The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water
Conveyance project and human
security in Jordan and Israel
Lilja Emilia Österman
International Relations Bachelor
14 credits Spring 2019
Abstract
The main purpose of this research is to investigate Jordan and Israel's participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Convenience project from human security point of view. The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is planned to desalinate water from Red Sea to the Dead Sea and provide fresh water to Jordan, Israel and possibly Palestine. I use a human security approach in this investigation because it has a broader people-centered security perspective. This approach guides the research to consider water related issues and challenges in Jordan and Israel to which the project can be a possible solution. I use qualitative content analysis to investigate the issues identified by Jordan and Israel, and how the project is estimated to address these challenges. I argue that the estimated benefits that the implementation of the project provides for human well-being in Jordan and Israel makes them to participate in this project.
Key world: The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, human security, Jordan, Israel, water scarcity
Table of Content
Abstract ... 1
1. Introduction ... 1
2. Literature review ... 3
2.1 Water in International Relations ... 3
2.2 Water relations in Dead Sea region ... 6
2.3 The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance ... 7
2.4 Human security ... 10
3. Method ... 11
3.1 Qualitative content analysis ... 12
3.2 Choice of material ... 13
3.2.1 Reports... 13
3.2.2 Newspaper articles ... 14
3.3 Variables and operationalization ... 14
3.4 Coding ... 16
4. Analysis ... 19
4.1 Jordan ... 19
4.1.1 Increasing water demand ... 19
4.1.2 Lack of natural water resources ... 21
4.1.3 High water tariffs ... 21
4.1.4 Unknown challenges of Climate change ... 22
4.2 Israel ... 23
4.2.1 Possible bilateral instability caused by water scarcity in Jordan ... 23
4.2.2 The drying of the Dead Sea ... 24
4.2.3 Water scarcity in Israel ... 25
4.3 Comparison ... 27
4.4 Summary of findings ... 28
5. Conclusion ... 31
1
1. Introduction
Considering people’s well-being, water is a basic means for human survival. Jordan and Israel are both states suffering from water scarcity, and due to rapid population growth and climate change, this issue is becoming increasingly crucial in upcoming years. Some International Relations scholars studying the role of water in state relations argue that water scarcity causes conflict between states (Falkmark and Widstrand, 1992:4). However, despite Jordan and Israel have had conflict ridden relations, they are planning to cooperate on implementing a mega size Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. The aforementioned project aims to address water scarcity in Jordan and Israel by desalinating water from Red Sea to Dead Sea and parts of Jordan and Israel. Due to water’s importance for human well-being, my research question is in this thesis, to what extent does the human security approach give insight into Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project?
The relevance of this research to the field of International Relations comes from the role of water in international politics. Water is an essential resource for people and lack of water is a security risk. Therefore, previous International Relations literature has researched if water causes peace or conflict between the states (MacMahon, 2017:9). In the case of the Red Sea – Dead Sea project, water is seen as a possible source for building peace. Aggestam and Sundell (2016) investigated the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a ‘peacemaker’ to the region. Aggestman and Sundell argue because the project produces a new water resources to the region, and therefore the decision maker favor supply-oriented solution instead of redistribution of resources.
However, Aggestam and Sundell have not considered what are the other security aspects the project addresses to other than maintaining peace and avoiding fear of violence. By broadening the understanding of security to the people-centered security, it is possible to consider the importance of this project to human well-being. The cooperation between Jordan and Israel in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project must be investigated with a broader security perspective because it opens a new people-centered view into analysis of this project. By using only traditional security perspective, other security factors making Jordan and Israel to participate in the project are left out from the investigation.
2 I use human security as a theoretical framework because it helps to understand the importance of the project to human well-being. There are many water-related issues in the Dead Sea region challenging the well-being of people (World Bank, 2014: 6). Human security considers that people should have a freedom from fear and freedom from want. Therefore, there is also emphasis on prevention of conflict and social issues (Columba and Vaughan-Williams, 2014: 160).
The dependent variable is Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, because this is the political event caused by the independent variable. The independent variable is the water related issues identified by Jordan and Israel for which they consider this project as a solution. I have narrowed this variable to water-related issues because the project specifically is addressing to regional water scarcity and lack of fresh water. The identified issues by the states make them to seek out solutions for their issues. The intervening variable is the prospective outcomes and benefits for human security that participation in this project bring for the states. In order for states to participate in the project, there must be factors that benefit them if they participate. Otherwise, there would not be need for implementing the project.
To conduct this research and investigate the variables, I use qualitative content analysis as my methodological approach. This method is chosen because several other scholars investigating the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project have shown its usefulness (Aggestam and Sundell, 2016; El-Anis and Smith, 2013). Also, relevant material for this research is available and easily accessed. I have used water reports by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan and the Knesset, which is a governmental research center, in Israel to get insight to issues identified by Jordan and Israel. The World Bank’s assessment report (2014) is useful for investigating the prospective impacts of the project to human security and to state’s identified issues.
The overarching aim of this article is to empirically explore participation of Jordan and Israel in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project from human security point of view. I aim to see how the project mitigates water related issues that Jordan and Israel have identified to be solved with this project. This research is concluded by arguing that the estimated improvements that the project provides for human well-being in Jordan and Israel makes them to participate in this project. Jordan and Israel are estimated to improve human well-being and security because the project address to their identified water related issues.
3 This thesis has the following structure. First, I introduce the origins of the previous IR debates on water-related issues and research relevant to my research question in the literature review. I also discuss the limitations of the contemporary research and argue how human security brings a new perspective to the particular field in IR focusing on water-related topics. Second, I discuss the use of qualitative content analysis in this research, the material I use and how I analyze the data in order to answer my research question. Third, I introduce my findings and critically analyze them through a human security lens. In the end, I conclude this thesis by summarizing the main structure and findings made in this research.
2. Literature review
In this section, I discuss the current literature related to this research. I discuss the previous research in three major sections in order to gives an overview of water related research. First, I introduce the origins of the debate on the role of water in International Relations. I discuss about two main approaches, liberalism and realism, and their perspectives on water in international politics. Second, I inspect the role of water specifically as it related to the relations of Jordan and Israel. Third, I introduce shortly the main research on the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water conveyance project. In the end of this section, I argue for the relevance of a human security to this research.
