The politics of water

By Kesava Menon

TIBERIAS, AUG. 29. Looking out over the body of water, which is not much bigger than the reservoir of a medium-sized dam, it is difficult to understand why it is called the Sea of Galilee. ``That's because He (Jesus Christ) nearly drowned in it. But then he also walked on it,'' says Ibrahim, an Israeli-Arab school teacher spending his vacation by the lake.

People drown in this lake even when they are merely wading and not trying to emulate Christ. The spate of drownings that have occurred this summer draws attention to a situation that has serious implications for the economic and political future of this part of West Asia.

An increase in the number of deaths by drowning is traceable to the shrinking of the lake. As the waters recede, the beaches advance to the point where the lake bed slopes sharply downwards. Waders used to a certain depth of water suddenly find that the lake is deeper than they had remembered it to be.

The depletion of the water resources of the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Tiberias as it should more appropriately be called, will only increase in the future. Israel's population is increasing with the constant flow of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The Palestinian population too should increase significantly once there is peace and the refugees return. For both the peoples Lake Tiberias provides the largest source of fresh water. Water distribution between the Israelis and the Palestinians is already under discussion at the secondary level of negotiations encompassed in the Oslo processes. It is also a complicated matter. Israel has tapped Lake Tiberias, the Jordan river upstream and downstream of it and the large aquifers that lie beneath the West Bank. On an average, Israelis consume more than three times the water consumed by the Palestinians per capita. A situation where there are swimming pools and watered lawns on one side of the divide and a water shortage on the other is not conducive to peace and amity between the peoples.

As Israel marches ahead in the field of high technology, there is a gradual shift away from agriculture as the main sector of the economy. But the pressure on the water resources of the region will still increase (because of population growth) despite this sectoral shift. Visionaries like the former Prime Minister, Mr. Shimon Peres point out that the governments concerned should find ways of augmenting the total quantum of water available rather than merely trying to share out the existing resources more equitably. Fanciful schemes like the Red Sea-Dead sea canal and the import of water from Turkey have been thought up. Something imaginative will have to be done because the pressure on the water resources will further increase once the cycle of peace- making is completed with an agreement between Israel and Syria.

Israel is sticking to its stand that Syria is not entitled to a claim on the shore of the lake itself. If Syria has a claim on the shore then it will also have a claim on the waters of the lake. But even if Syria - unimaginable though it is - concedes to the Israeli position there will still be a depletion of the quantum of water in Lake Tiberias.

Israel recognises that Mount Hermon and the Banias springs lie on the Syrian side of the international border. It also recognises that these territories that were taken in the 1967 war will have to be returned to Syria at some point in time if peace is to be achieved. Refugees from the Golan Heights are currently housed in other parts of Syria. They will return once peace is achieved and they will need to tap the water from Mount Hermon and the Banias springs.

It is by the shore of the Lake where Jesus performed his miracles that the truth of the adage that water will become more precious than oil becomes evident. The governments concerned will have to work a miracle to ensure that their peoples have enough of life's most precious commodity.

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Section  : International
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