First posted at Tacitus Aug 30, 04

About That Litani River

By praktike
Posted on Mon Aug 30th, 2004 at 01:25:47 PM EST

Juan Cole may have gone a tad overboard in his recent posts about the neoconservatives and the Likud Party agenda. One particular remark that seems to have stuck in some people's craw is this one:

With both Iraq and Iran in flames, the Likud Party could do as it pleased in the Middle East without fear of reprisal. This means it could expel the Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan, and perhaps just give Gaza back to Egypt to keep Cairo quiet. Annexing southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, the waters of which Israel has long coveted, could also be undertaken with no consequences, they probably think, once Hizbullah in Lebanon could no longer count on Iranian support. The closed character of the economies of Iraq and Iran, moreover, would end, allowing American, Italian and British companies to make a killing after the wars (so they thought). [Emphasis mine]

This sounds a bit alarmist, doesn't it?
Well, perhaps not all of it.

Both Chaim Weizman and David Ben Gurion claimed the Litani Basin as part of Israel's ancestral rights. Additionally, Moshe Dayan was a long-time advocate of Israeli sovereignty over the Litani.

In the 1960s Israeli war planes bombed a Jordanian dam project on the nearby Yarmuk River, a tributary of the Jordan.

The 1967 war was precipitated most immediately by Egypt's blockade of the Sea of Aqaba, but also by Syria's faield 1964 attempt to divert the Hasbani River, another tributary of the Jordan.

Ireland's former foreign minister, Gerard Collins, writes:

The Litani, located entirely within Lebanon, derives its hydro-political importance from the fact that it runs within easy tunneling distance to the present Israeli-Lebanese border. It runs actually less than 10 kilometers from the Israeli controlled upper reaches of the Jordan. Israel had hoped to connect the Litani with the Jordan, thus enabling it to pump those waters into Israel proper. The plan to seize the Litani has a long history. It had been articulated for the first time in the 1920s by one of the Zionist organisations but the objective became more serious following the 1967 war, as Israel wanted more water than had been garnered from the war. The timing for the capture of the Litani in 1978 was logical: if South Lebanon were secured at the time, the waters of the Litani would be available for Israeli use by some point in the mid-1980s, when Israel anticipated that the waters captured in the 1967 war would be fully used up and more water needed. However, as things stand now, the coveted waters of the Litani remain undeveloped for Lebanon and in limbo for Israel.

Israel occupied the left bank of the Litani River until 2000, and the Barak government had semi-official plans to deflect its flow for irrigation projects in the Jordan Valley. The UN had already accused Israel of diverting part of the Litani underground for its own use since 1982, a charge Israel denies.

The 1999 Likud Party platform, by the way, flatly declares that "The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty." Additionally, the Likud is committed to settlement expansion:

The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.

By the way, settlers use water

Water Demand. Annual water demand amounts to about 2100 MCM/year, of which about one half is used for agriculture and the remainder is used by the urban and industrial sectors.

Domestic Consumption. All Israeli settlements are served by public waterworks, supplying an average of about 250 liters/capita/day. Similarly, about 95% of the return flow is collected, about 80% is adequately treated, and in many cases, reused for irrigation (42%). Drinking water quality conforms with WHO standards and further improvements to meet prevailing European Union and United States standards are planned. Currently, the urban sector consumes about 800 MCM. The trend of consumption in the domestic sector is on the rise, reflecting the continuing increase in population and improved living standards of the Israeli population. The annual increase is about 20- 30 MCM per year, about 4%; it is assumed that consumption will reach 1.3 billion cum, by the year 2020.

Agricultural Consumption. Due to population growth and the associated water demand, the supply of fresh water resources to the agricultural sector has decreased from about 77% in the sixties, to about 60% at present. The reduced allocation is substituted with non-potable resources, including brackish and reclaimed sewage effluents. Although agriculture is still the largest consumer, consumption in this sector is strongly influenced by annual rainfall quantities, and during drought periods consumption is reduced.

The Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure is very concerned about an upcoming water deficit:

It is evident that 50 years from now the total regional population may be in the order of 25-30 million in comparison to the current 12 million. On the other hand, the long-term deficit may reach 3000 MCM/year, exceeding the natural rate of replenishment. Furthermore, improper control of waste in the region could cause irreversible contamination of the water resources. In particular, the heavily-polluted Karstic Mountain aquifer, left unmanaged, could have serious implications on the quality of water in the region.

The reality of growing needs, despite limited resources, is one of the factors driving regional water conservation efforts and consideration of alternative water resources. The available supply can be enhanced or expanded, to a limited extent, by desalinating brackish or sea water, dam construction and/or enlargement, leak reduction in reticulation systems, water awareness and conservation, and the increased use of treated wastewater. [...]

Although Water Demand Management measures are crucial, additional water supplies will have to be mobilized.

Recent Israel/Lebanon conflicts

In 2002 Israel threatened Lebanon with war if it completed a project on the Wazzani, a tributary of the Hasbani River that flows into the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main water supply. Lebanon claimed it could not use the Litani River as a water supply because it was too polluted. A summary of the state of play in 2002 here (sorry the site is a little weird, but the sources are normal newspapers)

The Israeli perspective is here or here.

"As long as the Litani River project is not implemented, as long as one drop of water that belongs to Lebanon is not used, this means that Lebanon remains occupied," Berri said at the opening of an artisan well project in the village of Wadi Jilo, east of Tyre.

The Litani River project aims to provide irrigation for 14,700 hectares (36,324 acres) of land in 76 towns and villages and drinking water to 23 other villages.

Financing help has come from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. More on Lebanon's plans for the Litani River basin here.