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“The next war in our region will be over water, not politics.” –Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the U.N. 1992. Hydro-Politics and Water Management. The Personal is Political!. Overview. Origins Water Wars and Arab-Israeli Conflict Jordan River Basin Israeli-Jordan relations
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“The next war in our region will be over water, not politics.” –Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the U.N. 1992
Hydro-Politics and Water Management The Personal is Political!
Overview • Origins • Water Wars and Arab-Israeli Conflict • Jordan River Basin • Israeli-Jordan relations • Israeli-Lebanon relations • Hydro-Peace in Middle-East
Some questions to consider: • What is Israel’s role (as a State) in water scarcity in the Middle East? • Are the risks of water scarcity distributed equally in these societies? • Who has more access to water than others in the Middle East and why? • How is this access to water, and therefore power, being legitimized and re-affirmed through politics in the region? • What is the role of government in shaping the relationship between humans and water • What role does the U.S. play if any?
Origins of Arab-Israeli Conflict • Fall of Ottoman Empire after WWI • 1940’s– Middle East began significant water development programs (aquifers, dams, etc.) • UN Partitions Plan of 1947 and subsequent rejection
Water Wars • 1948 Arab-Israeli War • Six Day’s War (1967) • Israel Invasions • Golan Heights • West Bank • Gaza Strip • Lebanon • 2002 Wazzani Incident
Closing Quote • “Water problems should neither be understood in naturalistic nor in liberal technical terms, but instead as questions of political economy…Nature and natural resources do not just sit around waiting to be consumed. Resources, to the contrary, are material social constructs and products brought into being through economic and technological development, through the fact that humans are producers and not just consumers of ‘nature’ (a nature, we might add, that no longer really exists)” –Dr. Jan Selby, University of Sussex