2.1 Water in International Relations
According to Westing (1989), human history is an account of resource wars. Global deficiency and degradations of natural resources creates competition and a race between actors, and this can lead to war. Cooperation and alliances over natural resources are very unlikely but if they emerge to some extent, these alliances occur as very unbalanced partnerships. Westing (1989: 1) argues that his approach applies to both renewable and non-renewable resources, which means resources such as water, food, oil, and minerals. Applying this analysis to freshwater resources, Falkmark and Widstrand (1992: 4) argue that access to water has generated political and military conflicts throughout world history. Water is one of the most important sources for livelihood of humans and limited access to fresh water is a risk for survival. As fresh water is similar to other resources in the contemporary world and it becomes ‘increasingly scarce’ specially in some regions, it thus increases as a source for future conflict (Thompson, 1978: 62-71). Falkenmark (1989) has pointed out that water can contribute to war, even though it is not often recognized as a cause of an armed conflict. Related to the aforementioned approaches, I argue that instead of causing war, the importance of water resources for human survival makes
4 states to see out solutions that can prevent issues causing challenges towards human security from occurring. People should be free from conflict and threat which challenge their well-being. When analyzing resource-related conflicts, Gleick (1993: 82-83) has argued that the focus in the analysis should be when and where the resource-related conflicts are most likely to occur and cause instability instead of whether resources and water cause conflict. Gleick conducted his research by analyzing several different conflicts in history in order to show what the relationship has been between water and conflict in many different cases. I argue that the weakness in this is that he does not consider issues related to water which have been solved in positive terms, such as cooperation and peaceful negotiations. In addition, Gleick used quantitative data on the availability of water and water demand in order to show which states and regions are in risk of water wars in the future. In this use, quantitative data is used to point out the area at risk by showing supply and demand of water in each country and for instance how much water there is available in the future per capita (Gleick, 1993: 100-101). I posit that the strength of quantitative data in this purpose is that it shows clearly which regions are concerns in the future.
Researching the causes of conflict and where the conflict is most likely to occur does not necessarily create a solution or alternative ways to solve the issue of water scarcity. To some extent, it is important to research which regions in the world are mostly likely to suffer from water scarcity in order to prepare and investigate solutions but also to avoid possible disputes on water. On the other hand, instead of having only the conflict-focus perspective in the research, current literature should shift its focus more towards peaceful problem-solving and analyze how these challenges can be solved without an escalation of a conflict. As realism sees water only as a possible issue in world politics which may cause disputes, it cannot provide more insight to literature on water as it’s limited theoretical framework is narrowed to conflict analysis and competition between the states. The limitations of previous literature from realist perspective on water is that it sees water only as a source of conflict as it is a risk for survival of the state. It does not consider other possible solution or outcomes for the state suffering from water scarcity.
On the other hand, even in the conflict-oriented research on water, there are differing views on whether water causes conflict or cooperation. The realist approach on water also has its opponents. The liberalist perspective on water is almost opposite to that of the realist approach as from a liberal perspective water does not most likely cause of a conflict, but instead it unites
5 and creates cooperation between the states (Deudney, 1991). However, water has been a variable in issues between states, which then have created competition, disputes and even wars between the states.
As authors in liberalism maintain that cooperation and interdependence is promoting peace, this view can be applied to discussion on water (MacMahon, 2017: 24). When considering water from liberal perspective, Dellapenna (1995: 89) argues that as the water is essential for human survival, the importance of water makes states to cooperate over water rather than go to conflict over war with one another. In this sense, cooperation means that everyone taking part in the cooperation benefits from it while if the cooperation is not successful, it leaves everyone worse off (MacMahon, 2017: 24). As water is one of the most vital resources, states do not want to risk their access to water supplies. Dolatyar and Gray (2000: 67) state that “increasing water scarcity generally pushes decision – makers to find substitution by coordinated, cooperative and conciliatory arrangements”. This liberal perspective has become a common theme in International Relations literature (Stetter et al, 2011: 444). In general, liberal perspective on water in this debate does not overlook the fact that water has been part of conflicts. Water have been involved in many conflicts but there has not been a war or conflict which has been caused only by water related issues.
Currently literature is now in the stage that debate on water as a source of conflict or cooperation has been discussed from several perspectives. Widely used methodological tool in the debate between realism and liberalism in terms of water as a source of a conflict or cooperation has been historical analysis of water related to different events in history. Scholars investigate set of events, their relation to water and how water has influenced to the outcome of certain event (Gleick, 1993; Dolatyar and Grey, 2000; Yoffe et al, 2003).
In order to move forward and to bring something new perspectives into this debate, I argue that it is necessary to consider the actual cooperation on water, how it is functioning and what actually encourages states to cooperate. As liberal approach outlines, it is no longer assumed that outcome of environmental degradation, such as lack of freshwater resources, must cause conflicts and armed disputed between states. Instead, scarcity can foster states to cooperate and creates potential win-win outcomes (Deudney, 1991; Dolatyar and Grey, 2000). I argue that previous literature in International Relations needs to move on to analyze contemporary example on cooperation on water in the regions which suffer from water scarcity in order to show that cooperation over water actually exists and how it has taken place in contemporary
6 world. Liberalism and realism as traditional approaches in International Relations have their own limitation, there is need to bring in other theoretical perspectives.
I assert that even though liberalism is a relevant theory in terms of analyzing water as a source of cooperation, the discussion on water in the field of International Relations has already been widely debated, and thus it is necessary to consider other aspects in terms of cooperation on water. As I aim to study to what extent does the human security approach give insight into Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, liberalism is not the most useful theory because it does not pay attention to people-centered security aspects. Therefore, I suggest that in order to bring in new aspects to this debate, there is a need to consider other theoretical approaches in the field of International Relations.
