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Essay Subject: a brief overview of the jordan river basin and the contentious history of water ...... More...

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Paper Abstract: a brief overview of the jordan river basin and the contentious history of water usage in that region fo the middle east Paper Introduction: A critical issue in the Middle East is a shortage of water that is dryingup and polluting the region\'s waterways The River Jordan a criticalsource of water for both agriculture and drinking has lost over of the billion cubic meters of water that used to flow through it every year Given the river\'s strategic location linking the Sea of Galilee with theDead Sea this represents a major crisis for the entire region Farrell The remaining flow of water through the river is Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. By the time the River Jordan reachesthe Dead Sea, the average flow of the river is about 1,47 million cubicmeters a year (Wolf, 7). All three of these streams cometogether within Israel's land, flowing southward to the Sea of Galilee.Below the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River converges with the Yarmuk River,which originates in Syria and Jordan. Meanwhile, if the Dead Sea-Red Sea canalproject does not succeed, it may be necessary to build desalination plantsthat convert the salty Dead Sea water to fresh water (IRIN). Both Israel and Jordan haveundertaken unilateral action that has affected the aquifers and the surfacewater of the Jordan River Basin. Works ReferencedFarrell, Stephen. The most notable of these conflicts was, of course, the 1967 Six DayArab-Israeli War. Additionally, the Jordan River has a salinity ratio roughly 3times that of an average river. In 1955, the United States helped to broker a water sharing planfor the River Jordan known as the Johnston Plan after its architect.According to the negotiations that led to its adoption, Jordan wouldreceive 55 percent of the Jordan River Basin water, Israel would receive 36percent, and Syria and Lebanon would each receive 9 percent. First, we will look at thegeographical realities of the river's flow; second we will examine theriver's course and the areas that depend on it; and lastly we will weoutline the main obstacles that must be overcome in order to preserve theMiddle East's most valuable source of water. While many observers know that this victory improved Israel'smilitary position, few understand that its primary object was to improveIsrael's position vis-а-vis the Jordan River Basin. The Disi aquifer project isexpected to provide ample water, for example, but only for a few years-until the aquifer dries up. The River Jordan is born in a mountainous region that spans theborders of three countries that have had a history of contentious borderdisputes: Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The diversion of the Jordan River by Israel was one ofthe principal causes of this bloody war. This means that the Jordan River is considerablysmaller, as measured by average flow, than the Nile or the EuphratesRivers. With the capture ofthe Golan Heights, Israel consolidated its hold over all of the JordanRiver's headwaters, while with the capture of the West Bank, Israel gainedaccess to the entire length of the Jordan River (American University). Jordan should invest in similar projects to ensure that the waterthat remains is used as effectively and efficiently as possible. Desperate times call for desperate measures;the world community must come together to ensure that the desperatemeasures in this instance involve international collaboration and notconflict. The main problem in the region, of course, is providing adequatesupplies of water to a population that is rapidly growing. Effective management of the Jordan River Basin is a crucial componentof maintaining peace in Middle East. Second,the four nations affected by the decline of the Jordan River Basin, Israel,Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, must come together in order to develop astrategy to ensure an adequate supply of fresh water over the long term.While there are undeniable political obstacles to this kind of anegotiation, the fact remains that all of these countries face dire watershortages in the future; they must set aside their political distaste foreach other and work together to ensure that their citizens have access towater in the future. I believe that the United Nations would be the appropriate world bodyto establish such an entity and to monitor the compliance of the fournations involved. For example, Israel constructed theNational Water Carrier canal system from 1952 to 1964 to distribute waterfrom the Sea of Galilee to the Negev Desert for agricultural purposes.Jordan, for its part, also began constructing irrigation canals down bothsides of the Jordan Valley and diverted water from the Yarmuk River intothe East Ghor Canal. This paper will review the current situationpertaining to the River Jordan water basin. In 1953, during thenegotiations that led to the Johnston plan, Israel began construction ofthe National Water Carrier canal at a point that was north of the Sea ofGalilee and also in the demilitarized zone. In order toaddress this population pressure, Jordan is collaborating with Syria tobuild a dam on the Yarmouk river that is projected to reduce the annualflow of the Jordan River by a further 2 million cubic meters (Farrell,48). Israelhas made some progress in this arena by implementing drip irrigationmethods across much of its agricultural projects, but more can always bedone. The River Jordan, a criticalsource of water for both agriculture and drinking, has lost over 9 % of the1.3 billion cubic meters of water that used to flow through it every year.Given the river's strategic location, linking the Sea of Galilee with theDead Sea, this represents a major crisis for the entire region (Farrell,48). The Book of Joshua records that, in the biblical era, the RiverJordan "overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest." Today, theRiver Jordan is an environmental disaster and its flow is barely a trickleas it reaches the Dead Sea. The effect of these actions has been stark: today,the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea have seen their water levels dropprecipitously, salinity rates have been increasing in the Jordan Riverbasin, and aquifer levels have declined. In the ensuing decades, the lack of a formalized plan has had someserious ramifications for the region. Connecticut: Praeger. In 1967, Israeldestroyed the project in its entirety and in six days of bloody combatcaptured the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the SinaiPenninsula. For example, in 1951 Jordan announced that itwould tap the Yarmouk River for a series of irrigation canals. More skirmishes between Israeland Syria ensued, until Israel agreed to move the construction to its ownlands (American University). At the same time, Jordanwas busy constructing its own canal system, the East Ghor project. The so-called Headwater DiversionPlan would have diverted the Hasbani river into the Litani river inLebanon, and the Banias into the Yarmuk river. As we have seen, some of thebloodiest conflicts in the region's modern history can be directlyattributed to control over water. Two or three times each year, officials from Israel and Jordanmeet at the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmuk rivers to discuss flowrates and country allocations (Kally, 17). What can be done to address this very real and very pressingenvironmental and social crisis? The remaining flow of water through the river is severely polluted,leading Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth MiddleEast, to note that "[s]adly the Jordan River is little more than a sewagechannel now" (Farrell, 48). These actions led to a seriesof border skirmishes between Syria and Israel. First, effective projects for waterconservation and reuse must be implemented in Jordan and in Israel. Israelresponded to this action by closing the gates on a dam south of the Sea ofGalilee and began draining the Huleh swamps, that lay within thedemilitarized zone between Israel and Syria. Water and Peace: Water resources andthe Arab-Israeli Peace Process. A critical issue in the Middle East is a shortage of water that is dryingup and polluting the region's waterways. The Johnstonplan was never formally signed as a result of the acrid political climatein the Middle East, but the nations involved have largely stuck by itsoutline. AmericanUniversity. The fact that the Johnston Plan continues to be usedtoday but has never been ratified is deplorable, as it has allowed bothJordan and Israel to unilaterally undertake projects that have had ruinousconsequences for the Jordan River basin. Only the United Nations has the international pull toget these four countries to come together, and only the United Nations hasthe reputation needed to broker the disputes that will inevitably arisebetween them. Available at [http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/westbank.htm].Kally, Elisha, and Fishelson, Gideon. In 1964, Israel opened theNational Water Carrier canal and began diverting 32 million cubic metersof water a year into the new irrigation system. It is important to understand that no action in the Jordan River basinis exempt from the history of conflict in the region. Although four nations contribute water to the Jordan River, the JordanRiver Basin is the main source of water for only two of them: Israel andJordan. 1995. 1993.Wolf, Aaron. Hydropolitics Along the Jordan River: Scarce water and itsimpact on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Three different springs combine tocreate the headwaters of the River Jordan: the Hasbani River, which isborn in Lebanon; the Dan River, which is born in Israel; and the BanaisRiver, which is born in the Golan Heights. This plan would have led toa 35 percent reduction, or 123 million cubic meters of water a year, inIsrael's water diversion plans for its National Water Carrier project.Between 1965 and 1967, the Israeli military attacked the diversionconstruction project in Syria on four separate occasions. In order toensure that the region's growing population has access to water, all thenations in the region must set aside their political differences and sitdown at the bargaining table together. We have seen that the two maincomponents of any plan must be the conservation of remaining waterresources and the formulation of a long-term plan for distributing water inthe region. New York: United Nations UniversityPress. Two projects under way to provide Jordan with sufficient water by2 2 -a multi-billion-dollar canal linking the Dead Sea and the Red Sea,plus a $6 million project to obtain water from the south's Disi aquifer-both face big challenges (Farrell, 48). "Shortage of water drains life from biblical river;Middle East." The Times (London). Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day Wargave it effective control over much of the Jordan River Basin, but has alsobeen the cause of much of Israel's conflicts in the region. April 21, 2 6."JORDAN: US$6 million project to end water shortage." IRIN News.org.Available at[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2 7/1 /mil- 71 7-irin 1.htm]."Jordan River Dispute." The Inventory of Conflict & Environment. In1964, the Arab States met at a summit where it was decided to divert theJordan headwaters into the Arab states. Indeed, some of thebloodiest conflicts over the past fifty years have been the direct resultof water management issues. But the single most important factor must be the establishmentof a non-political organization to monitor water usage in each nation andto ensure that the Jordan River Basin's water. There are myriad potential obstacles to successfullyimplementing a solution for the region's water needs, but all four nationsmust understand that they are facing dire consequences if they cannot cometogether. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.