“We’ve found that youth are often braver than any other level of community interaction. From their perspective, if we need to work with the other side in order to solve this problem, then why aren’t we doing that?”
Gidon Bromberg, Israeli co-director of EcoPeace Middle East
Originally quoted in New Security Beat
About the Jordan River Basin
The Jordan River Basin is 18,285 km2 in area, spread across Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. Syria and Lebanon have very small shares of the area and reliance on basin water resources due to their access to other basins (1). As a result, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine are the primary riparians of the basin, and its main channel, the Jordan River (2). There are two bilateral agreements between the riparians governing the basin. The first agreement was the 1994 Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan. The 1995 agreement between Israel and the (then) Palestinian Liberation Organization followed, and is the most recent agreement in the basin.
The headwaters of the basin rise from groundwater sources and seasonal surface runoff in Hasbani, Banias, and Dan. Historically, Lake Tiberias/Sea of Galilee and the Yarmuk River also supplied flows to the basin. The basin is divided into two sections along its main channel, the Jordan River. The Upper Jordan flows from the northern headwaters to Lake Tiberias/Sea of Galilee. The stretch of the Jordan River below the lake is the Lower Jordan River (1). The Jordan River holds ecological, economic, cultural, and religious importance. Migratory birds use the Great Rift Valley, which the Jordan River runs through, as a corridor between Europe, Africa, and Asia. The river itself remains a site for Christian pilgrims, and the basin contains religiously significant sites for all three Abrahamic faiths (3).
Since the 1950s, the mean annual flow volume of the Upper Jordan River has not notably changed. The Yarmuk River and the Lower Jordan River below Lake Tiberias/Sea of Galilee are both down to 10-20% of the historical average (1,2). The three main drivers of the decline in the Lower Jordan are the development of dams below Lake Tiberias/Sea of Galilee, population growth, and climate change (2). As damming for irrigation and municipal uses increased upstream in the basin, populations in Palestine became increasingly reliant on the basin’s Mountain Aquifer. This exacerbated the pressure on the gaining surface water channels in the basin (4).
Background: Efforts to engage youth in Blue Peace for the Jordan River
In 2020, Lynn Porta worked with EcoPeace Middle East to develop Blue Peace Index-based exercises on the Jordan River Basin. The exercises contributed to environmental diplomacy programs for Israelis, Jordanians, and the West Bank Palestinians. The BPI assesses how countries in the same river basin can have sustainable, equitable, and collaborative water management policies. The indicators in the five Pillars of the BPI are based on areas that countries have the agency to change if they wanted to improve their shared water management. Educating in-basin groups on this tool highlights actionable options to improve the future of populations reliant on a transboundary water resource.
Lynn developed three exercises on the Jordan River Basin for EcoPeace Middle East. The first exercise was for a teacher’s program to train educators on environmental communication and challenges in the basin. The second exercise was implemented for a program with high school-age participants. The final exercise was used as part of EcoPeace’s Water Diplomats Young Professionals program.
“The Blue Peace Index pours into the objectives of EPME, by providing the tool to analyze the national and regional water scenes in each country, by looking at the five pillars, identifying gaps, exploring opportunities, and exchanging knowledge participants understand that there will be no win-lose scenarios, and that competition is no longer a valid approach to confront the water-related challenges. As a result, cooperation, and collaboration will be the approach for sustainable water management, resulting in more peaceful and resilient societies.”
EcoPeace Middle East Representative
Each exercise was slightly different based on the participants. Workgroup structure and approach to adapting the Blue Peace Index varied, as did the outcomes for participants. However, key elements of introducing the BPI and its application to the Jordan River Basin in EcoPeace programs were similar. You can view the introductory information for the high school-age program, and the young professional program, developed by Lynn for EcoPeace, below.
Water Diplomats Young Professionals Program: Exercise introduction
Youth Program: Exercise introduction
Different pathways for action for youth in the Jordan River Basin
The lessons from this final chapter of the Youth Act! Toolkit is structured differently than the previous three chapters. The previous chapters of the Toolkit focused on specific lessons about a transboundary river basin that point to specific actions uniquely available to youth. In this chapter, the three sections focus on the importance of understanding the audience of their proposals, activities, and other actions youth take for water resources. The following sections are distinct to the exercises and groups that participated in the EcoPeace programs in 2020. They represent examples of how youth and young professionals can talk to educators, high school-age peers, and other young professionals, to act for a better water future for a transboundary river basin. EcoPeace Middle East also contributes feedback on how the exercises benefited their programs.
Educators can be powerful allies in communicating the importance of being active and educated on how governments share transboundary water resources. Teachers work with young people from across communities and have their trust. They often know about local organizations, clubs, and resources that students can access to further their interests.
Depending on the country and school system, educators will have a general knowledge or skillset in a few areas. This is different than speaking with policy-makers who work with water resources as a career. When speaking with people who are generally educated about environmental challenges, but not specifically aware of issues unique to local water resources, it is important to present information in relation to the communities affected by the resource or problem. They may be surprised to learn about their own country, or their neighbors, water-related challenges and policies. The BPI takes an approach that highlights how countries and communities are connected in a river basin. In working through the BPI exercise, this was an advantage for communicating with the teachers. Relating local issues of environmental protection and water access to larger hydrological and policy contexts was a key strategy for this group.
