THE HANDSTAND

THE HANDSTAND

APRIL 2003

World Water Forum
13 March 2003
The Geneva-based International Federation at the core of the Forum's Debates promotes the humanitarian activities of 178 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies among vulnerable people. By coordinating international disaster relief and encouraging development support, it seeks to prevent and alleviate human suffering. The Federation, National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross together, constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

The World Water Forum which took place 17th-23 March, recognised that during the time-span of these Debates 48,000 children will have died because of lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies today.
The Federation secretary general, Didier Cherpitel said, "It's a telling statistic in an appalling litany which includes the fact that four million people die every year from water-related diseases and one billion people do not have access to a safe water supply. This presents a great challenge to governments and humanitarian organizations like ourselves in the century ahead."

The International Federation is calling on governments attending the World Water Forum to ensure meaningful progress is made on the issue of access to water amidst fears that the numbers of people living without clean water and adequate sanitation could rocket to five billion people by the year 2050.

The International Federation is used the occasion of the World Water Forum to hold a parallel meeting of its water and sanitation experts from around the world. "Our key concern at this year's meeting is to discuss ways of extending our community-based programmes particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We hope to be able to find new partners for this work at the Forum," said Uli Jaspers, head of water and sanitation at the Federation.

Worldwide, the Federation provides impoverished communities and victims of disasters with 20 million litres of water per day, benefiting approximately one million people in over 30 programmes at an annual cost of 50 million Swiss francs.

For further information,
Denis McClean, Head, Media Service - Tel: + 41 22 730 44 28 / + 41 79 217 33 57
Media Service Duty Phone - Tel: + 41 79 416 38 8 © 2002 International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

PLAIN FACTS DEBATED
water water everywhere
and not a drop tp drink!

World Water Forum promotes privatisation and deregulation of world's water

"Today, companies like France's Suez are rushing to privatize water, already a $400 billion global business. They are betting that H₂O will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th." - Fortune Magazine

The privatisation of water has a long and complicated history, even going back as early as the mid-nineteenth century when Napoleon III privatised water services in France. While many municipalities and communities have or are currently experimenting with different policies regarding water services, privatised water still accounts for only 10% of the world's water utilities.However, water privatisation recently got a big boost at a meeting of government ministers, representatives from the World Bank, the United Nations, and CEOs from some of the world's largest water and water-related corporations. The 2nd World Water Forum held on March 17-22, 2000 in Den Haag, the Netherlands provided just the political impetus these institutions needed to accelerate the process of global water deregulation and privatisation further into the corporate sphere.

Making water everybody's 'business'

The World Water Forums are the triennial meetings of the World Water Council - an international think-tank with considerable influence in the world of international water politics. After the 1st World Water Forum in Marrakech, Morocco in 1997, the World Water Council initiated its 'vision exercise' known as the "Long Term Vision for Water, Life and Environment in the 21st Century" - or "World Water Vision." The vision exercise, according to World Bank Vice-President and Chair of the World Water Council, Ismail Serageldin, was intended to "contribute to changing our world water future." The title of the vision document perhaps alludes to the changes Serageldin is referring to - "World Water Vision: Making Water Everybody's Business."

To "guide the World Water Vision exercise," in 1998 the Council created yet another entity called the World Water Commission.This Commission includes some high profile corporate and neo-liberal personalities including: Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux Chair Jerôme Monod; founder of the greenwash body, Business Council on Sustainable Development (now known as the WBCSD) Maurice Strong; former World Bank President Robert S. McNamara; President of the Inter-American Development Bank Enrique Iglesias; CEO of the World Bank/UN Global Environment Facility Mohamed T. El-Ashry; and Ismail Serageldin as Chair.

Skewed vision

The World Water Commission claims that the vision document is the result of 18 months of an "extraordinary participatory exercise," involving "thousands of men and women." However, close examination of the Commission's methodology reveals a different picture. The bulk of input into the vision exercise came from participants and groups attending the myriad of water-related conferences over the last one and a half years. While these conferences took place in various parts of the world, the majority of the participants to such events were mostly technical advisors, academics, water 'experts' and members of large development agencies and NGOs. People most directly affected by water crises around the world were often marginalised in such events. Urban slum dwellers, rural villagers, people afflicted by waterborne diseases, victims of World Bank-funded hydroelectric dam projects or those suffering from floods and droughts, have had almost no input into the 'vision exercise'. Yet despite, this, Serageldin refers to the vision as being reflective of "all stakeholders."

A look at "all the stakeholders"

Despite Serageldin's claims of being inclusive of "all stakeholders," A handful of organisations controlled and dominated the vision process. Chief among these were the World Water Council (WWC), World Commission on Water for the 21st Century (WCW), Global Water Partnership (GWP), World Bank, and the French water giant Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. Key positions in these organisations were also dominated by only a few key individuals, such as Ismail Serageldin who chaired all three water groups and served as Vice President of the World Bank.[6] No less than four people from top positions in Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux held influential positions in the different groups.[7]Of the 85 individuals and organisations who have contributed to the December 1999 draft of the World Water Vision document, only 19 did not have any direct links to one of the groups driving the vision process.[8]

A free market 'Framework for Action'???

While the Council and it's offspring, the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, provided the 'vision' for the Water Forum, it was left to their sister entity, the Global Water Partnership to develop and guide the Framework for Action. This document, suggests actions that governments should take to implement the Vision. The report includes some very controversial recommendations familiar to many who have been following trends in international trade and investment negotiations.

These include calls for: full liberalisation and deregulation of the water sector; 'national treatment' whereby transnational corporations should be given the same treatment as local enterprises and/or public authorities; transparency in government procurement of water contracts; trade facilitation - where governments should be more service-oriented to the private sector; and privatisation as much as feasible with mixed public-private partnership agreements being the next best thing. Other recommendations include the removal of all price and trade distorting subsidies; dispute settlement over water issues; promotion of agricultural biotechnologies; protection of property rights over water resources; and alarmingly reminiscent of the infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), a demand for a "stable and predictable investment climate" which would reinforce "investor rights."

All of the above recommendations and more are detailed in the Framework for Action, though coloured in terminology all too similar to the rhetoric traditionally used by many NGOs. Children's crayon drawings and the many references to gender, community empowerment, and land reform, help to paint what are far-reaching proposals to expand and reinforce corporate power over the world's water supplies in a more positive and acceptable light. While some of the proposals outlined in the report, could potentially be helpful in mitigating global water problems, they are largely undermined by what Ismail Serageldin describes as a future with the "private sector acting as engines of transformation on the ground."

CEOs take a stand

In the showroom area of the conference (the World Water Fair), corporations such as Nestlé, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, Unilever, and Heineken showcased their efforts to promote sustainability and water efficiency, while their CEOs addressed the assembly demanding that water be recognised as an economic good rather than as a human right. In fact, all the Forum rhetoric focused on human 'needs' as opposed to a concept of human 'rights', consistent with the World Water Vision in which the concept of water as a human right does not appear.
Another ideological victory that was won by the private sector and neo-liberal minded government officials at the Forum, was official recognition of the importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector. Public-Private Partnerships, whereby government and industry cooperate on a project (usually a public service), constitute a small percentage of the makeup of the world's water management systems. However, in light of the outcomes of the conference, this may very well increase in the next few years.
Numerous documents and workshops and individual speeches throughout the Forum all spoke of the successes of existing Public-Private Partnership models and the promises they bring.
Not once was it suggested that governments cannot afford to invest in their water services, because they are recovering from financial crises, asphyxiated by IMF-imposed structural adjustment programmes, and 'cash-strapped' because they are forced to spend a huge percentage of their annual budgets on servicing debts to donor countries and multilateral financial institutions.

