Hundreds have staged protests in Jordan against a water-electricity deal with Israel | Opposition Articles

Amman, Jordan – Hundreds of people have gathered in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to protest the water and power alliance between Jordan and Israel.

Once the agreement is finalized, it will be one of the major joint projects since the two countries signed the peace agreement 27 years ago.

Under the agreement, Jordan will receive 200 million cubic meters (7.06 billion cubic feet) of treated water from Israel, in exchange for 600 megawatts of electricity generated by the UAE-powered solar power plant in Jordan.

The Jordanian people in the protests on Friday rejected the agreement, saying it was working well with Israel as it continued to occupy Palestinian territories. Opponents also warned that the alliance would force Jordan to rely on his neighbor.

“We have a right to life; Palestinians have a right to life, “Nasreen, a protest activist, told Al Jazeera.

Nasreen carried a photograph made by her three children. “It’s about being a HUMAN BEING,” the drawing read.

The “mission statement” was signed on Monday in Dubai by Jordan’s Minister of Water Affairs, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister and UAE climate change minister, in front of US Climate Ambassador John Kerry.

“We do not believe in work,” Jordanian Member of Parliament Saleh al-Armouti told Al Jazeera, referring to Israel. “If the state of Israel does not sign a treaty, they usually do not do what they say.”

Lack of Water

The agreement seeks to address Jordan’s serious water crisis and Israel’s goal of increasing its access to renewable energy.

Israel has greatly increased its ability to extract salt from the water and Jordan has large desert areas suitable for solar fields.

Jordan Ministry of Water Affairs spokesman Omar Salameh said the project’s vision comes from the growing demand for water in Jordan, which has grown exponentially due to population growth over the past few years.

Jordan is currently the second most dangerous country in the world, according to UNICEF. By the end of the 20th century, its water supply was expected to be halved, according to a recent report by Laboratory News.

The project’s vision came in 2015 from EcoPeace Middle East, an environmental watchdog.

“We must now focus more on tackling climate change,” EcoPeace Jordan Director Yana Abu Taleb told Al Jazeera.

“We need to rebuild trust. “We need to look at partnerships like this, for the benefit of our people, in order to meet the water crisis in our country,” he said.

Natural benefits or political benefits?

“This agreement is not about water, it is a political choice,” al-Armouti said.

Jordan Union Environment Union chief Omar Sushan called the agreement a “political operation”.

“You cannot say that this project is about climate change; this is a permanent job, “he told Al Jazeera.

“We need to strengthen our water connectivity system, raise awareness of water management, and implement new irrigation systems in Jordan. This is our wise course. “We cannot trust Israel,” Susan said.

Rund Awwad, a renewable energy engineer in Jordan, said, “I don’t see the agreement putting any boxes in place to achieve electricity and water security … strategy.”

Awwad also mentioned the “hidden and indirect dangers” associated with the construction of large solar power plants.

The project will use Jordanian “multiple locations”, he said. “I like to use [the land] on projects that could benefit Jordan. ”

He also said that the 200 million cubic meters that will be donated to Jordan under the agreement is “a very small amount compared to the amount of water in Jordan”.

Awwad said there are many other, more sustainable and effective ways to address water scarcity in Jordan.

For example, climate change funding could be used to upgrade the state’s water reservoir or to build a National Red Carrier Project on the Red Sea in Jordan, he added.

The Ministry of Water Affairs of Jordan has announced plans to launch the National Water Carrier Project in 2021, which will provide approximately 300 million cubic meters (10.6 billion cubic meters) of freshwater from the shores of the Red Sea in Aqaba. However, the project is worth around $ 2 billion dinars ($ 2.8bn) and has faced recent financial constraints.

Jawad al-Anani, Jordan’s deputy prime minister for finance, said the feasibility of a National Water Carrier Project was “very low” and “extremely costly”.

Al-Anani also spoke of the potential benefits from the Israeli-Jordan oil deal. “Ideas, it seems like a very good idea,” he told Al Jazeera.

He also spoke of the potential for an agreement to facilitate “economic stability” between Israel and Jordan: “The exchange guarantees that if Israel, for whatever political reasons in the future, decides to abstain from providing gas or water to Israel, then Jordan has forfeited its opportunity to recover.”

However, some doubt whether 600 megawatts of electricity, from a UAE-funded factory, could give Jordan such an opportunity.

The UAE and Israel signed the Abraham Accords agreement in September 2020, which strengthened their economic ties and has since facilitated multi-billion dollar agreements between the two countries.

“It (the solar plant) is being funded by the Emirates to help capture Israel. It wants to make Israel an economic hub in the Middle East,” al-Armouti said.

Commenting on the UAE’s decision to fund solar panels, Duried Mahasneh, chairman of EDAMA, Jordan’s environmental watchdog, said: “I understand the benefits of Emirates and [helping] give water to the Jordan, but I wish this would be through the promotion of salt extraction in Aqaba, not on the coast of Israel. ”

He added that although the Aqaba salt extraction project is expensive, it will benefit the Jordanian people.

“It is also a political and environmental issue that is important,” he told Al Jazeera.

Mahasneh, who was also chairman of the Joint Water Committee of Jordan and Israel, saw Jordan’s history of water relations with Israel.

He also mentioned the conflict in 1999, when Israel refused to provide Jordan with 25 million cubic meters (882.9 million cubic feet) of water, and the refusal of former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to supply Jordan with eight million cubic meters (282.5 million cubic feet). ) water. two years ago.

“It is very safe for Jordan to take salt water to drink … from Jordan, not Israel,” he said.

Opponents marched through the streets of Amman to protest the deal [Hanna Davis/Al Jazeera]

Al-Armouti stressed that the agreement should be submitted to Parliament.

He also referred to Article 33 of the Jordanian Constitution, which states that any financial agreement in the Treasury is invalid unless it has been approved by Parliament.

There were fears that the recent agreement would be run in the same way as the 2016 gas agreement, when Jordan National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) entered into a 15-year agreement with Noble Energy to buy billions of dollars in natural gas from Israel.

In 2019, the Jordanian Supreme Court ruled that gas should not be approved by Parliament, because the company was owned by the government and therefore is not a legal entity or a public entity.

Several lawmakers on Wednesday called for a “urgent” public debate to discuss the draft.

“If the people are protesting (the recent agreement) and there is no known support,” said Jawad Al-Anani, “then the question is, how can political change help if you do not follow the wishes of the people?”

A spokesman for Jordan’s Ministry of Water Affairs made it clear that the announcement was “not a technical or legal agreement”.

Jordanian Ministry of Water Affairs Mohammad al-Najjar said at a press conference that possible training on hydropower work will begin in 2022.

Al-Najjar added that if the process is successful, “he will enter into negotiations to sign a treaty and will not sign any agreement, until we have announced in Parliament, the celebrities, citizens and all journalists and journalists”.