2.2 Water relations in Dead Sea region
Throughout the latest history, the Middle East has been a central region suffering from conflict and disputes. On the other hand, water has been only one of the issues and challenges causing disputes in the region as there are other symbolically significant issues which have dominated the regional relations between the states for years. It is argued that previous conflicts between Israel and Jordan have been issues related to ‘group-identity’ instead of water. To investigate this, Dolatyar and Gray (2000) conducted historical analysis of conflicts between Jordan and Israel since the establishment of the state of Israel to find out what has been the role of water in these conflicts. Water became part of the problem during the emerge of Arab – Israeli conflict (Dolatyar and Gray, 2000: 93). So called ‘group-identity’ conflict means that each group stresses their own joint identity while discriminating against other group. Groups that has adequate power and sufficient institution intents to control other group and their population growth. Despite importance of water to human survival, water has not been the only issue. Water has been just one area of disputes, but it did not cause any conflict (Dolatyar and Gray, 2000). Strength of this research is that it investigates water on regional level during time when Jordan and Israel have not achieved their Peace Agreement.
When Israel and Jordan negotiated on their Peace Agreement, they also included water as one of the main principles to their peace agreement. In the negotiation on water, scientific experts participated in the negotiations. Their role in the negotiation was to provide data from scientific point of view and give advice as states political interests and scientific knowledge go hand in hand (Jägeskog, 2003: 126). In order to implement scientific advices to policy, advices from scientific experts must be feasible to political interest of the states. Scientific advice also
7 provides legitimacy into decision-making and therefore, states may use it as a tool to reduce uncertainty and to make their political decision more legitimate. Specially in the negotiation between Jordan and Israel, advice from scientific experts were sometimes ignored in order to get possible political gains (Jägerkog, 2003: 127).
Jägerskog (2003: 153) highlights when Israel and Jordan have negotiated on water, water has always been linked to other issues in the negotiating table. This created a space for negotiations and beginning of cooperation on water challenges as water is related to many other issues in the region. To conduct this research, Jägerskog used case study method. This method allowed him to analyze various official document published by states and newspaper articles to collect data on progress of the negotiations and to understand how the experts influenced to negotiations in practice. By interviewing stakeholders, diplomats and experts in the negotiations, Jägerskog gained insight on how each stakeholder acted in the negotiations. Combining these two data collection methods allowed him to get a better overview of the whole negotiation process.
Allan (2002) looks at the hydro-politics of the Jordan River Basin by considering global political economy and historical development in the region. Allan conducted a historical analysis of economic development in the region to understand link between economy of water and trade. He used newspaper articles from Jordan and Israel to investigate the public discourse, and report by Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate trade statistics and agriculture production. Allan points out that decision on water resources are dependent on public perceptions on water security. These views are manipulated and therefore they are ‘constructed knowledge’ (Allan, 2002: 258). According to Allan, the ‘constructed’ notion of water is distorted by global trading systems and access to ‘virtual’ water (Allan, 2002: 258). Virtual water refers to imported goods, that need a lot of water for their production. When there are produces somewhere else, it relieves the community from using the water to agriculture (Allan, 2002: 256). The impact of the global trade system has slowed the pace to reform water policies as states have imported goods, they otherwise would produce themselves for their use (Allan, 2002: 256).
2.3 The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance
In the current research on the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, security and peace have been central interests. However, the research has mostly focused on aspects of traditional
8 security, meaning that it has investigated possible risks for peace and the role of the project as well as the role of different actors in maintaining regional peace.
In a conflict sensitive region, such as Middle East, there is a need to promote peaceful solutions and sustainable ways to overcome the challenges in order to achieve enduring peace. Aggestam and Sundell (2016) studied the role of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project in the regional politics and the interplay between technocracy and peacebuilding. Since water is securitized in most of the countries in the region, solving water issues became a part of high politics. Aggestam and Sundell (2016: 1310) argue that the case of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project illustrates how technological solution are likely to favors supply-oriented options. The project produces ‘new’ water from the Red Sea to the region and this reveals demand-supply imbalance. A supply-oriented option is chosen instead of a right-based redistribution of water resources, because it takes off pressure from deciding how the water supply from natural water resources should be distributed equally. In addition, positive effects by the project may cause a spill-over effect to other aspects in the region.
Aggestam and Sundell (2016: 1309-1310) argue that a weakness of the project itself is that it cannot provide a sustainable solution for peace unless it handles other politically critical issues, such as Palestinians’ access to the Dead Sea and water resources. This research was conducted with qualitative content analysis. They investigated, for example, the World Bank’s project reviews and governmental comments to see how politics and technology are intertwined in the water sector. FoEME reports are used to get the environmental concerns in to consideration, because the project still claims to bring a peace dividend (Aggestam and Sundell, 2016: 1311). Investigating also the critique which the project received is important as the relevant issues and possible obstacles are taken into consideration.
It is noted by several scholars that the role of new transnational actors, such as private multinational companies and large donors, have become increasingly hesitant to get involved in the project (Aggestam and Sundell, 2016: 1304; El-Anis and Smith, 2013; Zawahri and Weinthal, 2014). Involvement of transnational actors in the project has promoted cooperation between states in order to find peaceful solutions.
Zawahri and Weinthal (2014) studied the World Bank’s role in the project negotiations. The World Bank’s approach to the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance negotiation was to function as a mediator, but their intention was to avoid mediating on disputes and enable
9 Jordan and Israel as stronger stakeholders to support their proposal in terms of the project. The World Bank wanted participating states to drive the negotiations and decision-making instead of taking a bigger footprint in the negotiation. On the other hand, Palestine Authority did not success to secure their actual profit in peace (Zawahri and Weinthal, 2014: 59). Without including Palestine Authority in the negotiation table, it would have been unlikely to get support for large scale investment for infrastructure in order to save the Dead Sea. Hence, multilateral negotiations were crucial for Jordan and Israel to proceed towards trade and cooperation on water (Zawahri and Weinthal, 2014: 70).
Even though, Jordan and Israel have the peace treaty it is still complicated and challenging to find suitable solutions which both sides can agree on. Zawahri and Weinthal (2014: 70) recognize that despite the peace treaty, issues in low-politic may cause failure in strengthening the peace between them. To study this, Zawahri and Weinthal (2014) conducted interviews with stakeholders from Jordan, Israel and PA to find out dynamics in the mediations process. Interviewing negotiators gives a special insight to World Bank’s role and focus in the negotiations. In addition, they reviewed policy literature and WikiLeaks document with qualitative content analysis. These documents were used to investigate the influence of World Bank.