Activists challenge the water forum consensus

However, not all was rosy for the conference organisers. Many groups did their best to raise a critical voice to the whole process. In one session on Public-Private Partnerships, a Filipino member of a public sector union in Manila, stood up in the audience and displayed a sample of Manila tap water after one such partnership was implemented with Lyonnaise des Eaux. The yellow-brown water held aloft in a small bottle proved to be quite an embarrassment for Jack Moss, marketing director of Lyonnaise des Eaux, who had just completed a dry presentation on the success of the Manila project - one of the largest water privatisation projects to date.

Some members of Los Solidarios con Itoiz, a group seeking to stop the construction of the Itoiz dam in the Basque country, managed to interrupt the opening ceremony with a well organised action including a banner drop inside the main hall, a chorus of protest from the audience, and a 'naked truth' action on stage demanding "No Profits from Water" and "Stop Itoiz Dam". The protesters were jailed for three days, most likely because of the embarrassment it caused the Dutch government and particularly Prince Willem Alexander who served as convenor for the Forum. Members of Public Services International, the Council of Canadians, the Nepal-based International Institute for Human Rights, Environment and Development, and others also made numerous interventions throughout the conference, yet much of what they said fell on deaf ears. It didn't take long to figure out that the conclusions of the Forum were not the product of open discussion at the conference, but were worked out long ago. In that respect, the Forum itself served more as a high-profile PR event to highlight those foregone conclusions rather than the forum for open debate it was promoted to be.

Water, a resource essential to human survival, has long proven difficult and controversial for corporations, as recent mass protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia illustrated. There, people suffering from a dramatic rate hike in water services after a controversial privatisation agreement was made between the local municipality and San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., refused to accept it. Soon after it emerged that the privatisation was a condition placed upon the Bolivian government by the World Bank. The protests forced the government to reduce the water rates and re-evaluate the contract with Bechtel, and sparked off a massive public debate about democratic decision-making and accountability. The uprising sent a chill down the spine of Bechtel Corp., and other water giants keen on penetrating new markets.
However, with the ideological and political backing of the world's governments, politicians, and institutions such as the World Bank and the UN behind them, corporations may now find things have just become easier.

Some Water Facts:

·The underground aquifer that supplies one-third of the water for the continental US is being depleted 8 times faster than it is being replenished.

·Saudi Arabia is a net exporter of wheat using non-renewable water reserves. It is expected to have completely depleted all of its reserves within 50 years.

·The manufacture of computer wafers, used in the production of computer chips, uses up to 18 million litres of water per day. Globally, the industry uses 1.5 trillion litres of water and produces 300 billion litres of wastewater every year.

·Available fresh water amounts to less than one half of one percent of all the water on Earth. The rest is sea water, or is frozen in the polar ice. Fresh water is naturally renewable only by rainfall, at the rate of 40-50,000 cubic km per year.

·In India, some households pay a staggering 25 percent of their income on water.

·Poor residents of Lima, Peru, pay private vendors as much as $3 for a cubic meter for buckets of often-contaminated water while the more affluent pay 30 cents per cubic meter for treated municipal tap water.

·More than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused by drinking poor-quality water.

·More than one billion people live in arid regions that will face absolute water scarcity by 2025.

Sources: Barlow, Maude, "Blue Gold". Yaron, Gil, "The Final Frontier". Public Services International: http://www.world-psi.org, Fortune magazine, World Water Vision.

The UN World Water Development Report just
released!
Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation and President of the World Water Council, explains: “Increasing scarcity, competition and arguments over water in the first quarter of the 21 st century will dramatically change the way we value and use water and the way we mobilise and manage water resources. Innovative ways of using this precious commodity have to be found to protect ecosystems and ensure food for the billions on this planet.”

For the first time, 23 United Nations agencies and convention secretariats have combined their efforts and expertise to produce the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on the state of the world's freshwater resources. The World Water development Report was officially launched at the occasion of World Water Day, March the 22nd, during the 3d World Water Forum.

First UN system-wide evaluation of global water resources

Paris - Faced with “inertia at the leadership level”, the global water crisis will reach unprecedented levels in the years ahead with “growing per capita scarcity of water in many parts of the developing world”, according to a United Nations report made public today. Water resources will steadily decline because of population growth, pollution and expected climate change.

The World Water Development Report - Water for People, Water for Life - is the most comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the state of the resource. Presented on the eve of the Third World Water Forum (Kyoto, Japan, March 16 – 23), it represents the single most important intellectual contribution to the Forum and the International Year of Freshwater, which is being led by UNESCO and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

To compile the report, every UN agency and commission dealing with water has for the first time worked jointly to monitor progress against water-related targets in such fields as health, food, ecosystems, cities, industry, energy, risk management, economic evaluation, resource sharing and governance. The 23 UN partners constitute the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), whose secretariat is hosted by UNESCO.

“Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth,” says UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.

Despite widely available evidence of the crisis, political commitment to reverse these trends has been lacking. A string of international conferences over the past 25 years has focused on the great variety of water issues including ways to provide the basic water supply and sanitation services required in the years to come. Several targets have been set to improve water management but “hardly any”, says the report, “have been met.”

“Attitude and behaviour problems lie at the heart of the crisis,” says the report, “inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective actions”.

Many countries and territories are already in a state of crisis. The report ranks over 180 countries and territories in terms of the amount of renewable water resources available per capita, meaning all of the water circulating on the surface, in the soil or deeper underground
The poorest in terms of water availability is Kuwait (where 10 m³ is available per person each year) followed by Gaza Strip (52 m³), United Arab Emirates (58 m³), Bahamas (66 m³), Qatar (94 m³), Maldives (103 m³), Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (113 m³), Saudi Arabia (118 m³), Malta (129 m³) and Singapore (149 m³).

The top ten water-rich countries (with the exception of Greenland and Alaska) are: French Guiana (812,121 m³ available per person per year), Iceland (609,319 m³), Guyana (316,689 m³), Suriname (292,566 m³), Congo (275,679 m³), Papua New Guinea (166,563 m³), Gabon (133,333 m³), Solomon Islands (100,000 m³), Canada (94,353 m³), New Zealand (86,554 m³).
ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES
By the middle of this century, at worst seven billion people in 60 countries will be faced with water scarcity, at best 2 billion in 48 countries, depending on factors like population growth and policy-making. Climate change will account for an estimated 20% of this increase in global water scarcity, according to the report. Humid areas will probably see more rain, while it is expected to decrease and become more erratic in many drought-prone regions and even some tropical and sub-tropical regions. Water quality will worsen with rising pollution levels and water temperatures.
.POLLUTION
The water crisis “is set to worsen despite continuing debate over the very existence of such a crisis,” says the report. About 2 million tons of waste are dumped every day into rivers, lakes and streams. One litre of wastewater pollutes about eight litres of freshwater. According to calculations in the report, there is an estimated 12,000 km³ of polluted water worldwide, which is more than the total amount contained in the world’s ten largest river basins at any given moment. Therefore, if pollution keeps pace with population growth, the world will effectively lose 18,000 km³ of freshwater by 2050 – almost nine times the total amount countries currently use each year for irrigation, which is by far the largest consumer of the resource. Irrigation currently accounts for 70% of all water withdrawals worldwide.
QUALITY
The report ranks 122 countries according to the quality of their water as well as their ability and commitment to improve the situation . Belgium is considered the worst basically because of the low quantity and quality of its groundwater combined with heavy industrial pollution and poor treatment of wastewater. It is followed by Morocco, India, Jordan, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic and Rwanda.

