The water conflict in the Holy Land

(originally appeared in Thinking mission, July 2001)

Dr Jad Issac, a Palestinian christian looks at the struggle surrounding water resources in the Middle East and Palestine today.

‘For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive and honey’ (Deuteronomy 8.7-8)

A look at a satellite image of the Holy Land makes it difficult to believe that it is the same land described by early visitors as a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’. Barren hills have taken the place of what was once rolling woodland covered with thickets and forests. Deserts have replaced grassland. The winding Auja (Yarkon) now swims with refuse and is laced with chemical wastes. The Hula Lake and its surrounding marshes have been drained. The Sea of Galilee suffers from increasing pollution. A fetid trickle of swage now runs where once was the Jordan River. The environment of the Holy Land has been sacrificed at the altar of political ambitions.

The Holy Land, which totals 27,000 sq km, encompasses 6 million Israelis in an area of 21,000 sq km and 3.5 million Palestinians in an area of 6,000 sq km, of which only 40 percent are currently accessible. While the Holy Land is situated in a semi arid area, it is blessed with the presence of a fair amount of surface and groundwater resources that can meet the needs of its population if these water resources are managed properly and shared in a fair and just way. Regrettably, this is not the case...

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