Peace 2 O

Yesterday I suffered a few pangs of guilt over my water-gun battle waged last Wednesday night amongst my AP World History scholars.

You see, yesterday we had three guests come and speak to the school about the scarcity of water in the Middle East. Oh. Whoops.

One of the many things I have learned since moving to teach in Jordan is really the importance of that resource water, and indeed the scarcity of it. In the United States we rarely talk about the threat of running out of water, and maybe a couple days a summer we learn on the news that citizens have been asked to stop watering lawns for a few days because of talk of water shortage. I don’t remember seeing many homes actually pursuing the water stoppage however.

I do remember one of my favorite TV shows in the last 10 years, a clever show entitled, Jack and Bobby, raising the significance and high stakes of water supply and rights. In case you missed this show, or just thought it was about the Kennedys, it was a show set in the future about 40 years, with a History Channel-like TV network producing a documentary about the early 20th century youth of the current future president. So it was a TV show about teen-age angst, not far removed from the Dawson’s Creek variety, but with an eye on the future and how the president of this in-the-future United States had honed his leadership skills, or just simply what had shaped him in his youth. We learned from the show that a major war would happen someday, between the United States and Mexico, and the origins of the war lay in disputed water rights. Hmmmmm…

Anyway, back to the real world (although when the DVD of that show comes out, it would make a lovely present for yours truly!)…our speakers are heavy-hitters. These three men (names I didn’t get) had been named by Time magazine in 2008 as “Heroes of the Earth.” They came to us by way of a World Economic Forum hosted by Jordan last weekend at the Dead Sea. But what made the presentation so interesting and transcended the regular furtive cries of “make your showers shorter,” is that these three are combining water and politics. Well, actually, they would say they are trying to transcend politics.

The three gentlemen represent three groups of people: one man is from Jordan, one is from Israel, and one from Palestine. They formed a group a couple of years ago called “Friends of the Earth,” and their goal is to create new discussions about water, and perhaps even nudge the region toward peace.

The reality is simple—Israel and Jordan and Syria all vie for water sources. Palestinians have no jurisdiction since they are not a recognized state. Could discussions about water lead to greater co-operation??

Another reality is simple—the Jordan River is running dry. It has been tapped as a source, and few have sought new ideas to replenish this source. This team showed photographs of the Jordan River Valley in 1900—it was a massive river, with (as they reported) 1.3 billion cubic meters of water circa 1900. They estimate the Jordan River now has about 70 million cubic meters. The numbers of course are all so large that it is hard to fathom it, but it is not hard to understand that diminished number. They said that 95% of the Jordan River has been removed. Moreover, that has been a “diversion” of humans and not of Nature. In 1900 the Jordan River was mighty enough to create hydroelectric power. Today it is a sad, polluted remnant of its power a century ago.

They explained the ongoing catastrophe of the Dead Sea—it loses about 1 meter of depth every year. They showed photographs of buildings/resorts built in the early 1990s and how far away from the Dead Sea those buildings are today.

These three guys—politically diverse from their three separate groups—emphasized that water can be a meeting point. There are discussions and brain stormings going on all the time. One of the possibilities is the Red-Dead Canal, a massive public works project that could potentially throw the same amount of water currently in the Jordan River (look above—70 million cubic somethings) through the canal every second! (The canal would stretch from the Red Sea a few hours to the South to the Dead Sea—wow.)

But they reminded us that this canal, this energy factory, could have dire consequences—it could thrown into jeopardy two ecosystems just to save a third. Could scientists and geographers from all three regions agree to work together and form a partnership? Can something be above partisan land-grabbing and resentment?

Each man explained how his group often uses water—who gets the most, who gets the least, but that all three groups must co-exist because each water source affects at least two peoples. All the water in this region crosses at least one political boundary! Their work involves getting mayors together from towns of all three peoples and working collectively on managing ground water, cleaning up water, and envisioning new sources. Maybe it does boil down to that “Good water makes good neighbors.”

These three men are working with governments, but also helping organizations foster youth groups to understand the harvesting of rain water and the water realities of the region. They had a great presentation of some of the organizations begun in the last few years. They reminded our students that many of their ideas all came during what could be fertile years in college.

Later in the presentation one of the men confessed that he wasn’t pleased to see the lovely lawns here at KA—he wondered about the source of the water to support our lovely emerald carpets. It surprised a number of us to learn that it is actually well-water. We had been told since the beginning of the school that the school used recycled water, some call it “grey” water that has been saved from showers on campus. Whoops! These men found out it is not, and there was a little stab of guilt and a little popping of the balloon that we were being environmentally responsible. Whoops.

The men explained how illogical it is that about 35% of all the water is flushed down the drain. C’est vrai as the French would say. That’s true. The men implored the youth to begin thinking of other ways to flush toilets and not waste so much water just down a drain. They spoke of water-less toilets in Vancouver. Of course, that is not as imperative for Vancouver since it rains frequently there!

But the presentation was fascinating—I don’t remember when I last cared that much about water and the realities of it, the potentials of it. The men did not harangue too much about politics, but they posed the question, “Will killing generate a new source for water??” No, but peace probably would.

It may have been prescient of Jack and Bobby to pose that in the future there very well might be a war about water.

This morning I did my bit. I made my shower shorter than usual.