The list of countries with the best quality is headed by Finland followed by Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Sweden and France.

“The poor continue to be the worst affected, with 50% of the population in developing countries exposed to polluted water sources,” says the report. Asian rivers are the most polluted in the world, with three times as many bacteria from human waste as the global average. Moreover, these rivers have 20 times more lead than those of industrialized countries.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS
“The future of many parts of the world looks bleak,” says the report, in reference to projected population growth, which will continue to be a driving factor in the water crisis. Per capita water supplies decreased by a third between 1970 and 1990, according to the report. Even though birth rates are slowing down, the world’s population should still reach about 9.3 billion by 2050 (compared to 6.1 billion of 2001).

“Water consumption has almost doubled in the last 50 years. A child born in the developed world consumes 30 to 50 times the water resources of one in the developing world. Meanwhile water quality continues to worsen […]. Every day, 6000 people, mostly children under the age of five, die from diarrhoeal diseases,” says the report. “These statistics illustrate the enormity of the problems facing the world with respect to its water resources, and the startling disparities that exist in its utilization.”
GOVERNMENTS IN CRISIS
Against this background, the report takes an in-depth look at every major dimension of water use and management – from the growth of cities to the threat of looming water wars between countries. A single thread runs through each section: the water crisis - be it the number of children dying of disease or polluted rivers - is a crisis of governance and a lack of political will to manage the resource wisely.

“Globally, the challenge lies in raising the political will to implement water-related commitments,” says the report. “Water professionals need a better understanding of the broader social, economic and political context, while politicians need to be better informed about water resource issues. Otherwise water will continue to be an area for political rhetoric and lofty promises instead of sorely needed actions.”

With more than 25 world maps, numerous charts, graphs and seven case studies of major river basins, the report analyzes how diverse societies cope with water scarcity, including policies that work or don’t work. It lays the foundations – through the World Water Assessment Programme - for the UN to regularly monitor and report on the state of the resource by developing a set of standardized methodologies, data and indicators.

The report WAS formally presented to the international community on World Water Day, March 22nd, during the World Water Forum in Kyoto. A series of high-level panel discussions WERE organized to discuss the results.

Chapter highlights:

Health and Economics
“The 21st century is the century in which the overriding problem is one of water quality and management,” says the report. More than 2.2 million people die each year from diseases related to contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation. Water vector-borne diseases also take a heavy toll: about a million people die from malaria each year and more than 200 million suffer from schistosomiasis, known as bilharzias. “Yet these terrible losses, with the waste and suffering they represent, are preventable.”

The report explains that cultural factors further complicate the logistical and financial difficulties in providing adequate sanitation.

If the current level of investment were maintained, all regions in the world could reach or come close to both goals, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report. But “in absolute terms, the investment needs of Asia outstrip those of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined.” It is estimated that the first interventions would cost about US$12.6 billion.

Questions remain as to the source of this investment. “Financing the Millennium Development Goals will probably be one of the most important challenges that the international community will have to face over the next 15 years,” says the report.

The report outlines debates over water pricing and privatization. “Although it is considered essential to involve the private sector in water resource management,” according to the executive summary of the report, “it should be seen as a financial catalyst – not so much as a precondition – for project development […]. Control of the assets and the resource should remain in the hands of the government and users.”

The report also insists that any privatization or water-pricing scheme must include mechanisms to protect the poor. “A disturbing fact is that poor people with the most limited access to water supply have to pay significantly more for water.” In Delhi (India), for example, vendors charge the poor US$4.89 per m³, while families with piped connections pay just US$0.01, according to a survey published in the report. In Vientiane (Lao PDR), vendors charge $US14.68 per m³, compared to municipal tariffs of US$0.11.

Agriculture
About 25,000 people die every day from hunger, according to the report. An estimated 815 million people suffer from undernourishment: 777 million in developing countries, 27 million in countries in transition and 11 million in industrialized countries.

“The absolute number of undernourished people is reducing at a much slower rate,” says the report, despite the fact that “food production is satisfying the market demand at historically low prices”.
Previous estimates did not distinguish between rainfed and irrigated crops. By factoring in this distinction, the report presents more precise projections concerning the water required to feed the world today and in the future.

According to these new calculations, another 45 million hectares will be irrigated by 2030 in 93 developing countries, where most of the population growth will take place. About 60% of all land that could be irrigated will be in use. This will require an increase by 14% of irrigation water, according to the report.

Of the some 170 countries and territories surveyed, 20 are already using more than 40% of their renewable water resources for irrigation , “a threshold used to flag the level at which countries are forced to make difficult choices between their agricultural and urban water supply sectors”, says the report. Another 16 countries use more than 20%, “which can indicate impending water scarcity. By 2030 South Asia will on average have reached the 40% level, and the Near East and North Africa not less than 58%.”

By contrast, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and East Asia are likely to remain far below the critical threshold. These regions will see the bulk of agricultural expansion in the next 30 years.

The challenge lies in improving efficiency of land and water use. Irrigation is extremely inefficient – close to 60% of the water used is wasted. This will only improve by an estimated total of 4%. There is a tremendous need to improve the financing of better technology and to promote better management practices.

On a more positive note, average grain yields doubled between 1962 and 1996, from 1.4 to 2.8 tons/hectares/crop. This means that less than half the amount of arable land is now required to grow the same amount of grain. “By 2030, it is expected that 80% of increased crop production will come from higher yields, increased multiple cropping and shorter fallow periods,” says the report.

Hardy Corn: Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known as CIMMYT, one of 16 CGIAR centers, have created hardy new breeds of tropical corn that can
increase harvests by 40 percent in the tough environments of the developing world.

New Rice: New, water-saving techniques are being developed that could save up to 25 percent
of the water now used to grow rice, according to scientists at two CGIAR centers -- the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in Manila, the Philippines, and the
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Durable Wheat -- Researchers have been able to modify wheat, once mostly restricted to
temperate and subtropical zones, to make it productive even in hot climates. One main reason for growing wheat is it requires less water than rice.

“Towards 2050, the world could enjoy access to food for all,” says the report. “The fact that 815 million are presently ravaged by chronic undernourishment is not due to a lack of capacity to produce the required food, but to global and national social, economic and political contexts that permit, and sometimes cause, unacceptable levels of poverty to perpetuate.”

According to the World Water Development Report:

Using treated wastewater could ease the water crisis. Farmers already use this resource for about 10% of irrigated land in developing countries and could use more. With proper treatment, it can actually improve soil fertility.

Food security is improving globally. Per capita food consumption in developing countries rose from 2,054 kcal per day in 1965 to 2,681 in 1998.

Pastures and crops take up 37% of the Earth’s land area.

About 10% of the world’s irrigated lands have been damaged by waterlogging and salinization because of poor drainage and irrigation practices.

Ecology
The report describes a vicious circle unleashed by growing water demand. By depleting and polluting rivers, lakes and wetlands, we are destroying ecosystems which play an essential role in filtering and assuring freshwater resources.

In the United States, 40% of water bodies assessed in 1998 were not deemed fit for recreational use due to nutrient, metal and agricultural pollution. Furthermore only five out of 55 rivers in Europe are considered pristine, according to the report and, in Asia, all rivers running through cities are badly polluted. 60% of the world’s 227 largest rivers are severely fragmented by dams, diversions and canals leading to the degradation of ecosystems.

