190
In order to understand the present situation of the Lower Jordan Basin and the
impact of the planned project, a comprehensive view on the development and use of
the water resources in the region is compulsory. Not only decisions with regard to
water management but also institutional and societal settings had infl uence on the
status of the water resources, the choices taken and the remaining options.
During the last 50 years, the Lower Jordan Basin was subject to important
changes, resulting in distinct consequences for both the region’s water resources
and the Dead Sea as the fi nal recipient of the Jordan River.
It is quite a challenge to provide a comprehensive overview of the region’s water
balances for the following reasons:
• Statistical data and methods vary between the different main riparians Israel,
Palestine and Jordan, a common methodology is not applied.
• Due to the different conveyance systems (Israel’s National Water Carrier, “Disi”
conveyance system, desalinated seawater conveyance), it is not possible to
restrict the observations to the Lower Jordan Basin. Instead, the water databases
from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank have to be taken into account.
• Water data for the Kingdom of Jordan are partly based on projections as in the
case of developed surface water sources. Climate change scenarios, which suggest a signifi cant decrease in precipitation rates for the region, are not fully
included in the projections.
• Even though groundwater abstraction and groundwater levels are regularly measured by the Israeli Water Authority (IWA) and its Hydrological Service, the latest
groundwater data published in 2013 by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
(ICBS) date from 2008. Since that period, water management in Israel has changed,
and the most recent data on use and availability of water resources are in fact from
2013 (Israel Water Authority 2014 ). In its reports, the IWA does not distinguish
between groundwater and surface water sources, but differentiates between various
qualities of the consumed water (recycled, brackish, saline or potable).
• As the Israeli water distribution system stretches over the West Bank, groundwater resources are partially used jointly, whereas Palestinians have no direct access
to Jordan. From an outside perspective, it is most diffi cult to identify Palestinian
and Israeli water sources and abstractions.
• Another point of imprecise and controversial information is the quantity of water,
which the Kingdom of Jordan receives from Syria via the Yarmuk River. The
Jordanian–Syrian agreement on use of the water of the Yarmuk has fi xed
200 × 10
6 m
3
/year for Jordan. In fact, Jordan does not receive more than
50 × 10
6 m
3 /year according to Prof. Salameh, member of the Jordan Royal Water
Committee (Shami 2013 ).
• The fi gures which we present in Figs. 13.2 and 13.3 are in fact not values for the
Lower Jordan Basin but values for Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Because of
the water transfers into the basin, the unknown exact locations of the abstractions, especially from the West Bank, we cannot draw a picture for the Lower
Jordan Basin, but we look on the entity of the three countries. For simplistic
reasons, we call that entity “Lower Jordan Basin”. Another source of imprecise
information is the division between the West Bank and Gaza strip. Under correct
C. Bismuth
In order to understand the present situation of the Lower Jordan Basin and the
impact of the planned project, a comprehensive view on the development and use of
the water resources in the region is compulsory. Not only decisions with regard to
water management but also institutional and societal settings had infl uence on the
status of the water resources, the choices taken and the remaining options.
During the last 50 years, the Lower Jordan Basin was subject to important
changes, resulting in distinct consequences for both the region’s water resources
and the Dead Sea as the fi nal recipient of the Jordan River.
It is quite a challenge to provide a comprehensive overview of the region’s water
balances for the following reasons:
• Statistical data and methods vary between the different main riparians Israel,
Palestine and Jordan, a common methodology is not applied.
• Due to the different conveyance systems (Israel’s National Water Carrier, “Disi”
conveyance system, desalinated seawater conveyance), it is not possible to
restrict the observations to the Lower Jordan Basin. Instead, the water databases
from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank have to be taken into account.
• Water data for the Kingdom of Jordan are partly based on projections as in the
case of developed surface water sources. Climate change scenarios, which suggest a signifi cant decrease in precipitation rates for the region, are not fully
included in the projections.
• Even though groundwater abstraction and groundwater levels are regularly measured by the Israeli Water Authority (IWA) and its Hydrological Service, the latest
groundwater data published in 2013 by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
(ICBS) date from 2008. Since that period, water management in Israel has changed,
and the most recent data on use and availability of water resources are in fact from
2013 (Israel Water Authority 2014 ). In its reports, the IWA does not distinguish
between groundwater and surface water sources, but differentiates between various
qualities of the consumed water (recycled, brackish, saline or potable).
• As the Israeli water distribution system stretches over the West Bank, groundwater resources are partially used jointly, whereas Palestinians have no direct access
to Jordan. From an outside perspective, it is most diffi cult to identify Palestinian
and Israeli water sources and abstractions.
• Another point of imprecise and controversial information is the quantity of water,
which the Kingdom of Jordan receives from Syria via the Yarmuk River. The
Jordanian–Syrian agreement on use of the water of the Yarmuk has fi xed
200 × 10
6 m
3
/year for Jordan. In fact, Jordan does not receive more than
50 × 10
6 m
3 /year according to Prof. Salameh, member of the Jordan Royal Water
Committee (Shami 2013 ).
• The fi gures which we present in Figs. 13.2 and 13.3 are in fact not values for the
Lower Jordan Basin but values for Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Because of
the water transfers into the basin, the unknown exact locations of the abstractions, especially from the West Bank, we cannot draw a picture for the Lower
Jordan Basin, but we look on the entity of the three countries. For simplistic
reasons, we call that entity “Lower Jordan Basin”. Another source of imprecise
information is the division between the West Bank and Gaza strip. Under correct
C. Bismuth