El-Anis and Smith (2013) investigated cooperation as a central factor for a successful Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. Challenges have occurred between participating states but also within the negotiation board. For the project to be successful and to ensure peace, international cooperation between Jordan, Israel and Palestine is essential (El-Anis and Smith, 2013: 11-12). El-Anis and Smith (2013: 15) highlight that “the lack of cooperation and dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians in particular does represent a reason for the failure of some joint projects”. In this sense, a lack of dialogue between Israel and Palestine may cause issues in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. In addition, the role of the private sector is significant as they provide most of the funding for the investments needed for the project. As the private sector provides donations, it also expects to get return to its investments (El-Anis and Smith, 2013: 12-18). To investigate the importance of cooperation, El-Anis and Smith conducted qualitative content analysis, as they analyzed several reports by United Nation and World Bank, Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty from 1994 and other qualitative material for data collection.
10 Current literature on the project is mostly focused on investigating the role of actors trying to make states cooperate and maintain peaceful relations through agreeing on the project implementation. The gap in the current research evolves from the narrow focus that is interested in the project’s peace aspect. Maintaining regional peace is essential if the states aim to cooperate on the Red Sea – Dead Sea project. However, the research should consider other security aspects that the project is addressing. In order to understand better the states participation in the project, there is a need to consider other security aspects than just traditional aspects of war and peace. For this reason, I use human security.
2.4 Human security
In order to contribute to my research question, I aim to use human security as a theoretical approach. As a theory, human security brings value to the research because it understands security in broader means than traditional security. Human security is a people-centered theory because it includes individual well-being and welfare as its central value rather than just protection of the states on its own (Columba and Vaughan-William, 2014: 154).
Human security is not only concerned with weapons and threat of violence because they are not the only concerns challenging the human life and wellbeing. Instead, a human security approach draws focus on the dignity of human life (Columba and Vaughan–William, 2014: 158). Interdependency of military and non-military issues are overlapping. For instance, in a conflict zone, fear of violence is not the only risk for human security. Indirectly, living in a conflict zone inhibits also peoples’ access to food and fresh water. These issues create challenges for human well-being and quality of life.
Human security encompasses the relationship of security to freedom. Human security incorporates that people should have a freedom from destitution and they are entitled to basic needs of survival (Columba and Vaughan–William, 2014: 159). I assert because water is a key factor for human well-being, lack of water is a security risk for human survival and human security. Even though human security has broadened the understanding of security, it still views violence and war as a security issue. Human security encompasses the notion that people should have a freedom from fear (Columba and Vaughan–William, 2014: 159). Freedom from fear refers to people being secured from threat of violence.
In order to ensure that people have freedom from fear and freedom from want, the human security approach emphasizes actions towards prevention rather than intervention. This
11 means that if there are identified issues risking human security and the basic means for human survival, the focus should be on preventing the issues from occurring (Columba and Vaughan-William, 2014: 156). For instance, if states recognize that they do not have enough water resources to meet the demand, they should create new resources to ensure the well-being of the people.
Human security as a theory brings a new point of view to the study of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, because it takes a broader security aspect to the investigation of states’ participation in the project. Aggestam and Sundell (2016) investigated the project as a ‘peacemaker’ to the region, but they did not consider other security aspects this project may bring to the region. By broadening the security perspective to the people-centered approach, it is possible to consider the importance of this project to human security and people’s well-being. I argue that human security fits well to this investigation because it draws the attention to these three key components. First, a broader way of conceptualizing security highlights the current issues challenging human security. This enables us to consider current and future risks for human life. The second component is the idea that people should be free from threats. This point leads to the third component which is the emphasis that human security places on prevention. In terms of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, there are issues challenging the stability of human life in Jordan and Israel for which this project can be a possible solution. When the project is implemented, it prevents the issues feared to jeopardize human security from occurring or worsening and therefore, it gives a freedom from these threats to people. In the next section, I discuss how I use qualitative content analysis and how the choice of method is related to the previous research.
3. Method
In this section, I introduce the methodological approach used to conduct my research. The method chosen to be applied in this research is qualitative content analysis. I reflect back to earlier research conducted by International Relations scholars to justify my choice of method. Then, I introduce the chosen material used in the data collection and clarify my selection criteria for these documents. In the end, I clarify relevant variables in this research, how I operationalize them and how this choice of method provides answer to my research question. The research question in this thesis is to what extent does the human security approach give insight into Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance
12 project? I aim to study water related issues that challenge human security in Jordan and Israel and how the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water conveyance project impacts human security in terms of these issues.
3.1 Qualitative content analysis
When analyzing the role of water in International Relations, from a methodological perspective, the focus of the current literature has been on historical analysis of water related events. For instance, Dolatyar and Gray (2000) study the role of water in disputes between Jordan and Israel, and Gleick (2003) investigates several water-related conflicts to argue that water has caused the disputes. These scholars have investigated whether a certain dispute or conflict between states has been caused by water and if not, what has been the role of water in the dispute. The purpose of these studies has been to find a pattern or link between water and conflict throughout a longer time period. Therefore, historical analysis has been a good method for these purposes. On the other hand, a limitation of historical analysis is that it may produce an error if the researcher aims to look only at certain patterns in events. Historical analysis does not fit into this research because I investigate only one political event between two states instead of several events of action.
Another common method when specifically investigating the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project has been to apply a qualitative content analysis. For instance, Aggestam and Sundell (2016) investigated the role of Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a peacemaker and El-Anis and Smith (2013) research importance of cooperation for the success of the project. They both conducted qualitative content analyses by investigating, for instance, relevant policy reports and World Bank’s assessment reports about the project. In addition to qualitative content analysis, Zawahri and Weinthal (2014) and Jägerskog (2000) conducted interviews to support their findings from the qualitative content analyses. The benefit of conducting a qualitative content analysis in these investigations is that it allows the researcher to study larger amounts of documents and other qualitative material in order to ensure the validity of the research.