Turning to the animal life of inland waters, the report says that 24% of mammals and 12% of birds are threatened. Between 34 and 80 fish species have become extinct since the late 19th century, six since 1970. Only about 10% of the world’s fish species, the majority from inland waters, have been studied in detail, yet a third are at risk.

International Conflict and Cooperation

MAIN STREET PALESTINIAN VILLAGE
There is a total of 507 conflictive events. Only 37 involved violence, of which 21 consisted of military acts (18 between Israel and its neighbours).

“Some of the most vociferous enemies around the world have negotiated water agreements or are in the process of doing so concerning international rivers,” says the report. “The Mekong Committee, for example, continued to exchange data throughout the Viet Nam War. The Indus River Commission survived through two wars between India and Pakistan. And all ten Nile riparian states are currently involved in negotiations over development of the basin.”

There are 261 international rivers basins, involving 145 nations. About one third of these basins are shared by more than two countries, and 19 involve five or more. According to the report, a good part of Africa and the Middle East depend upon these shared resources for more than half their water supplies as does the southern tip of Latin America.
GROUNDWATER
(JORDAN VALLEY EXAMPLE:Renewal of water resources depends on the overall amount of precipitation and is affected by temperature, evaporation and transpiration to plants (evapotranspiration), as well as rates of runoff and groundwater infiltration (recharge). On the western side of the Jordan Rift Valley, an average of approximately 30 percent (%) of the total precipitation that falls on the region is usable: 70% is lost through evapotranspiration, 5% is runoff, leaving 25% to recharge groundwater. On the eastern side of the Jordan Rift Valley, 90% of the total precipitation is lost to evapotranspiration, 5% is runoff, leaving only 5% for groundwater recharge. Of the 5% to 25% that infiltrates to groundwater, a portion eventually is discharged into streams or springs which then are classified as surface-water resources. The remaining infiltrated water is stored in the ground-water reservoirs (aquifers) and potentially is available for withdrawal from wells. )

While much attention has been paid to international rivers, groundwater supplies (aquifers) have been largely ignored, despite the massive volumes of generally high-quality water involved (estimated at 23,400,000 km³ compared with the 42,800 km³ in rivers). Many decision-makers are not even aware that they share aquifers with other countries. The report presents the preliminary findings of a UN initiative to compile the first global map and inventory of these resources.

It also presents the first map of the world’s groundwater resources. Aquifers store as much as 98% of accessible water supplies. Between 600 to 700 km³ are extracted each year, providing about 50% of the world’s drinking supply, 40% of industrial demands and 20% of irrigated agriculture, according to the report. These proportions vary widely from country to country and are presented in a detailed chart.

Cities
“When infrastructure and services are lacking, urban areas lacking water infrastructure are among the world’s most life threatening environments,” says the report. According to a survey of 116 cities, urban areas in Africa are the worst served, with only 18% of households connected to sewers. The connection rate in Asia is just over 40%.

“The poor of these cities are the first victims of sanitation-related disease, flooding and even a rising rate of water-borne disease like malaria, which is now among the main causes of illness and death in many urban areas,” says the report. In South Asia, for example, the Anopheles stephensi mosquito has actually adapted its breeding habits around the ubiquitous rooftop water storage tankers.

“From a public health perspective,” says the report, “it is better to provide a whole city’s population with safe supplies to taps within 50 metres of their home than to provide only the richest 20% of households with water piped to their home.”

The report also outlines several reasons as to why cities and towns should take priority over rural areas when choices must be made. First, the unit costs of the required infrastructure are lower because urban areas provide significant economies of scale and proximity. Secondly, many cities have a more prosperous economic base than rural areas, providing greater possibilities to raise revenues for water provision. Thirdly, “urban areas concentrate not only people and enterprises but also their wastes.”

Industrial Use
Today industry accounts for 22% of total water use in the world: 59% in high-income countries and 8% in low-income countries. The report predicts that this average will reach 24% by 2025, when industry uses an estimated 1,170 km³/year.

Every year, 300 – 500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes accumulate in water resources from industry. More than 80% of the world’s hazardous waste is produced in the United States and other industrial countries.

Natural Disaster Risk
The report outlines the need to make risk reduction an integral part of water resource management. While the number of geophysical disasters like earthquakes and landslides has remained fairly steady, the scale and number of water-related events (droughts and floods) has more than doubled since 1996. During the past decade, 665,000 people were killed by natural disasters. Over 90% lost their lives in floods and droughts. 35% of these disasters occurred in Asia, 29% in Africa, 20% in the Americas, 13% in Europe and the rest in Oceania.

Energy
Hydropower is the most important and widely used renewable source of energy, providing 19% of total electricity production in 2001. Industrialized countries are exploiting about 70% of their electricity potential, compared to 15% in developing countries, according to the report. Canada is the largest producer followed by the United States and Brazil. Untapped hydro-resources are still abundant in Latin America, India and China.

“By developing half of this potential, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 13%,” says the report. However, it also points to the many negative impacts of dam construction, including displacement of local populations and environmental damage (like loss of biodiversity and wetlands).

World Water Portal

WWAP, together with other partners, is developing the World Water Portal, to provide seamless access to a wide body of water information to decision-makers, water managers, technicians and the public at large. Before going global, a prototype water portal has been developed for the Americas to test ways of sharing information among local, national and regional water organizations: http://www.waterportal-americas.org

The Executive Summary of the UN World Water Development Report is available online in 7 languages. In addition to these languages, Chinese and Bahasa-Malay are expected soon.

Source Unescopress
Contact name Amy Otchet
Contact email a.otchet@unesco.org

For more details on the water environment and its problems and challenges, please visit the UNICEF Water , Environment and Sanitation website at http://www.unicef.org/programme/wes/

Water is oxygen within Hydrogen Bonds

Polar molecules, such as water molecules, have a weak, partial negative charge at one region of the molecule (the oxygen atom in water) and a partial positive charge elsewhere (the hydrogen atoms in water). Thus when water molecules are close together, their positive and negative regions are attracted to the oppositely-charged regions of nearby molecules. The force of attraction, shown here as a dotted line, is called a hydrogen bond. Each water molecule is hydrogen bonded to four others.

The hydrogen bonds that form between water molecules account for some of the essential - and unique - properties of water.

the attraction created by hydrogen bonds keeps water liquid over a wider range of temperature than is found for any other molecule its size
the energy required to break multiple hydrogen bonds causes water to have a high heat of vaporization; that is, a large amount of energy is needed to convert liquid water, where the molecules are attracted through their hydrogen bonds, to water vapor, where they are not.

Two Outcomes of this:

the evaporation of sweat, used by many mammals to cool themselves, achieves this by the large amount of heat needed to break the hydrogen bonds between water molecules
moderating temperature shifts in the ecosystem (which is why the climate is more moderate near large bodies of water like the ocean)

The hydrogen bond has only 5% or so of the strength of a covalent bond. However, when many hydrogen bonds can form between two molecules (or parts of the same molecule), the resulting union can be sufficiently strong as to be quite stable.

Multiple hydrogen bonds

hold the two strands of the DNA double helix together
hold polypeptides together in such secondary structures as the alpha helix and the beta conformation
help enzymes bind to their substrate
help antibodies bind to their antigen
help transcription factors bind to each other
help transcription factors bind to DNA

A PROBLEM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE DEAD SEA

Water levels in the Dead Sea are dropping rapidly due to declining rainfall, and an increase in the amount of irrigation water being taken from the River Jordan.

