Palestinian Water: Resources, Use, Conservation, Climate Change, and Land Use

Abstract

This article addresses the future of freshwater resources in the Palestinian West Bank through a discussion of contemporary issues that each plays a vital role in determining the long-term sustainability of freshwater reserves, such as water resource availability, trans-boundary water issues, water reuse and conservation, changes in land use, and the potential impact of climate change on long-term water management. Climate change and changing land use patterns are already altering this region's water resources. Future predictions regarding the long-term effects of these changes are complex and therefore inherently uncertain. However, the consensus among most studies on this subject indicates that currently water-poor regions such as the Middle East will experience even greater water stress in the future. Nearly all of the freshwater consumed in the West Bank is obtained from local groundwater supplies that are suffering overdraft as well as decreasing water quality. Climate change will exacerbate water stress by increasing overall temperatures, decreasing and fluctuating precipitation, and reducing overall aquifer replenishment. Expanding urbanization will continue to strain freshwater supplies by negatively impacting the quality and quantity of available freshwater. Water management in the West Bank is further complicated by total Israeli control over water resources, which often causes water delivery to Palestinians in this region to be marginalized. This article finds that Palestinian and Israeli water managers must plan for future water crises, which will likely be a result of the combined effects of increasing urbanization and climate change coupled with exponential population growth.