Can Integrated Water Resources Management Contribute to Sustainable Peace in the Middle East?

Khaldoon A. Mourad, Ronny Berndtsson, Karin Aggestam

Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Political Science, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

DOI: 10.4236/gep.2013.11001                

Abstract

Water resources issue in the Middle East is an important question related to the 4^th June 1967 line in the Middle Eastpeace process. This paper focuses on possibilities within the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach to contribute to the peace process between what is calledIsraeland Arab countries emphasizing fruitful cooperation to resolve the 4^th June 1967 line issue. The paper shows that start of a possible cooperation could be founded on interest-based negotiations and built on IWRM principles by a simple geographical allocation plan for theLake Tiberiaswater together with a joint environmental protection plan to build cooperation instead of confrontation and integration instead of fragmentation. In a better cooperative climate, withdrawing from the 4^th June 1967 line could be a possibility because negotiation results would incur safer access to sustainable water resources and a comprehensive peace.

Keywords

Lake Tiberias; Negotiations; Comprehensive Peace

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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