I chose qualitative content analysis because several other scholars investigating the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project have also used the same method in their researches (Aggestam and Sundell, 2016; El-Anis and Smith, 2013; Zawahri and Weinthal, 2014). This highlights the usefulness of the method because it allows the researchers to look at latent content from the collected material (Halperin and Heath, 2017: 346). Furthermore, qualitative
13 content analysis suites well for my research because as a student, it is easier to conduct. It would be relevant for my research, if I were able to interview politicians or other relevant actors in order to get insight to their perspectives about the Red Sea – Dead Sea project. However, due to my limitations as a student, getting these kinds of elite interviews is not always possible. Another important aspect clarifying my choice is the accessibility of the material relevant for my research. This method enables to study relevant material published by central actors in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. I will discuss more about the choice of material in the next section.
3.2 Choice of material
As material for this qualitative content analysis, I use newspaper articles, water reports published by the states of Jordan and Israel, and the World Bank’s assessment report on the Red Sea – Dead Sea project. All the chosen material is related to the regional water situation or the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. The material is collected from 2008 until present. This timeframe is chosen because it allows to include both versions of Jordan’s water strategy reports to analysis. In 2014, the World Bank conducted an assessment on study the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project and in 2015 Jordan and Israel agreed on implementation of the first stage of the project (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2015). The strength of the chosen material is that it enables to look at topics which otherwise would not be easy to investigate. The textual material is always written on its own context and often there is a purpose why the text has been written. It is important to keep these in mind when using textual material.
3.2.1 Reports
I use four different report as my material. Reports and publications collected for the analysis are published by the World Bank, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water of Jordan, and The Knesset Research Center in Jerusalem. The Knesset Research and Information Center provides data and studies for parliamentary activities in Israel. I have aimed to collect the latest versions of all the available reports.
The first batch are water reports. Water Strategy reports published by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan. These two different reports were published in 2008 and 2016. The report published in 2016 is an updated version of Water Strategy published in 2008. In addition, Israeli Water Sector—Key Issues report is published in 2018 by The Knesset Research and Information Center.
14 These reports are relevant because they give an overview of current water situation in Jordan and Israel. The water reports allow to investigate in detailed which issues each state has identified and how they aim to address to them. Because the issues are identified by the states themselves, data received from the reports is reliable.
The second batch is the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project assessment report by the World Bank. This report is especially important because the reports analyses social impacts of the project to the region. It states estimated outcomes and result the implementation of the project gives to Jordan and Israel.
All these chosen reports are available online and they are published to their publishers’ websites. Easy accessibility of these reports makes them available for everyone. Therefore, I have also been able to use them in this research.
3.2.2 Newspaper articles
When searching relevant newspaper articles, I reached articles published by local newspapers based in Jordan and Israel. Many newspapers publish articles about local news in English which makes these articles useful in this research. Newspaper articles from Jordan Times and Times of Israel. When searching relevant articles, I used the name of the project as a search word on the newspaper’s website in order to find relevant articles.
I wanted to include newspaper articles to this investigation because there can give more insight to water related issue that can be solved with the implementation of the project. They can also support the findings already made from the chosen reports. Articles I chose focus on the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. I overviewed all the latest articles discussion about the project. I read the articles by following the coding. If the newspaper article did not match with the coding, it was not used in this research.
3.3 Variables and operationalization
In this section, I shortly aim to clarify the variables in this research in order to highlight the relationship under investigation in this research and make the use of the chosen methodology as clear as possible.
The dependent variable in this research is Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. The dependent variable is a political process or event thought to be caused by the independent variables (Halperin and Heath 2017: 127-128).
15 The logic for independent variable accumulates from human security because I investigate to what extent does the human security approach give insight into Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. Independent variable is the water related issues in water related issues in Jordan and Israel to which Jordan and Israel have identified the project is a possible solution. I have narrowed this variable to water-related issues because the project specifically is addressing to regional water scarcity and lack of fresh water. Jordan and Israel have identified issues and the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a possible method to prevent these issues from occurring or getting worse. These identified water-related challenges are threats towards human security, because they put basic means for human life under a risk. Therefore, these identified water related issues also make the states to seek solution.
The intervening variable refers to the research-based estimated benefits or outcomes for human security that the implementation of this project is expected to provide to Jordan and Israel in terms of their identified water-related issues. World Bank (2014) has researched the baseline and estimated outcomes from the implementation of the project to the region. If the states consider the project as a method to address their human security challenges, there should be some factors that also improve human security in terms of Jordan and Israel’s identified water-related issues. Jordan and Israel aim to prevent these issues undermining human security from arising. Therefore, the implementation of this project needs to address to these issues. Otherwise there would not be any need for this project.
I argue that the importance of water for human security makes Jordan and Israel participate on the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. Water related issues are a challenge for human survival. Therefore, Jordan and Israel seek to find solutions to ensure human security for their people. The following table is created to clarify described variables in this research.
16 Table 1 Variables of the research
Dependent variable Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project Independent variable Water related issues in Jordan and Israel to
which they have identified the project is a possible solution
Intervening variable The estimated outcome for human security from the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project to Jordan and Israel
3.4 Coding
The identified variables reflect the coding of the investigation. I have chosen two themes as a unit of analysis to guide my data collection. These themes accumulate from the identified variables.
The first theme investigates and aims to identify the independent variable. The independent variable is that Jordan and Israel have identified water-related issues challenging human security for which they view the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a possible method to prevent these issues from occurring or getting worse. Theme focuses on issues and challenges related to water in Jordan and Israel. This is relevant to human security because issues related to water are a challenge for human security due to its importance for human life. The documents used in this section are water reports published by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan (2008, 2016) in Jordan and The Knesset Research Center (2018) in Israel. In the water reports published by Israel and Jordan, there are sections discussing specifically about water related issues within the state and methods that the state plans to use in order to address these issues. A selected group of newspapers are also investigated because they include statements by politicians commenting the issues, they have including mentioning of the project as a solution. I specifically search phrases and paragraph by Jordan and Israel referring to water related issues to which Jordan or Israel use the project as a method.
The words guiding the coding in the first theme are security, challenge, issue appearing in the text and crisis together with the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. Similar words, such as secure, are also considered because they derive from the primary word. I also considered other names used for the same project the project is called with different names
17 depending on the actor. After preliminary overview of the material, I chose the words security, challenge and issue because they were mentioned in the paragraphs discussing about current and future water issues. These words are associated with difficulties and problems that the state has identified. I searched these words together with the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project because then the project is often associated as a part of possible solution for the identified problem.
