The State of the Water Crisis in Israel and The Palestinian
Authority: Integrating Science and Policy By Robert Lalasz
Policymaking over transboundary environmental issues is often
marked by political division and an absence of hard scientific
data. But new research projects in the Jordan Valley and Gaza
Strip are using integrated teams of Israeli and Palestinian
scientists to pinpoint the causes of freshwater degradation and
scarcity in these water-stressed and conflict-ridden areas. In
this Wilson Center meeting co-sponsored by ECSP and the Middle
East Project, hydrologist Avner Vengosh and political scientist
Erika Weinthal discussed the projects and how their findings
could inform environmental peacemaking in the region. Scarcity
and Degradation: Catalysts for Conflict or Cooperation? While
water has largely escaped as a target of the recent cycles of
Middle East violence, Weinthal said that many of the region's
transboundary water resources are undergoing substantial
degradation and scarcity—conditions t