Water flows in from the River Jordan and other sources, but there is no outflow - it simply evaporates, concentrating the salts in the water into brine.

In the summer water levels went below the danger line where it is believed that salt waters may begin to cause damage to this lake, its supplies and its ecology. Meanwhile, demand for water grows.

As Meir Ben Meir, Israel's Water Commissioner prepared for retirement(june,2000), he painted a gloomy picture of possible conflict over water between Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Syria.

"At the moment, I project the scarcity of water within 5 years," he says.

"I can promise that if there is not sufficient water in our region, if there is scarcity of water, if people remain thirsty for water, then we shall doubtless face war."

The Jordan Valley is not unique. In other ancient water systems - the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates - there is also a danger of conflict over water.

Overview of Middle East Water Resources

(1998)

Water is the most precious and valuable natural (and national) resource in the Middle East, vital for socioeconomic growth, sustainability of the environment, and—when considered in the extreme—for survival. This publication presents an overview of Middle East water resources in areas of Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian interest. Area and site-specific hydrologic, meteorologic, and geologic data provided by water-resources agencies of the region are presented to allow a broad depiction of the overall water conditions in the region.

This publication was developed as part of the Middle East Water Data Banks Project, which encourages management and protection of water resources on a regional basis. Work was completed as a cooperative effort among the three Core Parties and was coordinated under the umbrella of the Water Working Group of the Middle East Multilateral Peace Process. The participating water-resources institutions are the Palestinian Water Authority, Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation, and Israeli Hydrological Service.

Population and Water Supply

The available supply of water varies areally and temporally; and is influenced by climate, available water-resources technology, and management practices. Water use will continue to increase with population and economic growth and will be further influenced by the modernization of agricultural practices, as well as governmental, socioeconomic, and developmental policies.

The supply of water is limited to that naturally renewed by the hydrologic cycle or artificially replenished by anthropogenic (human) activities. Period-ically, the amount of natural replenishment can exceed water demands during unusually wet periods or fall far below demands during drought periods. The reality of growing needs for a limited resource is one of the factors driving water con-servation efforts and considerations of alternate water sources.

Renewal of water resources depends on the overall amount of precipitation and is affected by temperature, evaporation and transpiration to plants (evapotranspiration), as well as rates of runoff and groundwater infiltration (recharge). On the western side of the Jordan Rift Valley, an average of approximately 30 percent (%) of the total precipitation that falls on the region is usable: 70% is lost through evapotranspiration, 5% is runoff, leaving 25% to recharge groundwater. On the eastern side of the Jordan Rift Valley, 90% of the total precipitation is lost to evapotranspiration, 5% is runoff, leaving only 5% for groundwater recharge. Of the 5% to 25% that infiltrates to groundwater, a portion eventually is discharged into streams or springs which then are classified as surface-water resources. The remaining infiltrated water is stored in the ground-water reservoirs (aquifers) and potentially is available for withdrawal from wells.

Water distribution systems, such as the Israeli National Water Carrier and the Jordanian King Abdullah Canal, distribute water from areas of water surplus to areas of water deficiency.

Total water withdrawal in the region in 1994 was about 3,050 million cubic meters (MCM), of which 56% was withdrawn from wells, 35% from springs and surface-water sources, and 9% from wastewater reuse and artificially recharged water. The estimated total renewable water supply that is practically available in the region is about 2,400 million cubic meters per year (MCM/yr). There is then a water deficit in the region of about 375 MCM/yr that is being pumped from the aquifers without being replenished. Available water supply can be enhanced or expanded to a limited extent by desalination of brackish or sea water sources, leak reduction in infrastructure systems, water awareness and conservation where appropriate, dam construction and/or enlargement, and the increased use of treated wastewater.

Climate

Natural replenishment of water resources in the Middle East varies greatly, as shown below on the map of average annual rainfall which exhibits large changes in relatively small distances across the region. A Mediterranean-type climate, characterized by a hot, dry summer and cool winter with short transitional seasons predominates in the northern, central, and western parts of the region. The eastern and southern parts of the region have a semi-arid to arid climate. Winter begins around mid-November and summer begins around the end of May. Rainfall occurs mainly during the winter months.

The Middle East experiences extreme seasonal variations in climate, as shown below in graphs of average monthly rainfall, potential evaporation, and average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for various locations. Large rainfall variations also occur from year to year, as shown in the graph of annual rainfall for Jerusalem. Consecutive years of relatively high or low annual rainfall have an enormous effect on the region and, in the case of dry years, present the greatest challenge to manage the region's precious water resources. These consecutive-year patterns also may affect water-use practices, policies, and expectations.

Climate characteristics exhibit large changes from one area to another and across seasons and years. As shown on the rainfall map, average rainfall decreases from west to east and from north to south, ranging from 1,200 millimeters (mm) at the northern tip of the region to less than 50 mm in the desert areas. Rainfall less than 200 millimeters per year (mm/yr) constrains development of rainfed agriculture in about half of the area on the western side, and 90% of the area on the eastern side of the Jordan Rift Valley.

Temperature also varies across the area, generally according to latitude and altitude and by physiographic province (see next pages for description of provinces). The hilly areas of the Mountain Belt and Jordan Highland and Plateau experience cold winters and hot summers. In Amman and Jerusalem, average daily mean temperatures for January range from about 7 to 9 degrees Celsius (°C), whereas, in summer, the average mean temperature is about 24 °C. Average daily mean temperatures in the Jordan Rift Valley area range from about about 15 °C in the winter to about

31 °C in the summer. In the Coastal Plain, average daily temperatures are between 16 and 22 °C in the winter and between 20 and 31 °C in the summer. The desert region has a continental climate with a wide range of temperatures. In August average daily maximum temperatures are between 34 and 38 °C. In winter, the air is very cold and dry with an average daily minimum temperature between 2 and 9 °C. When air from a cold, polar origin penetrates the region, temperatures decrease to below the freezing point. The region periodically experiences very hot days during the spring and autumn, called Sharav or Khamasini, that may produce temperature rises from 10 to 20 °C above average, and reach from 40 to 45 °C in many areas.

Physical Geography (WHAT IS A WATER YEAR?)
The hydrologic year runs from October 1 to September 30. Year dates in the text of this report refer to water years, not calendar years.

Coastal Plain — Located along the Mediterranean Sea, the Coastal Plain is home to over one fourth of the region's inhabitants. It is characterized by a flat topography with a white-sand shoreline, bordered by fertile farmlands. The Coastal Plain is formed by the emergent surface of the continental shelf, consisting of thick Nile-derived sediments covered by eolian sands of Quaternary age.

Mountain Belt — Formed of sedimentary rocks originally deposited as flat layers that were folded in southern and central areas. In northern areas, including the mountains west of Lake Tiberias and their transverse valleys, the sedimentary rocks were offset by faulting. The Mountain Belt rises to elevations from 500 to 1,200 m above sea level. Cooling of coastal air masses as they rise over the mountains in northern areas results in relatively high rainfall.

Negev — An arid zone that does not support a large popu-lation. In the northern Negev, Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary rocks were folded into a northwest-oriented mountain belt. The central Negev is charac-terized by low sandstone hills and plains. These highly erodible areas are deeply incised by wadis which flow after winter rains and often produce flash floods. Further south, the region becomes an area of volcanic craters, rock-strewn plateaus, and rugged mountains. Several large east-west oriented faults occur in the Negev.

