Towards Cooperation In Water: The Middle East Water Project

Water is often thought of as a major source of conflict. Careful analysis of the value and optimal management of water, however, shows that this need not be so. Indeed, water can be a source of cooperation. The value of water can never exceed the cost of replacing it by desalination, and even this upper bound is such that water disputes seems resolvable. The Middle East Water Project is a joint project of Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians, Americans and Dutch. It is supported by the government of the Netherlands with the knowledge and permission of the three regional governments. The Project has built an optimizing model of the water economies of each of the three regional parties, with particular attention to agriculture. These models provide tools whereby the user can specify values and policies and then find the optimal water allocation that results. The costs and benefits of new infrastructure projects can be readily investigated with a system-wide analysis, as can the consequences of different water policies. Because such a model can also be used regionally, the possibilities for cooperation in water and water infrastructure can be evaluated. Where additional water as valued by the model does not have the same value in two neighboring countries, there are opportunities for joint gain through cooperation in water and water infrastructure. These gains appear substantial. While the Project's methods are silent as to water rights, they can readily be used to explore the consequences of water agreements