Hydro-‐political Baseline of the Upper Jordan River - Ibrahim Abd El Al

Abstractions from / use of the
entire Jordan River Basin
Abstractions from / use of the
Upper Jordan River Basin
Lebanon 11* 8
Israel 550 – 800
440 –520*
[ -­‐ 360 upper limit n/i
evaporation]
Syria 200 – 260 0
Jordan
290
[270 n/i evaporation]
Palestinians 0 0
* This study’s calculation – see Section 3.5.
Table 2.1 Estimates of surface water abstractions or use of the entire Jordan River Basin, and of the
Upper Jordan River Basin (2003). Phillips, et al. (2007b: Table 5), IWMI (Courcier, et al. 2005: Table
10). See also Trondalen (2008: 47) (which is based on Soffer 1994 and Klein 1998).
2.4 Institutional Arrangements of Water Resources Management
The institutional administration of water in in Lebanon and Israel are remarkably different.
The water resource management administration in Israel is streamlined and a centralised
decision-­‐making process is clearly defined. The Lebanese water sector, in contrast, is more
directly shaped by a diversity of influential stake holders with different interests and a very
complex multi-­‐actor decision making process, that recurrently comes to halt with every
internal political stalemate and crisis. The water resources management administration is
also split among a number of Ministries and state institutions, with poor communication and
lacking coordination.
2.4.1 Water institutions in Lebanon
The character of the water sector administration in Lebanon in part reflects the state’s
development. National-­‐level water resources development was proposed in the 1930s by
Albert Naccache and later by Ibrahim Abdel Al. Today's administration is still recovering from
the civil war, and is undergoing a thorough administrative reform process. The ministries
and the regional water authorities are unequally staffed, and both are generally lacking
hydrologists and engineers, not to mention social scientists. As such, both infrastructure
development and data collection continues to be somewhat dependent on foreign donors.
The institutional arrangement of the water sector in Lebanon was re-­‐structured through Law
221 in 2000, as shown in Figure 2.7, and is described in brief following (and at greater length,
in Annex B). The numerous influences at different scales (local, national, regional and
international) can be seen to affect management decisions, both domestically and in regards
to transboundary flows.
0
30