Jordan Rift Valley — This dominant physiographic and geologic feature is a 375-kilometer (km) long strike-slip fault zone that affects the climate, hydrology, and anthropogenic activities of the region. Vertical displacement of the faults of more than 3,000 m resulted in the development of the Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias, and the Dead Sea. The elevation of the rift valley drops to about 400 m below sea level at the present shores of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth. North of the Dead Sea, the valley has long been used for agriculture because of avaliable water from the Jordan River and numerous springs along the flanks of the valley.

Western and Eastern Escarpments of the Jordan Rift Valley — Formed as the Jordan Rift Valley deepened, causing abrupt valley walls and deeply incised wadis across the escarpments. The area is characterized by deep canyons that cut through Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks into underlying rocks of Precambrian to Lower Cretaceous age.

Jordan Highland and Plateau — Jordan Highland consists mainly of deeply-incised Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that rise to elevations of as much as 1,200 m. These elevations drop gradually eastward toward the Jordan Plateau, which is characterized by flat open country with shallow incised wadis draining inland toward the various depressions. Basalt flows have markedly smoothed the relief in parts of the plateau.

South Jordan Desert — Extremely arid region characterized by mountains of exposed Paleozoic sandstone, dune deposits, and exposed Precambrian crystalline rocks near the Red Sea. Several extensive northwest-southeast oriented fault occur in this area.

Groundwater

Groundwater from wells and springs is the most important source of water supply in the region, providing more than half of the total water consumption. Groundwater is contained in openings in water-bearing rock units called aquifers. The volume of the openings and the other water-bearing characteristics of the aquifers depend on the mineral composition, texture, and structure of the rocks. Groundwater generally moves very slowly and follows the least resistive (most permeable) pathway from the point of recharge (where water enters the aquifer) to the point of discharge (where water leaves the aquifer). Shallow groundwater generally moves at rates up to one meter per day or greater. An exception is in aquifers that have conduit-like openings, such as basalt and karstic (cavernous) limestone, where water may move much faster. Deeply circulating groundwater moves extremely slowly—sometimes as little as a meter or less per century.

The flow of groundwater may be inhibited by non-water bearing rock units called aquicludes. Aquicludes typically consist of clay, silt, or shale which do not transmit water readily, although they may hold much water in pore spaces. Aquicludes influence patterns of flow in aquifers by restricting groundwater movement. Confined aquifers occur where an aquifer is filled by water and is overlain by an aquiclude. Unconfined aquifers occur where an aquifer is not overlain by an aquiclude. Geologic structure (lithology) also controls flow patterns in aquifers, either by providing barriers restricting flow or by providing a less-resistive pathway for flow. The geologic structure and topography determines if the groundwater will be discharged as springs or remain underground until tapped by wells.

The importance of an aquifer as a source of water may change from one area to another because of changes in demands for freshwater, variations in groundwater quality, and differences in the hydrogeologic characteristics. Lithologic changes in a formation may result in its being an aquifer in some locations and an aquiclude in others. The most productive aquifers of the region are in Quaternary sand and gravel in the Coastal Plain; Cretaceous limestone in the Mountain Belt, eastern and western escarpments of the Jordan Rift Valley, and Jordan Highland; basalt of the Jordan High-land and Plateau; and sandstone of the South Jordan Desert. Other aquifers include water-bearing zones of limestone and sandstone of lower productivity. Water occurs in pore spaces in the sand and gravel, pore spaces and cavernous zones in the limestone and sandstone, and in fractured zones in the basalt.

Freshwater supplies may be obtained from wells drilled to shallow depths in the Coastal Plain and Jordan Rift Valley; and from deeper wells (as much as 650 m) in the Mountain Belt, Jordan Highland and Plateau, and the desert regions. Generally, water depths are greatest in the mountain ranges and desert regions, and shallowest in valley floors and in the Coastal Plain.

In addition to wells, springs provide a source of water supply from aquifers and form the headwaters of many streams and wadis. Springs occur where the water table intersects the surface topography and are common where geologic structures, such as faults, provide an outlet for groundwater discharge. Springs represent visible discharge from aquifers; invisible or concealed discharges include seepages, evaporation, transpiration to plants, and hidden springs. Under natural conditions, aquifers discharge water in an amount proportional to total annual infiltration (recharge).

Groundwater Basins

Groundwater resources of the region are subdivided into groundwater basins on the basis of:

a natural boundary that does not change with time, such as one determined by structural features, intervening layers, or aquifer extent;
a boundary that may change with time, such as an underground watershed or groundwater divide which may change in response to pumpage or recharge; or
a boundary designated solely for administrative or operative reasons.

Although many basins have been designated by the various water-resources institutions in the region, in this report groundwater resources are generalized into 20 basins solely on the basis of hydrogeological factors. These include ground-water divides of the most important regional aquifer system, the limits of an aquifer, or important physiographic features.

The natural boundaries of one aquifer will not coincide with those of another aquifer. Thus, a basin may contain several aquifers of different ages and areal extent occurring at different depths.

Groundwater Recharge

Although a rock formation may have properties favorable for storage of water, it must be in contact with a source of water for replenishment (recharge) to provide a continual supply of water. Groundwater is derived from two origins: (1) fossil, which receives no or only a very small amount of recharge; or (2) recent and renewable.

Fossil aquifers are non-renewable and are found mostly in the southern and eastern parts of the region. Water probably infiltrated the fossil aquifers tens of thousands of years ago, when the prevailing climate was more humid. Because water pumped from fossil aquifers is not replenished, groundwater levels show a continual decline as the water is "mined" from beneath the ground.

Recent and renewable recharge is derived naturally from precipitation, or from streams, wadis, lakes, ponds, or other impoundments that seep through soil into the aquifers. In addition, recharge may be induced by anthropogenic activities that are intentional, such as injection wells or seepage ponds, or unintentional, such as irrigation seepage, wastewater infiltration, or pipe leakage.

Estimates of annual ground-water recharge for the 20 groundwater basins were derived by the various water-resources agencies of the region and are illustrated below. Estimates were determined by summing all points of discharge, with the assumption that this sum equals aquifer recharge. For each groundwater basin estimated recharge includes:

discharge into surface runoff, including measured spring discharge and estimated discharge into surface-water bodies;
pumped discharge from wells (measured);
evapotranspiration (roughly estimated from regional setting and estimation from other areas); and
underground outflow to adjacent basins.

Recharge is generally highest in the mountainous northern part of the region where precipitation is greatest. The percentage of annual precipitation recharging the aquifers is dependent on the rates of evaporation, transpiration to plants, runoff, and soil permeability.

Groundwater Quality

Groundwater quality can be affected by both natural and anthropogenic activities. In aquifers unaffected by human activity, the quality of groundwater results from geochemical reactions between the water and rock matrix as the water moves along flow paths from areas of recharge to areas of discharge. In general, the longer groundwater remains in contact with soluble materials, the greater the concentrations of dissolved materials in the water. The quality of groundwater also can change as the result of the mixing of waters from different aquifers. In aquifers affected by human activity, the quality of water can be directly affected by the infiltration of anthropogenic compounds or indirectly affected by alteration of flow paths or geochemical conditions.

Contamination of fresh groundwater by saline water is a common problem in the region. Salinity of groundwater generally is measured in terms of total dissolved solids or dissolved chloride. In humid areas and where recharge is abundant, potential groundwater salinization is limited because of the natural flushing by freshwater. Conversely, in semiarid areas, the absence of natural flushing by freshwater enhances the accumulation of salts and saline water. Natural sources of saline water include:

encroachment of sea water near the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea;
upward migration of highly pressurized brines in the Jordan Rift Valley and other areas; and
subsurface dissolution of soluble salts originating in rocks throughout the region.