The second theme accumulates from the intervening variable. The intervening variable is the estimated benefits for human security from the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project to Jordan and Israel. This theme is relevant to the notion of prevention, which is a central characteristic in human security. This means that states aim to prevent and seek solutions for human security issues instead of intervening in military ways (Columba and Vaughan-Williams, 2014: 156). Because Jordan and Israel cooperate on the project, they have issues which they aim to address when they participate in the project. Jordan and Israel recognize methods to address their water issues in their water reports. If they consider the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a method for some issue, the project should improve and address their human security issues. In this section, I use mostly the World Bank’s assessment report (2014) because it identifies project’s impact to Jordan and Israel. Few newspaper articles are also included, because leading politicians stated the project as a method. From the material, I search phrases and paragraphs identifying hypothesized impacts and other proposed benefits of the project to the region.
Words guiding my coding are method, strategy, and impact. Similar words are also considered because they derive from the primary word. After preliminary overview of the material, I chose these words because they are mentioned in paragraphs discussing on the impacts of the project to the surrounding region. These words are chosen because they are associated with action to do or improve something.
The following table is created to clarify how each variable in the research is coded in the material:
18 Table 2 Coding the variable in this research
Variable Coding the material
Independent variable: Water related issues in Jordan and Israel to which they have identified the project is a possible solution
Phrases and paragraphs by Jordan and Israel referring to water related issues to which Jordan or Israel use the project as a method Intervening variable: Estimated outcomes for
human security from the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water conveyance project
Phrases and paragraphs referring to estimated impacts of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project to the identified issues
In the analyzes, I discuss separately Jordan and Israel’s water related issues. I introduce issues and analyze each of them critically by using the human security approach. Then I discuss how the project improves the specific issues considering also human security. This way I can make a clear distinction between what are the challenges and issues that Jordan and Israel are facing. This also allows to discuss separately on how the project addresses the respectively identified issues and therefore impacts the human security by preventing these issues from exacerbating in Jordan and Israel.
To conclude this section, it is necessary to state how this method reflects to my research question. This method functions as a tool to seek an answer to the research question because it enables to consider step by step specific factors that make Jordan and Israel see how the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project can create solutions for their water related issues. This project is an opportunity for Jordan and Israel to prevent issues threatening human well-being from occurring. Hence, this makes them participate in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. In the next section of this thesis, I introduce and discuss about my findings made by using previously discussed method.
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4. Analysis
In this section, I aim to introduce and critically analyze the material that I have collected for this research. The research question in this thesis is to what extent does the human security approach give insight into Jordan and Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project? I examine this question in relations to the human security approach. The data used in the analysis is collected by following the method introduced above.
This analysis is structured as follows. In the first section, I introduce and discuss about Jordan’s identified water related issues threatening human security for which they consider the project as a possible solution. I also discuss how the implementation of the project is estimated to impact to human security in terms of these identified issues. In the second section, I go over the water related issues identified by Israel for which they consider the project as a possible solution. Similarly to Jordan section, I discuss how the implementation of the project is estimated to impact to human security in terms of these issues. In the third section, I compare Jordan and Israel’s issues to see if there are similarities or differences in their issues. This is done in order to get a better understanding of the types of issues that Jordan and Israel plan to overcome with the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. In the fourth section, I summarize the findings of the analysis and conclude the answer to my research question.
4.1 Jordan
In this section, I introduce and critically discuss what the issues are for human security that make Jordan to participate in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. Jordan needs this project in order to secure its access to water resources and ensure enough water for human security. Jordan considers the Red to Dead as a method to tackle the following water issues: increasing water demand, decrease of natural water supply, increasing water tariffs and challenges of climate change to water resources.
4.1.1 Increasing water demand
The first identified issue challenging human security to which Jordan considered the project as a solution is the increasing water demand. Jordan is one of the driest countries in the whole world and demand for water exceeds Jordan's available water resources. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan (2008: 10) stated that “the future challenges on water demand are enormous”. Rapid increase in population growth, higher living standards, economic development and weak international enforcement mechanism have increased demand and
20 exceeds Jordanian’s availability for water resources. Due to these factors, annual availability of water per capita has decreased significantly. Also, in the future, population growth is expected to continue, and this will increase the water demand even more. Jordan is expecting to meet its increasing water demand, for instance, by desalination as part of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016: 47).
According to the World Bank, one of the main objectives in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is to provide a water supply and to address the water deficit in the region. In Jordan, this project is expected to have an impact on the water supply in Amman, Madaba, Karak and Zarqa areas and address the water deficit especially in these areas (World Bank, 2014: 18). As the water demand in Jordan is very high, there is a need to meet the current gap between water demand and supply since the future demand will increase even higher.
From a human security point of view, not having enough water to meet the increasing demand is a threat towards human well-being because it means that people have less water available compared to the amount of water they actually need for good living. As the availability of water has decreased in the past years, access to enough water per capita has also been under risk. I assert that because it is necessary for Jordan to participate in the project in order to secure that there is enough water for people living in Jordan. Due to the importance of water, it is necessary to prevent destitution caused by increasing demand from occurring.
Once the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project has been implemented, it can provide a solution to Jordan’s increasing water demand. Expectedly, regional water demand is going to increase due to several future challenges, such as climate change and population growth. Therefore, Jordan must address the current situation regarding water sooner or later since the gap between supply and demand is constantly increasing. I argue that Jordan should address to this issue as soon as possible because the increasing gap between supply and demand will challenge human well-being more as the gap grows.
From a human security point of view, mitigating the gap between access to more water is a positive development towards a more secure access to basic human needs. As the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project increases the availability of water, it is estimated to improve people’s quality of life since it lowers the gap between supply and demand (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016: 9).
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4.1.2 Lack of natural water resources
The second identified issue is that Jordan does not have enough natural water resources in the future to cover its increasing water demand. Those natural resources that Jordan already has are mostly misused or damaged by over-pumping. In addition, many natural water resources are threatened by climate change and pollution. This has caused that these sources provide less and less water every year (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2008: 3-2).
