Water diplomacy in the absence of a river basin organization

Abstract

Water security in Jordan, Palestine, and Israel is limited by its natural water resource endowment as well as its complex social and political environment. These circumstances, among others, have prevented the development of cooperative institutions to manage shared waters and it has had vast implications on water rights, the environment, and human development in the region. In the absence of a formal River Basin Organization, alternative technical, legal, strategic, and institutional arrangements for water diplomacy have developed across the political inter-state and grassroots levels. Through a review of these alternatives, this chapter concludes that water diplomacy in Jordan, Palestine, and Israel, albeit happening, is insufficient in fulfilling functions equivalent to those of a formal River Basin Organization, limiting sustainable transboundary water management in the region.