Water for peace? County engineer helps Israel, Palestine work on water accord
by Garry Duffy on Sep. 05, 2008, under Local, Nation/World, SpecialScarcity of water in arid lands can be a cause of friction anywhere, but make that location the borderlands of Israel and Palestine and the potential for conflict increases dramatically.
Pima County Public Works Director John Bernal recently returned from participation in an international gathering of experts in Annapolis, Md., to work toward easing tensions over the distribution of groundwater among Palestinian and Israeli settlements.
“If they can resolve the water issue, maybe there can be movement on other issues, as well,” Bernal said Friday.
Israeli and Palestinian settlements sit atop a single groundwater source. There are occasions when overuse by one creates shortages for the other, Bernal said.
It is the Palestinian areas that most often experience shortages, Bernal said, despite the fact that “they have less per capita use than the Israelis.”
The conference was sponsored by the Geneva Initiative, a Palestinian-Israeli organization of non-government representatives seeking common ground between the two states, and the Quaker-affiliated Annapolis Friends for Peace and Justice Center.
Attendees included engineers, experts on water issues and policies, who had science in common.
“When you get good engineers together to work on problems, they speak the same language no matter what country they come from,” John McDonald, a retired U.S. State Department diplomat, said of the Aug. 18 -21 gathering.
Group members will now work to finalize a draft of an agreement that will eventually be presented to the leaders of both governments for consideration, and, hopefully, adoption, McDonald said.
Bernal was invited in part because of his experience in international water diplomacy: From 1994 to 2001, he served as U.S. commissioner to the International Boundary and Water Commission as the appointee of former President Bill Clinton.