I argue that a lack of natural water resources in general is an issue for human. This issue emerges due to the risk of not having enough water resources to produce a sufficient amount of water necessary for human survival. Specially, environmental changes that have a negative impact on water resources are a risk for human well-being because it jeopardizes human’s access to water even more.
In order to address to this issue, the ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan states that “water supply from desalination is a major source” of water for the future (2008: 3-3). Also, a major desalination scheme under implementation requires conveyance of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. In Jordan, the water resources scheme needs to develop new water resource options to plan bridges between supply and demand (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016: 9, 14)
According to the World Bank, one of the main objectives of the project is to desalinate water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian authority (World Bank, 2014: 6). Plan to desalinate water from Red Sea creates a new water resource for Jordan which provides fresh water for many different uses. Since the natural water resources in the region cannot provide enough water to people, the only possible way to overcome this is to create new water resources. From a human security point of view, it is central to implement solutions which aim to prevent issues challenging human life and quality of living. I argue that because the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project contributes to lack of water resources it is a good method for preventing the challenges also towards human security. New water resources ensure that despite the future of natural water resources, Jordan has some sort of water resources providing water for its people.
4.1.3 High water tariffs
Third identified issues is high water tariffs. Due to a lack of water resources and a constantly increasing water demand, water tariffs have become increasingly high in Jordan. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan recognizes that in an environment of increasing water tariffs,
22 there is a need to pay attention to the poor who are in a disadvantaged position (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2008: 4-6). High water tariffs are an issue for Jordanians because it disadvantages poor people since there is a risk that they cannot afford to buy as much water as they need.
From a human security point of view, high water tariffs are challenging the life of some people in Jordan because they do not have access to all possible means required for human survival. People should be free from threats that challenge their well-being (Columba and Vaughan-William, 2014: 156). People are obligated to basic means for survival, and therefore, people should be able to afford water supply necessary for their well-being.
Due to these points, there is a need for action that ensures people can afford water. According to the World Bank, implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance impacts to water tariffs by providing water with an affordable price (World Bank, 2014: 6). Therefore, Jordan is expecting that the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project can subsidize water tariffs also in Jordan (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016: 9). Due to the implementation of the project, Jordan seeks to subsidize water tariffs in order to strengthen the social safety net (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2008: 4-6). From a human security point of view, because this project contributes to well-being of Jordanians by impacting to high water tariffs, it prevents the risk towards human security from getting worse. The project provides more affordable water.
4.1.4 Unknown challenges of Climate change
The Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan has recognized that climate change will cause unknown challenges for Jordan (2008: 1-1). Even though, some of the future issues are unknown, it is still known that climate change will deliver additional stress towards national water resources in Jordan. Climate change has already impacted regional water scarcity because natural water supplies have decreased due to decrease of precipitation and increasing temperature (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2008: 3-2).
Due to a broader security approach, human security is concerned with human life and dignity. Considering climate change from a human security point of view, all the challenges towards climate and environment are a threat for human security. It is challenging to prepare for issues that are still unclear. However, if there is an opportunity to take action to reduce or prepare for climate change issues, these actions should be taken to ensure human well-being also in the future.
23 The impacts of climate change are beyond the control of Jordanian people. Hence, Jordan aims to protect its natural water resources from climate change by exploring new water sources in order to support Jordan’s development (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016: 47). Considering human security, the implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is very important for Jordan since it does not have enough natural water resources and climate change is most likely going to make water scarcity in Jordan even worse. According to the World Bank, the focus of the project is to impact challenges created by climate change by bringing additional water resources to the region (World Bank, 2014: 18). However, despite the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project can help the region to manage other challenges caused by climate change, it is not necessarily a solution for climate change itself. Even though it is important to prepare for climate change, I argue that there is a needs to seek out possible ways to intervene also climate change because it will cause even more problems, in water sector and other sectors, for people in the future.
4.2 Israel
In the previous section, I look at water related issues that Jordan is facing in its water sector. I also examined how Jordan has considered the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a method to address these issues and how the implementation of the project would impact human security in Jordan. Compared to Jordan, Israel’s status on water is slightly different. In this section, I analyze the water related issues by Israel for which Israel consider the project as a possible solution.
Israel considers the implementation of the project as possible solution for possible bilateral instability caused by water scarcity in Jordan and the sinking surface level on the Dead Sea. The issues of water supply and demand is also discussed because the project is estimated to improve water scarcity in Israel.
4.2.1 Possible bilateral instability caused by water scarcity in Jordan
The first identified issue by Israel is that the lack of water resources in Jordan is a concern for its own security because it creates bilateral tension between Jordan and Israel (BICOM, 2018). Israel and Jordan have had tensions in their relations for a long time. Hence, if Israel helps Jordan to overcome its water challenges, the joint management with Jordan will ‘strengthen the peace’ between Jordan and Israel (Staff, 2018).
24 The worry of ensuring a secure environment for its population is in the center of Israel’s participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project. From a human security point of view, there should be an aim to provide life for people to live without the fear of violence. Violence is a threat towards human security and therefore, people should be secured from the threat of violence. Even though Israel and Jordan have agreed on peace in 1994, increasing tensions in their relations also increases the fear for conflict. Jordan and Israel share a long border together, so it is important to value good relations with each other. Since their history has been very conflict driven and there are still some tensions between these two states, it is important for Israel to ensure its security and work to maintain a functioning relationship with its neighbor.
As discussed already earlier, Jordan is suffering from water scarcity and the implementation of the Dead Sea – Red Sea project is estimated be a good method to create a new water resource and ensure access to water for Jordanians. Without a new water resource, Jordan cannot meet its water demand in the future. As people should be entitled to basic means of survival, the lack of water decreases their human security. By participating in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, Israel aims to ensure that Jordan can overcome its water challenges. The lack of water resources and increasing water demand create a regional pressure to implement the new water resources, and therefore this project is essential.
One of the main objectives for this project according to World Bank is to promote peace and regional cooperation in Middle East. The project is seen as a symbol which promotes peace between regional states since a new water is so essential resource for people in the region (World Bank, 2014: 6). From a human security perspective, the implementation of the project is estimated to produce benefits for the welfare and safety of the people in both Jordan and Israel. Water is important for human survival and if Jordan does not get enough water to sustain the needs of its people, instability in the region caused by the water scarcity in Jordan risks people’s safety and peace also in Israel. Israel cooperates with Jordan in the Dead Sea – Red Sea Water Conveyance project because it wants to prevent any dispute from occurring by securing a strong and peaceful relationship through cooperation with Jordan.