East of the Jordan Rift Valley and Wadi Araba, water at depths of a few hundred meters below land surface generally is saline. Within these areas of generally high salinity, it is possible that a local source of acceptable, relatively fresh water exists. Heavy pumping in some areas has led to water-level declines and changes in flow directions in the aquifers. In some cases, this has induced saline water from the sea or deep brines, to move into and contaminate an aquifer.

In addition to natural sources, groundwater quality can be affected by agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities in the recharge zone of the aquifer. Potential sources of contamination include recycled irrigation water, wastewater from human activities, and waste by-products from industrial activities. Nitrate is an important constituent in fertilizers and is present in relatively high concen-trations in human and animal wastes. In general, nitrate concentrations in excess of a few milligrams per liter indicate that water is arriving at the well from shallow aquifers that are polluted from human or animal waste, or from excess nitrates used in agriculture. Water-quality changes for selected groundwater basins are described in the following sections.

Groundwater Levels

Changes in water levels in wells reflect changes in recharge to, and discharge from an aquifer. Recharge rates vary in response to precipitation, evaporation, transpiration by plants, and surface-water infiltration into an aquifer. Discharge occurs as natural flow from an aquifer to streams or springs, as evaporation and transpiration from the shallow water table, as leakage to vertically adjacent aquifers, and as withdrawal from wells. Where water-level changes are due to withdrawals, they also may reflect changes in groundwater flow direction. Water-level changes for selected groundwater basins are described in the following sections.

Springs

Springs have been used for thousands of years as an important source of water supply in the region. Springs are places where groundwater discharges through natural openings in the ground and are common in areas of cavernous limestone or basalt. Springs may vary greatly in the volume of water they discharge; some springs are so small that they occur only as seeps where water oozes slowly from the aquifer, whereas others, such as the Dan Spring, are large enough to form the headwaters of large streams. Springs flowing from water-table aquifers tend to have small, extremely variable flows and are influenced greatly by climatic conditions. Such springs may cease flowing during periods of low precipitation. Springs issuing from confined aquifers have larger and more consistent flows, and show less influence from climate than do water-table springs.

Springflow is controlled by the size of the recharge area, the difference in altitude between the spring opening(s) and the water level in the aquifer, and the size of the opening(s) through which the spring issues. In addition, climatic conditions and pumping of wells located near the spring may influence flows.

Flow characteristics of selected springs are presented on the following three pages in graphs showing annual flow volume and statistical summaries of monthly flow volume based on the period of record. Quality of spring water is indicated by graphs showing chloride and nitrate concentrations.

Surface Water

Surface water in most of the region drains to the Mediterranean, Red, or Dead Seas. In the large desert watersheds, most streams flow only in response to storms and drain internally, the water evaporating or infiltrating the ground. Surface water is very limited in the region because of generally low rainfall and high evapotranspiration. However, nearly all of the available, fresh surface water is used and together with springs supply about 35% of total water use in the region. Streamflow characteristics change rapidly across the region and closely follow precipitation patterns. Annual streamflow generally declines from west to east with distance away from Mediterranean moisture sources, and from north to south with increasing temperature and evaporation. Streamflow typically is higher on the western side of the Mountain Belt, due to temperature and orographically induced precipitation, and decreases on the eastern side of the Mountain Belt descending into the Jordan Rift Valley.

Watersheds

Watershed size is a poor indicator of relative flow because of the extreme differences in climate across the region. Few streams outside the Jordan River watershed have adequate baseflow from ground-water and springs to flow throughout the year. Many streams of the Mediterranean and Dead Sea watersheds flow throughout the rainy season and are dry during the summer. Streams of the Wadi Araba and Desert watersheds typically flow only in response to winter storms. Peak flows typically occur during February and March, lagging the peak precipitation period by about one month. This lag time is due principally to the balancing of extreme moisture deficits in parched soils and plants after the dry season. Flood events may also occur following intense storms in the spring and fall months.

The Mediterranean watershed includes the Coastal Plain and parts of the Mountain Belt and Negev. The streams generally have small watersheds with headwaters in the western mountains. Many of the streams are affected by water supply diversions and wastewater discharges.

The Jordan River watershed has the largest water yield in the region and provides most of the usable surface-water supply. The annual flow volume of the upper Jordan River above Lake Tiberias is about three times greater than the combined annual volume of the streams in the much larger Mediterranean watershed. The Jordan River watershed is in the Mountain Belt, Jordan Rift Valley and Escarpments, and the Jordan Highland and Plateau. The largest tributary to the Jordan River is the Yarmouk River, which is the principal surface-water resource for Jordan. The Jordan River is perennial throughout its course, but its flow downstream from Lake Tiberias is substantially reduced in quantity and quality.

The Dead Sea watershed includes streams with headwaters in the eastern side of the Mountain Belt, the Eastern and Western Escarpments of the Jordan Rift Valley, and the Jordan Highland and Plateau. The larger of these streams, such as the Wadi Wala and Wadi Mujib, flow perennially during their steep decent into the lowest point on the surface of the earth.

The North and South Wadi Araba and the Red Sea watersheds contain ephemeral streams that typically flow only during winter storms that may cause dangerous flash floods in the deeply incised wadis. The watersheds are in the Negev, the Jordan Highland and Plateau, the Jordan Rift Valley and Eastern Escarpment, and the South Jordan Desert. Near the mouth of the Hiyyon River lies the internal divide of the Wadi Araba from which water flows north to the Dead Sea or south to the Red Sea.

Large parts of the Jordan Highland and Plateaus and the South Jordan Desert physiographic provinces are characterized by Desert watersheds that drain internally. Stormwater flows in these streams generally decrease in the downstream direction as water is lost through evaporation and infiltration. The stream courses of the El Jafr watershed provides a vivid example of this.

The following pages describe the flow characteristics of selected streams in the region.

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the terminal lake of the Jordan Rift Valley. It is the lowest point on the surface of the earth, and the waters have the highest density and salinity of any sea in the world. The east and west shores of the Dead Sea are bounded by towering fault escarpments that form part of the African-Syrian rift system. The valley slopes gently upward to the north along the Jordan River, and to the south along the Wadi Araba. Historically, the Dead Sea is composed of two basins: the principal northern one that is about 320 m deep (in 1997), and the shallow southern one from which the Dead Sea has retreated since 1978. The two basins are divided by the Lisan (or Lashon) Peninsula and the Lynch Straits, which has a sill elevation of about 400 m below sea level.

The closed watershed of the Dead Sea is 40,650 km2 . Most of the water flowing to the Dead Sea comes from the relatively high rainfall areas of the Jordan River watershed to the north, and the rift valley escarpments to the east and west of the Dead Sea. To the south, the Wadi Araba watershed covers the arid regions of the Negev and South Jordan Desert. The climate in the watershed varies from snow capped Mount Hermon (Jabel El Sheik), with annual precipitation in excess of 1,200 mm, to the arid regions of the southern Negev, where annual rainfall averages less than 50 mm. Over the Dead Sea itself, average annual rainfall is about 90 mm and the annual potential evapotranspiration is about 2,000 mm. Actual evaporation ranges from about 1,300 to 1,600 mm and varies with the salinity at the surface of the Dead Sea, which is affected by the annual volume of freshwater inflow. The average temperature is about 40 °C in summer and about 15 °C in winter.

