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Friends of the Earth Middle East gathered together youth from the Good Water Neighbors participating communities of Gilboa Regional Council (in Israel) and Jenin (Palestine) on July 5th. The youth met for an outdoor activity at one of the Neighbors Paths stations of the Gilboa Regional Council. They practiced first hand cooperation – what it means to trust someone while walking on a rope, how to complete tasks through team work and how to communicate with each other.

 

The lessons learnt were reflected on the need for a fair and just water distribution in Jenin, and our ability to cooperate and lead together a youth campaign for the cleanup of their shared / cross border water resource, the Kishon River. Click here for more photos from the day's event.

On July 5th and 6th, FoEME participated in the annual CleanTech exhibition in Tel Aviv. Representatives from the Good Water Neighbors project from Israel, Jordan and Palestine attended. Though our booth was decidedly less high-tech, we offered our own CleanTech solutions: person-to-person contact and collaboration to protect our shared, and threatened, trans-boundary resources.

 

An International Water Symposium was held as part of the exhibition, featuring six speakers from Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, including FoEME’s Palestinian Director  and Jordanian Director . All six panelists talked about the reality of the water situation in the region and potential solutions to overcome the disparity of distribution among Israel, Jordan and Palestine.  Read more on our blog post.

An additional cross border event brought Good Water Neighbors residents from Beit She'an and the Springs Valley R.C. in Israel (some serving on the local environmental committee) to meet their Palestinian neighbors south of Beit She'an on a Study Tour to learn about the water reality in the area.

 

The meeting began with Palestinian farmers from 3 small neighboring villages – Kardala, Bardala and Ein El Bieda who described their ongoing troubles, difficulties and frustrations over the lack of water supply. The group then toured 3 water drilling points of Mekorot. The Israelis were disturbed to learn first-hand of the huge injustice and inequality of diverting a disproportional amount of local spring water to Israeli settlements' agriculture, while Palestinian farmers are forced to dry up their crops. Despite the politically charged issue, the neighbors all said it was an important learning experience.

On July 4th, FoEME partnered with ACRI "Action a Day Campaign" to spread awareness about the regions shared water resources by hosting a bloggers tour into the West Bank. Over 15 Israeli environmental bloggers bore witness to the unequal distribution of water throughout the West Bank.

 

The tour included stops in Ma’ale Efrayim, Al Jiftlik, and a Water Reservoir on route 90 in the Jordan River Valley. The final destination was at the Auja Environmental Center, where bloggers met with local residents from Auja to discuss the impact of water on their lives.

 

Visit our Good Water Neighbors press coverage page for recent articles by the Jerusalem Post, Green Prophet, The Star, Al Jazeera and more.

 

The Good Water Neighbors project is supported by USAID, SIDA and the Belgium Foreign Ministry's Peace Building Desk.

‘Water and Sanitation in the Jordan Valley: A 2011 Snapshot’ is a study undertaken by FoEME to strengthen the knowledge base regarding the current water and sanitation situation in the Palestinian Jordan Valley. Meant to complement recent reports on water in the Jordan Valley, specifically B’Tselem (2011) and UNICEF (2010), this report provides an in-depth analysis of current water resource availability for Palestinian communities, Israeli settlements, along with options to conserve freshwater in the West Bank economy.

 

The Jordan River Rehabilitation Project is supported by USAID, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Global Nature Fund / Ursula Merz Foundation.

FoEME was invited to present our 'Good Water Neighbors' methodology as a model for the Indus Basin at a Young Global Leaders Initiative on Indo-Pak Cooperation entitled "Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: Managing Risks, Creating Benefits" in Lahore Pakistan on July 8th – 9th.

 

FoEME's Jordan River Rehabilitation Project was invited to present the findings of our "Environmental Flows" and "Economic Studies" at the 2nd Istanbul International Water Forum as part of the thematic session on “Regional Technical Cooperation on Water”.

 

FoEME's community led water reuse projects in Auja and Ein Gedi were highlighted as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency's special session on water reuse at the Singapore International Water Week.

 

FoEME staff attended an important civil society meeting organized by the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean and WWF that gathered NGOs in Barcelona to define and agree on the need for civil society to be a stronger voice in policy-making and projects on nature and environment.

 

The Committee on Energy, Environment and Water of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean held a meeting in Salzburg on July 1st – 2nd, inviting FoEME to present its Jordan River Rehabilitation project and our regional approach to the issue.

 

Water Evaluation And Planning workshop - FoEME staff presented our recently conducted "Environmental Flows" report for the Lower Jordan River; the complementary "Economic Analysis of Policy Options for Water Conservation in Israel, Jordan and Palestine" and a draft concept of a "Water Allocation Plan" for the Lower Jordan River from Israel, using WEAP expertise.
 

The Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ISEEC) held its 39th conference in northern Israel, where FoEME's Jordan River rehabilitation project's "Environmental Flows" report was presented (page 124 in link) as well as initial findings from our newest study on "Promoting Green Jobs in a Green Water Economy in Israel" (page 73 in link).