordan rejected outright the Israeli proposal at the : weekend to cut the water supply. Israeli officials are : concerned that the affair may provoke a crisis in : relations, especially as the newly crowned King : Abdullah will need to show that he can deal with the : shortage. : : In Israel the government gave the go-ahead earlier in : this month for preliminary studies for a desalination : plant. Experts argue, however, that the problem : could be solved by cutting the subsidies to Israeli : agriculture, which takes 60 per cent of the water in : Israel but produces only2 per cent of the gross : domestic product. : : Countries in the Middle East have long quarrelled : about water. Syria is vulnerable to Turkey damming : the waters of the upper Euphrates for irrigation and : agricultural schemes. Iraq is also dependent on the : waters of the Euphrates, which can be dammed by : Syria, and the Tigris, which comes from eastern : Turkey. : : But Jordan is the most vulnerable country in the : region, with few water resources of its own. The : oasis at El Azraq, east of Amman, once full of water : fowl, is now largely dried mud. In order to cope with : the water crisis Jordan has been draining its aquifers : at an unsustainable rate. : : Such water resources that it does have are at the : upper end of the Jordan valley, where the Jordan : river and the Yarmouk flow into the Sea of Galilee. : Under the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and : Jordan the country was to receive extra water from : Israel. It is this which is now being cut. : : Last year, the first full year when the plan was in : operation, Israel met its obligations. But nobody : expected such a serious drought this year, and there : are no provisions in the treaty about what to do if a : water shortage affected the whole region. : : As with Israel, most of the water in Jordan is used in : agriculture, which consumes 68 per cent of the total : supply, while domestic use is only 28 per cent. On : other hand, Amman, with a third of the Jordanian : population, is expanding fast and using ever more : water. : : : : __________________________________________________________________ : M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S : For latest information about MER including how to start : or stop receiving MER simply email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] : : For past MER articles go to: http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org : (c) Copyright 1999 : [EMAIL PROTECTED] / Fax: 202 362-6965 / Phone: 202 362-5266 : : :