The water level of the Dead Sea has a seasonal cycle. Prior to development of water resources in the watershed, the peak water level occurred in May and the low occurred in December, as shown for the period 1935-55 in the bottom graph on the next page. Within-year variation ranges from 0.3 to 1.2 m for most of the period of record. Intensive development of freshwater in the Dead Sea watershed has altered the seasonal variation in water level, typically increasing the decline and decreasing the rise.

The water level of the Dead Sea has been monitored continuously since 1930, and has declined over 21 m from 1930 to 1997. Such a large decline raises questions of whether there are precedents for this water-level change and whether they can be explained by normal vari-ances in climate. Fortunately, evidence of histori-cal Dead Sea water-level changes may be found from several independent sources.

METHOD OF RECONSTRUCTING HISTORICAL DEAD SEA WATER LEVEL

Over 1000 years of historical water-level records were reconstructed using evidence from rainfall
and tree ring widths, sedimentology, history, archeology, botany, and morphology.

Tree ring and rainfall evidence: Periods of wider or narrower average width of the tree rings of a Juniperus phoenica (cut and measured in 1968) were found to correlate well with periods of rising or falling average rainfall in the watershed for the period 1846-1968, when concurrent rainfall records were available. Based on this correlation, changing average ring widths for a period extending back
to A.D. 1115 were evaluated and found to agree with other indicators of Dead Sea water level.

Sediment evidence: Aragonite, a calcium carbonate mineral, precipitates directly from Dead Sea waters at its surface, and leaves a crust that becomes a thick stripe where the level is steady for
several years. Aragonite stripes form a definite record of historical Dead Sea water levels, and may
be date-associated where they occur on archeological ruins, such as Qumran at about 330 m below sea level. At several lower elevations, the aragonite stripes are thick and composed of several layers, indicating recurring steady Dead Sea water levels. Intervals between these stripes are evidence of the steep rise or fall in water level during rainy or drought periods.

History and archeology: Periods of habitation and abandonment of many archeological sites
along the western shore of the Dead Sea were dated according to concurrent history, coins, pottery, and ruins. Plotting these sites according to their chronology and elevation, various points on the historical hydrograph were confirmed. History records periods when the Dead Sea could be forded
on the sill (400 m below sea level) of the Lynch Straights in the early 19th century, and in the 18th, 17th,and 14th centuries. History also records periods of extreme drought or abundant harvests.

Reference: Klein, C., 1985, Fluctuations of the level of the Dead Sea and climatic fluctuations in the country during historical times: International Asso-ciation of Hydrological Sciences, Symposium, Scientific basis for water resources management, September, 1985, Jerusalem, Israel, p. 197-224.

Historical water-level records of the Dead Sea have been reconstructed for a period of over 1,000 years, including the very large rise and fall in water level around the first century B.C. (modified from C. Klein, 1985).

As shown above, there are many precedents in the historical record of larger, more rapid water-level changes than the 21 m decline over the last seven decades. Furthermore, the historical range of water-level fluctuations is about 83 m, nearly four times the 21 m decline in this century. Should further water-level declines reveal submerged trees, or should traces of historical submergence be found at elevations higher than 330 m below sea level, the historical range would increase.

The largest change in water level shown on the estimated historical hydrograph occurred between about 100 B.C. and A.D. 40. Within this period, the water level of the Dead Sea rose some 70 m, from about 400 m to about 330 m below sea level (where Qumran was inundated) in about 67 years; and subsequently fell some 65 m in about 66 years. A second large rise, not shown on the graph, occurred between A.D. 900 and 1100 and crested at about 350 m below sea level. Could these extreme changes in stage be explained by climate fluctuations?

The surface area of the Dead Sea is known to have varied between about 1,440 km2 at its historical high of about 330 m below sea level, and about 670 km2 at 410 m below sea level, a greater than twofold difference. There is a corresponding difference in the volume of water lost to evaporation each year.

To address this question, investigators have made computer simulations of increased rainfall and runoff in the Dead Sea watershed, accounting for evaporation losses. These simulations indicate that rapid water-level changes on the order of 70 m over a 67-year period could occur if inflow increased by 33 to 48% over an average inflow condition. Likewise, persistent years of below average rainfall could cause rapid declines in the water level. Historical references lend weight to this conclusion. There are historical references to abundant harvests during the period of the rising Dead Sea water level prior to about 67 B.C., and there was severe drought during the period of the falling Dead Sea water level recorded by Josephus Flavius for 25-24 B.C. when Herod had to sell his treasures in order to buy corn from Egypt for the population.

The Dead Sea balances increased inflows not only by a rise in water level but also by increased evaporation losses. As the water level of the Dead Sea rises, its surface area increases causing a corresponding increase in the volume of evaporated water. The greater than twofold increase in surface area between the elevations of 410 and 330 m below sea level would increase the annual volume of evaporated water from 1,005 to 2,160 MCM, assuming a constant annual evaporation of 1,500 mm per year. Evaporation during periods of high water level is further accelerated by the dilution of saline waters near the surface, because in reality evaporation is not constant but increases as salinity decreases.

Long-term fluctuations of the Dead Sea water level are caused by periodic fluctuations in rainfall over the watershed. The year-to-year water level is steady when the volume of water leaving the Dead Sea by evaporation is equal to the volume flowing in from perennial streams, flash floods in the wadis, and springs and seeps draining the groundwater. The water level rises following seasons of abundant rainfall and declines during drought years, as shown above in the graph of water level and rainfall from 1850 to 1997. In this graph, rainfall patterns in Jerusalem are assumed to be indicative of Mediterranean- based rainfall patterns over the Dead Sea watershed. When the annual rainfall is above average for several years, there is a cumulative effect (shown in the cumulative departure curve) leading to a rise in water level, such as occurred from about 1882 to 1895. The cumulative effect of below average rainfall periods leads to declining water levels as seen in 1930-36, and 1954-63.

Effects of Development of Water Resources on Dead Sea Water Level

During the last four decades, water resources in the Dead Sea watershed have been intensively developed to meet growing demands for this precious resource. Increasing amounts of water were diverted from surface and groundwater sources in the watershed to meet domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. Since 1964, only a fraction of the flow from the water-rich areas of the upper Jordan River leave Lake Tiberias to move toward the Dead Sea. Most of this water and water from the Yarmouk and Zarqa Rivers is diverted for uses inside and outside the watershed. Under current conditions on an average annual basis, the combined inflow from all sources to the Dead Sea has been estimated as only one-half to one-fourth that of the inflow prior to development. Water also is pumped from the Dead Sea itself into evaporation ponds constructed in the shallow southern basin.

The influence of rainfall and water-resources development on Dead Sea water levels is illustrated in the graph above. Until around 1970, Dead Sea water levels and rainfall showed a correlation. For example, a falling trend in Dead Sea water levels during 1954-63 corresponds to a period of below-normal rainfall. This downward trend was interrupted by above-normal rainfall that produced a rise in water levels during 1964-69. Since about 1970, however, the historical correlation between rainfall and Dead Sea water levels appears to deviate. Although rainfall generally increased during this period, water levels declined steeply, corresponding to decreased inflows from the Jordan River. Although the effects of rainy years in 1980, and especially 1992, are still evident, their influence on Dead Sea water levels is moderated. Development of water resources will result in a more pronounced impact of droughts on Dead Sea water levels. Thus, Dead Sea water levels continue to offer a record of the integrated effects of historical climate and water-resources development in this watershed.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Water Data Banks Project, Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources, Middle East Peace Process