U.S.-Israel Planning Visit: The Political Economy of Israel's Water Sector Across Scales

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

Access to clean water is poised to become the greatest natural resource challenge of the 21st century. This study asks, "Who has the right to make decisions about water resources when and why?" What is the role of the state, the private sector, local government, and communities? In Israel the state dominates the water sector. Should this serve as an example or warning for other countries following the more common decentralized, and growing privatized, water management route? What is the impact of such an approach on equitable access, pricing, and maintaining resource sustainability? This planning visit grant will be used by Dr. Richard Marcus (Yale University, Environmental Studies and Political Science) to visit and collaborate with Dr. Moshe Schwartz (Ben Gurion University, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Department of Man and the Desert), interview water sector leaders, and further vet the research question with Israeli academic colleagues. The findings will be used to inform the research design of Dr. Marcus' multi-country collaborative effort to explore the relationship between equity and sustainability in water resource governance. Social scientists are just beginning to look beyond the policy of simply seeking out more water to disaggregate the complex institutional relationships governing specific water management cases, improve efficiency, and consider demand. The larger project this planning visit informs will begin the process of building on these efforts to extract cross-national findings about the role of institution types, their constituents, and their levels. In order to better inform water policy in the U.S., Israel, and myriad other countries, we must better understand what sorts of institutions, representing what interests, best govern the resource to ensure resource sustainability and equitable enough access as to avert conflict.