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Abstract
Transboundary environmental degradation often poses serious health and security threats to regional residents. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict further aggravates an environment already characterized by water scarcity, environmental distress and polluted waterways. Yet, common ground appears to emerge from a recent contingent valuation study in which both Israelis and Palestinians reveal common water use and riparian restoration preferences, as well as comparable willingness to pay for proposed restoration efforts. These surprising results – especially that despite vast economic hindrances, Palestinians have revealed similar willingness to contribute financially to stream restoration – indicate the seriousness of regional health issues and demonstrate a foundation for future cooperative restoration efforts. A simple cost–benefit analysis is conducted, which sheds light on future policy formation, especially with regard to water treatment and allocation decisions for both societies.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the USAID MERC (Middle East Regional Cooperation) Program for supporting this important transboundary study.
Notes
Itai Freeman, personal communication, 15 February 2008.
Census, 1997, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, www.pcbs.gov.ps
While per capita income is a misleading indication due to tansboundary differences in family size, Israeli per capita GDP of $25,000 is more than 20 times larger, and therefore the relative magnitude of willingness to pay is comparable with this figure.
Temporal trends for water resources data in areas of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian interest, http://exact-me.org/trends/othercl.htm
Ministry of Economics, personal communication, 21 December 2006.
