Introducing Sustainability Issues to the Water Management
253
Jordan Valley under the salient assumption that a sufficient kind of peace
agreement can be found:
• Negotiate a mutual agreement between the riparian countries about
environmental, social, and political sustainable water management goals,
abandoning as many ideological components as possible.
• Quantify the total water resources available for use in the Lower Jordan Valley
(based on sound hydrological studies), favoring environmental and social over
economic considerations.
• Evaluate the prioritized distributed water demand, i.e., start with meeting the
municipal demand (drinking water, hygienic use, businesses) but also reconsider
the consumption figures (e.g., defining distributed standards).
• Try to match this demand by local water supplies with as few total costs as
possible, being aware of the total water resources available. In the case of tourismrelated and industrial water demand, higher transportation costs will be acceptable.
• Agree on a kind of distributed fundamental agricultural pattern considering
and compromising food needs of the population, suitability of soil, climate, and
the yield per unit water generated by a given crop.
• Again, try to match this water demand by optimizing (i.e., minimizing) the
associated water production and transportation costs and meeting water-quality
requirements. This approach supposes a centralized planning effort based on
detailed local knowledge and comprehensible and approved guidelines.
• Finally, determine the best agricultural (or otherwise, since agriculture might
not remain the only option) use of the amount of water that is left given the total
water resources in a pure economic framework, i.e., comparing real water costs
and agricultural yield. If feasible, the reuse of treated domestic wastewater should
be put forward in the agricultural sector, since it represents the only selfdetermining option to enlarge the amount of water available.
This approach requires a high administrative effort, since water, associated
with highly different costs and conveyed at the same time in the same distribution
network, will be sold at prices depending on its use. Consumers will only live with
such a system if it is affordable, understandable, and acceptable to them. Any
management system of water resources incorporating more sustainability aspects
will require a joint authority empowered to harmonize the nomenclature and to
standardize definitions, testing, and procedures. This is particularly important to
avoid 'environmental dumping' through transfer of potential pollution sources
from a region with higher standards to another region with lower standards. Such
standards need to be jointly enforced.
Intracountry water marketing between sectors represents a way of optimizing
social benefits of water management. Intercountry water marketing might be
beneficial to all partners. These options should be further investigated. As a
technical precondition, the infrastructure for water distribution must be improved
in order to optimize the intra- and interregional water allocation. In this context
the establishment of a water carrier in the western side of the Jordan Valley is of
high priority.
253
Jordan Valley under the salient assumption that a sufficient kind of peace
agreement can be found:
• Negotiate a mutual agreement between the riparian countries about
environmental, social, and political sustainable water management goals,
abandoning as many ideological components as possible.
• Quantify the total water resources available for use in the Lower Jordan Valley
(based on sound hydrological studies), favoring environmental and social over
economic considerations.
• Evaluate the prioritized distributed water demand, i.e., start with meeting the
municipal demand (drinking water, hygienic use, businesses) but also reconsider
the consumption figures (e.g., defining distributed standards).
• Try to match this demand by local water supplies with as few total costs as
possible, being aware of the total water resources available. In the case of tourismrelated and industrial water demand, higher transportation costs will be acceptable.
• Agree on a kind of distributed fundamental agricultural pattern considering
and compromising food needs of the population, suitability of soil, climate, and
the yield per unit water generated by a given crop.
• Again, try to match this water demand by optimizing (i.e., minimizing) the
associated water production and transportation costs and meeting water-quality
requirements. This approach supposes a centralized planning effort based on
detailed local knowledge and comprehensible and approved guidelines.
• Finally, determine the best agricultural (or otherwise, since agriculture might
not remain the only option) use of the amount of water that is left given the total
water resources in a pure economic framework, i.e., comparing real water costs
and agricultural yield. If feasible, the reuse of treated domestic wastewater should
be put forward in the agricultural sector, since it represents the only selfdetermining option to enlarge the amount of water available.
This approach requires a high administrative effort, since water, associated
with highly different costs and conveyed at the same time in the same distribution
network, will be sold at prices depending on its use. Consumers will only live with
such a system if it is affordable, understandable, and acceptable to them. Any
management system of water resources incorporating more sustainability aspects
will require a joint authority empowered to harmonize the nomenclature and to
standardize definitions, testing, and procedures. This is particularly important to
avoid 'environmental dumping' through transfer of potential pollution sources
from a region with higher standards to another region with lower standards. Such
standards need to be jointly enforced.
Intracountry water marketing between sectors represents a way of optimizing
social benefits of water management. Intercountry water marketing might be
beneficial to all partners. These options should be further investigated. As a
technical precondition, the infrastructure for water distribution must be improved
in order to optimize the intra- and interregional water allocation. In this context
the establishment of a water carrier in the western side of the Jordan Valley is of
high priority.