Youth are very informed about broader environmental issues like the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and plastic pollution. They may not be aware of issues underlying the broader concerns, such as water management problems. Exercises such as the adapted Blue Peace Index can help slowly introduce young people to information that may contradict their previous understanding of their regional water resources. This is done through encouraging youth to be their own investigators and have ownership in the information they find.
“The Blue Peace Index made me question our reality. How is Jordan suffering from water stress while in Israel we don’t? Aren’t we sharing the resources? …. I thought the situation was not as bad!”
Participant in the Youth EcoPeace Blue Peace exercise, 2020
Centering the investigation and ownership of knowledge about water issues enhances the importance be educated about water resources management. Issues that are often very technical and heavily regulated, such as water management, can be harder to communicate.
Water resources can be a connective tool between groups of young people from different backgrounds or with different concerns. From a youth program participant: “It is very important to teach and discuss such sensitive topics from younger ages, as they become more realistic and way more noticeable, and we need to know how we can be involved in the solution”.
The relationship between climate change and water resources in the Jordan River Basin is an example of how youth can relate water challenges to problems they are already aware of. Drought conditions and water scarcity are realities that youth will be aware of in their communities. They may not be aware of such challenges faced by their neighbors. Connecting water challenges to larger contexts, such as climate change, increases the accessibility of water issues to youth. This lesson is translatable to youth motivation around environmental protection. For example, examining regional efforts to jointly manage waste pollution into shared water resources (Pillar 3) can be empowering and motivating if efforts in a region can be more collaborative.
Young professionals at the start of their careers have the benefit of a recent education, which in many areas is increasingly interdisciplinary. The different perspectives offered by the Pillars structure of a Blue Peace Index-based approach encourage young professionals with different training to consider new solutions that address multiple gaps in a water management approach at the same time. These outcomes are called “co-benefits.” The shared benefits can take the form of positive outcomes across borders, or across multiple groups with demand for water.
“Learning about global issues can help solve local water and environmental problems because I would help us create innovative ideas as to how to solve them. Now that I am educated enough about the regional water scene I believe I am able to come up with creative solutions to the problem”.
Water Diplomacy Young Professionals program participant, on the Blue Peace exercise prepared for their cohort, 2020.
Young professionals will be energized by projects that meet multiple needs or address multiple problems. Providing funding or financing options that are accessible for their ideas is an important element of maintaining this energy and momentum. BPI-based exercises introduce funding options, and challenges, to young professionals (Pillar 4). Keeping funding concerns in mind while building projects will strengthen proposals from young professionals.
Benefits & New Insights into the Rio Bravo
To close this chapter, below are a selection of final insights and feedback from EcoPeace Middle East experts, and youth or young professional program participants, on the value of the exercise to their work and learning:
“After attending the youth [exercise] in Jordan, I feel that I have a much better understanding of the water challenges that are occurring in the Middle East. My experience has given me the confidence that I will be able to share what I have discovered with my classmates and other people in the same situation when I go back to my old school. Not only would I be able to educate other Palestinians and Israelis through presenting presentations and lectures at my school, but I would also be able to educate international students who may not have had prior awareness of the crisis”.
Youth participant
Throughout analyzing the diplomatic, technical, political and financial pillars of the index, participants are encouraged to adopt assessment tools, collaborate with one another, and develop creative and innovative solutions for regional issues of water scarcity and water mismanagement, resulting a creating a critical mass of advocates for innovative, and peaceful stream of thinking on how to increase mutual gains, mutual trust and promote dialogue. Through analyzing how well each country manages its waters, mapping needs for more sustainable water management, and allowing participants to brainstorm their possible contribution to improve the current realities, a major breakthrough in the blame game comes in to mitigate the possible water conflicts in an already troubled region.
EcoPeace Middle East expert, speaking on the value of the Blue Peace Index-based exercise in their education programs
For more information on the Jordan River-focused Blue Peace exercises mentioned in this chapter, please contact Lynn Porta (elynn.porta@naypw.com) from the NAYPW.
References
(1) “Jordan River Basin,” Water Inventory
(2) “Coping with Water Scarcity in the Jordan River Basin,” TCF
(3) Jordan River, EcoPeace Middle East
(4) Fischhendler, Itay & Zilberman, David. (2011). Spatial and temporal dynamics of linkage strategies in Arab-Israeli water negotiations. Political Geography 30. 13-24.
Youth Act! Toolkit is a collaborative effort by youth water activists around the world
Youth leaders & experts from the USA and Canada lead this project based on work under the NAYPW program for Young Professionals Blue Peace Whitepaper Program.
Youth Act! is a collaboration across Parliaments of the World Youth Parliament for Water, including expertise from the Parlamento Mexicano Juvenil por el Agua.
This platform is generously supported with seed funding from the Swiss Water Partnership Youth Challenge 2021.
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Youth Act! Blue Peace Index Toolkit 