The Water Security Concept--Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation in the Middle East
Publisher: EcoPeace Middle East
Author(s): Gidon Bromberg and Giulia Giordano
Date: 2017
Topics: Climate Change, Conflict Prevention, Cooperation, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Israel, Jordan, Palestine
The concept of water security has attracted growing attention in the past few years. Multiple definitions can be found in both policy and academic literature, spurring a debate on the different approaches and framings of water security. Such definitions generally tend to highlight issues of access and quantity but have recently expanded to include water quality, human health, and environmental concerns. UN Water has advanced a comprehensive definition, which encompasses multiple dimensions, ranging from issues of water scarcity and climate change to good governance and trans-boundary cooperation. Accordingly, water security is defined as “the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability”.1 This definition highlights the centrality of water security to achieving a larger sense of human security and ecological sustainability.