Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo

No middle ground in fight for water

26 March 2008

Arts/law student Anna Landau with a young girl in Petra, Jordan.

I was sent to the non-government organisation Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), which works on environmental cross-border issues between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.

With head offices in Tel Aviv, Amman and Bethlehem, FoEME's primary objective is promoting cooperative efforts of sustainable regional development and protection of shared environmental heritage. Water management issues are a main focus, the Middle East being one of the world's most water scarce regions.

The Jordan River, a sacred river to the world's three monotheist religions, is described in the Bible as a thriving water source. But in reality the river hardly flows in most areas due to diversions by Israel, Jordan and Syria and has been reduced to little more than a raw sewage canal.

Many people would be shocked to know that tests show that if a person is baptised at the baptism site of Jesus in Jordan, they are likely to come out with a rash due to the pollution.

The diversion of freshwater from the Jordan River has also resulted in the shrinking of the Dead Sea, the world's saltiest water body and the lowest place on earth. Sitting on the Israeli and Jordanian borders, the Dead Sea basin is a cradle of human cultural, historic and religious value with sites dating from Ancient Near East civilisation; and the Dead Sea's remedial and therapeutic properties see millions of people flock to its waters annually.

Yet the Dead Sea is dropping one metre each year, having diminished to a third of its original surface area and twenty-five metres in depth. Moreover, in the last decade, more than 1,600 sink holes have appeared - spots where the land, once covered by water, has collapsed in on itself. This environmental damage is affecting the important tourism industry of the surrounding area.

The World Bank, with the support of the Israeli and Jordanian governments, has decided to build a water conduit over 200km long, bringing sea water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. This risky option would include dredging the coral reefs in Eilat/Aqaba and changing the composition of the waters of the Dead Sea itself. The World Bank has thus far refused to look at alternatives to this conduit, such as rejuvenating the Jordan River, the Dead Sea's historical, natural fresh water source.

I was in charge of writing a letter requesting an inspection of possible breaches of World Bank policies and procedures for failure to study vital alternatives. I also joined FoEME's international delegation from Kenya, Italy, Germany, England, the United States and Israel on a week-long tour through Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. The 'Politics of Water' tour covered the diverse micro-climates of the region -- the beautiful mountains of the Syrian-African Rift Valley, the silent, Wadi/Arava desert, and all the problems in between.