Water management, infrastructure, negotiations and cooperation: Use of the WAS model

Abstract

Joint efforts of Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian, Dutch, and American experts have produced an optimizing model for water management, infrastructure analysis, and conflict resolution. That model - 'WAS', for 'Water Allocation System' - applies economic analysis, broadly defined, to the solution of water problems. It provides a systematic and system-wide method for analyzing water policies, infrastructure, negotiations, and conflict resolution. Infrastructure questions investigated include the necessity of desalination on the Mediterranean Coast and - for Jordan - the somewhat complicated interrelations of the various projects being considered to alleviate the coming water crisis in Amman (including the Disi fossil aquifer and the oft-discussed Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal.) It is shown how the WAS model can assist negotiations. Estimates of the effects of the water loss to Israel in the event of a return of the Golan to Syria or the pumping of the Hasbani by Lebanon show the effects to be small. The possible effects of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in water are evaluated and shown to be a win-win situation for both parties. The WAS model provides a powerful tool for domestic infrastructure analysis. More importantly, water is shown not to be worth war and to be a potential source of cooperation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.