AUC Hosts Water Forum in New York

By Mary Judith Sundstrom

Water, the source of life, is also the source of contention and sometimes strife around the world because it has no substitute. Nowhere is water more problematic than in the Middle East.

Three experts—an academic, an analyst, and an implementer—convened before an audience of diplomats, business leaders and scholars on Nov. 9, 1995 at the Union Club in New York City for a breakfast forum sponsored by the American University in Cairo (AUC). B. Boyd Hight, a partner with Messrs. O'Melveny & Myers and an AUC trustee, presided over the panel which addressed the topic, "Approaching the 21st Century: The Impact of Water on Mideast Peace and Development."

Nazli Choucri, an AUC alumna and professor of political science and head of the Middle East program at MIT, spoke in the context of sustainability of water supplies. "Basically the value of water is in its use, and in its utilization. Water not being used, or badly used, loses its value." Of the three sources of water—rivers, aquifers, and desalination plants—Dr. Choucri pointed to the vulnerability of the latter to conflict situations and the extreme dependence on imported technology.

Dr. Choucri also emphasized the need for water management and efficiency, especially in the transport and conveyance processes. She remarked upon the "tradable permits" theory espoused by Franklin M. Fisher of MIT in which ownership of water is separated from its use—thereby allowing one party to give up something in order to gain something else.

She summarized her points by calling for a comprehensive water assessment regionwide (without getting mired in questions of ownership and legal title), and for water authorities regionally and nationally to gain legitimacy and accountability.

She further suggested mechanisms for monitoring compliance and the use of incentives for more rational water resource use. Finally, she underscored the need to address questions of equity and develop responsive ways to recognize that factors such as demography and technological improvements will implicitly change water needs over time.

Mary E. Morris, associate director of the Greater Middle East Studies Center of the RAND corporation, commented that water is "one of the most important and probably one of the most unappreciated issues in the Middle East. Usually when we talk about resources in the Middle East, we think of the resource which is the most bountiful, and that is oil...But today we are talking about the resource which is the least available, the most scarce, water."

Ms. Morris stressed the interplay between politics and water within an historical context. She concurred with Dr. Choucri that governments in the Middle East have not given this issue the attention needed with respect to conservation policies and priorities—despite the urgency which unmanaged urbanization, industrial demands, and exploding populations have engendered. Instead, water allocation has widely been viewed as a zero-sum game.

Clouding the issue is the multinational dimension, since water is a resource transcending borders. There are problems of enforcement and lack of international consensus on the use of water.

Ms. Morris highlighted three problem areas: the Nile (Egypt, The Sudan, and Ethiopia); the Jordan, the Yarmuk, and aquifers in the West Bank and Gaza (Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon); and the Tigris and Euphrates (Syria, Turkey, Iraq).

A Strategic Concern

She cautioned that if there is ecological stress aggravated by unresolved political friction, water can become a strategic concern. In her opinion, the most serious water issues involve Gaza and the West Bank.

Richard LeBaron, director of the State Department's Office of Peace Process and Regional Affairs, opened his remarks by reaffirming the U.S. government's resolve to push forward with the peace process despite the difficulties, shock and outrage over the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin.

"Largely as a result of the Middle East peace process, the political, social, and economic landscape of the region is changing at a pace that would have been unimaginable just four years ago," he said. "In the Middle East peace process, the United States is expending considerable effort to bring the parties together on those issues where cooperation will result in benefits to all in the region."

The water resource group is one of five working groups in the multilateral track of the peace process. The four agenda items in the water group are: enhancing water data availability; water management practices, including conservation; enhancing water supply; and concepts of regional water management and cooperation.

Mr. LeBaron highlighted three activities undertaken by the water working group. First, the United States, in conjunction with the European Union, Canada, and France, has been facilitating a project on water data banks—focusing on the water data needs of the Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians. The goal of the project is to help the "core parties" attain similar capabilities and methods in water data acquisition, processing, analysis, and utilization. This project began two and a half years ago—prior to any of the bilateral agreements.

Second, the government of Oman leads a project to establish a Middle East Desalination Research Center, an international institution which will be open to all regional parties in the peace process. Based in Muscat, its mission is to enhance opportunities to utilize desalination and to lower the cost of producing desalinated water. It is hoped that the center will also create a working relationship with private sector firms in this field.

Third, the German government is conducting a study focusing on larger conceptual issues pertaining to development, namely water supply and demand to the year 2025. This study should reveal the scale of the problem and provide estimates of the amount of extra water needed to keep up with population growth and desired economic development in the future. Even with better water conservation and demand programs, new sources of water will have to be found. As the options all are expensive, Mr. LeBaron continued, regional cooperation will be all the more imperative. It is also clear that financing for water supply projects must transcend resources from the international donor community. Steps already have been taken to create a more investor-friendly environment—as evidenced by the recent Middle East-North Africa Economic Summit in Amman.

Mr. LeBaron concluded by saying that the handling of water issues in the peace process mirrors the high priority water projects are given in bilateral aid programs and development lending. What is encouraging to all concerned in the peace process is the growing ability of the parties to sort through water issues in negotiations.

Held first in October 1992, the AUC Forum is a panel discussion featuring top experts speaking on political, economic, social and cultural issues of importance to Egypt and the Middle East. It is held biannually in New York City. Anyone wanting more information about the AUC Forum program or the American University in Cairo may contact AUC's New York Office at 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 517, New York, NY 10017-1889, (212) 421-6320.

Mary Judith Sundstrom is AUC associate director for alumni and public relations in New York.