4.2.2 The drying of the Dead Sea
The second identified issues for which Israel considers the project as possible solution is the drying of the Dead Sea. Israel has stated that the Dead Sea is suffering from environmental crisis due to an absence of water intake from Jordan River and Yarmouk River, as well as some of the
25 human actions like over-pumping and mineral production. Sinking of the surface level is a critical issue due to the Dead Sea’s economic, environmental and historical importance and value to the region. The environmental crisis of the Dead Sea is a slow but gradual process. The biggest environmental damages so far have been the drop of ground water level, increased salinity and cost line collapse (The Knesset, 2018: 41).
Considering the critical state of the Dead Sea from a broader security perspective, environmental challenges, such as degradation, are also a security risk for human life and well-being. The environmental crisis over the Dead Sea puts people’s living environment under risk because it faces an environmental catastrophe that will impact to the viability of their surroundings. Another factor impacting human security is the economic importance of the Dead Sea as people should be free from poverty. The Dead Sea provides a source of living especially for those working in the tourism or other industries in the Dead Sea valley. Hence, the drying of the Dead Sea puts their source of living and income under a risk. Even though the process of sinking water surface level is slow, actions towards saving the Dead Sea should be done in advance in order to avoid the biggest damages from occurring.
Hanegbi, a member of the Likud party in Israel, stated that “The Red Sea – Dead Sea canal will… allow us to work towards saving the Dead Sea from drying up” (Staff, 2018). The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project is strongly considered as one of the methods in order to solve the drying of the Dead Sea because already the first phase of the project will slightly slow down the rate by which the water level drops (The Knesset, 2018: 42). The estimated benefit of implementing the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is that it would save the Dead Sea from environmental degradation because it pumps more water to it (World Bank, 2014: 5). I argue that for those who are dependent on the Dead Sea, saving it from drying out is crucial in order to ensure their quality of life also in the future.
4.2.3 Water scarcity in Israel
Similarly to Jordan, Israel is also suffering from water scarcity and very limited water resources. A water crisis in Israel has manifested itself in dwindling natural water resources and low precipitation. The past few winters have been extremely arid. Due to arid winters, the main natural water resources have almost run dry. In addition, changes in the Israeli population’s water consumption habits and rapidly increasing population growth have led to increasing use of water in urban areas. These factors have stressed water resources in Israel even more (The
26 Knesset, 2018: 16). Due to these changes in water sector, the water scarcity has become a national crisis in the state of Israel.
From a human security point of view, I argue that the water crisis in Israel is a security issue because it challenges the well-being of the Israeli people. Environmental changes due to arid winters causing degradation on water resources challenge the availability of water for humans. Because the human security is concerned with the human life and dignity, I assert people should have regular access to water. Irregular water intake creates a problem because then water is not available just when it is needed. In order to strengthen human security, Israel must create methods and solutions which aim to address their national water crisis by ensuring the regular availability of water to people.
Israel has stated many optional methods in order to address the national water shortage. Israel’s method to address the water crisis has been to construct several water desalination plants in order to produce more fresh water for people’s use. Israel recognizes its own desalinations plans as a major source of water (the Knesset, 2018: 25). With these constructed desalination plants, Israel is planning to prevent water scarcity from negatively impacting the life of people in Israel.
It is noteworthy that Israel has not directly considered water received from the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project as a method to address its own water issues and lack of water supply. I argue that this is important to point out because one of the main objectives of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is to provide water and address water deficit also in Israel. Even though the potable water received from the project is expected to be pumped to Amman and other areas in Jordan, the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is still planned to provide potable water to regions in Israel and Palestinian Authority (World Bank, 2014: 18). I assert this is important because the project is estimated to improve the water scarcity in the whole region.
Because the water crisis in Israel is already an existing challenge, possible methods addressing the issue and benefiting human security are necessary for preventing the water scarcity in the future. Even though Israel does not consider the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project as a method on how it addresses its water crisis, the project is providing more desalinated water to Israel. This desalinated water therefore is estimated to improve human security by creating even more water resources in addition to already existing water resources.
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4.3 Comparison
In this last section, I critically analyze my findings by comparing and considering similarities and differences between water related issues identified by Israel and Jordan to which the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project can be a possible solution. This comparison is done in order to get a better understanding of the issues for human security and how they vary between Jordan and Israel. To begin with, I discuss about the issues they share. Then, I investigate their difference and discuss these findings in general from a human security point of view.
An issue that is similar to both Israel and Jordan is the expanding water crisis. They both suffer from a decreasing water supply received from natural water resources. Also, an increasing water demand due to population growth and changes in the people’s water consumption habits are factors impacting their respective critical situations in the water sector. Jordan and Israel are both in desperate need for water resources which can ensure access to water for their people. Water scarcity puts people’s well-being at risk and therefore, Jordan and Israel must investigate possible solutions to tackle water scarcity.
In terms of methods of how Jordan and Israel aim to contribute to their water scarcity, Jordan and Israel’s approaches differ. Jordan has considered the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as one of its main methods to diminish the gap between supply and demand (Ministry of Water and Irrigation, 2008: 1-2). There are other methods also considered, but the lack of water resources creates a need for investigating new water resources. This is due to the fact that the natural water resources do not develop enough water to meet the constantly increasing water demand. Compared to Jordan, Israel has not directly considered implementation of the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as a method to diminish to its water scarcity. However, Israel has planned many other methods, such as other desalination plants, in order to address its water scarcity (The Knesset, 2018: 25-34).
Jordan and Israel have both considered the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project as method to address their water related issues, but these water-related issues identified by Jordan and Israel vary according to their different needs. The significant difference stems from the types of issues for which Jordan and Israel have considered the project to be a possible solution. Jordan has identified that it needs this project in order to respond to issues such as the lack of water resources and an increasing water demand (the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, 2016). Jordan needs this project in order to ensure regular and stable
