Conflicts and Covenants in the Middle East: A Review of the Contemporary Literature on Regional Water Problems

Water in the Levant in the Ancient and Recent past

The first conflicts and first covenants over water in the Land of Canaan were between Abraham, and later his son Isaac, and Abimelech, the King of the Philistines. ¹ These conflicts were about the ownership of wells of water somewhere in the region between Gaza and Beer-Sheva. From a hydrogeological point of view, I think that Isaac acted wisely when he acceded to King Abimelech's request to remove himself and his people from the Gaza Coastal plain to the area of Beer-Sheva. There, with experience gained by trial and error exploration and digging, he was able to locate a buried river bed in which his servants were able to dig wells of fresh water. ²

What would have happened if Isaac had not found usable water? It is quite obvious that a series of quarrels would have led to hostilities between his and Abimelech's servants, which might have decided the future fate of Isaac's people. The discovery of good water, however, was neither the first nor the last time that the fate of a nation was decided by the discovery of water along the margins of the deserts of the Middle East. In modern times, this has certainly been the case of Zionist settlement in Eretz Israel. One of the many examples is that of Professor Leo Picard's discovery in 1936 of water in the limestone rocks north of Kibbutz Genigar, ³ which made possible the introduction of intensive agriculture in what was then called the Valley of Esdarelon (Emek Yezreel or Ha'Emek), the diamond in the crown of Zionist agricultural settlements. As a matter of fact, one can hardly imagine the development of the modern state of Israel if not for the existence and the development of the groundwater resources in a country where most of the northern part is semi-arid, while all the southern half is arid, and which is not compensated by any of the major rivers coming from more humid areas like Egypt or Mesopotamia.

The special importance of groundwater for a semi-arid country is that this resource always contains a storage factor, which makes the water supply less dependent on the random nature of precipitation. The key to maintaining a stable income level in agricultural communities is a stable water supply. Groundwater storage means a more deterministic water supply system, rather than one that is stochastic and governed by chance.

The physical principles of flow through porous media or sponge-like rock determine the suitability of groundwater for storage. Small rock particles in the pores in the subsurface, around which the water flows, form natural, minute dams that retard and lengthen the flow paths of water underground, and thus reduce the velocity of flow. This effect is cumulative and, under special geological conditions, is responsible for the storage of vast quantities of water which has been charged and recharged over many millennia. Moreover, this resource is spread out under most parts of Israel. In the early days of Zionist colonization, this fortuitous factor enabled the drilling of wells, permitting the development of a water system that could be upgraded stage by stage. The initial investment was low, and the availability of groundwater made possible the establishment of settlements all over the country.

Yet, this special character of groundwater storage should be considered, not only as a means to understanding the history of Jewish settlement, but also as an important factor in the planning of the future. There is general agreement that the shortage of water is one of the main stumbling blocks to achieving peace in the Middle East. If one agrees with the forecast of Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghally, the present General Secretary of the UN and the former Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, ⁴ this shortage may...