The EcoPeace Middle East team would like to wish Happy Holidays to all of our friends and supporters who are celebrating. With the help of supporters like you we have achieved great things in the last year. Our advocacy and community based efforts include:

Helped to reach the completion of the new North Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant that became operational in March this year. The plant serves over 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza and reduces cross border ground and seawater pollution.
Assisted Palestinian Water Authority efforts to advance the construction of a waste water treatment plant in Hebron that will serve over 300,000 residents in the area and reduce cross border ground and surface water pollution.
Led to Jordanian mayors calling for the creation of a Trust Fund for our Jordan Valley Master Plan.
Supported the reversal of the Israeli National Water Carrier that could be a pillar for regional water cooperation and would allow additional water flow from the Sea of Galilee to flow into the lower Jordan River and contribute to partial rehabilitation.

EcoPeace’s Annual Regional Conference

The three EcoPeace offices worked together for months to bring together 180 participants including Ministers, government officials, business people, mayors, academics, activists-and representatives of the international community. “Climate, Water and Energy Security for Jordan, Palestine and Israel” was the theme of the two day conference. Our aim was to create opportunities for participants to identify ‘win-win’ situations for their respective communities and the region as a whole. The urgency and self-interest of working together to secure a more sustainable, just and peaceful future could not have been heard more clearly through out the two day event. The conference included a regional roundtable on climate change and regional security, building on national roundtables held during the year and culminating in a discussion paper to be published next month.

The “Advancing Climate Security, Peace and Regional Security through Water Diplomacy in Israel, Jordan and Palestine” project is supported by the German Embassy in Jordan, Palestine and Israel.

EcoPeace VIP Tour of Jordan Valley Water Issues

EcoPeace conducted a regional VIP tour for prominent international actors and experts as well as members of the EcoPeace International Advisors Committee. The participants spent 5 days getting an in-depth look at the issues facing the Jordan Valley. The tour aimed to identify opportunities for future cooperation with EcoPeace and the communities visited, as well as empowering participants to be ambassadors of our issues on returning home.
GIGA Research Platform Workshop

EcoPeace’s Jordanian Projects Manager Abdelrahman Sultan presented at a workshop in Germany hosted by the GIGA Research Platform Middle East. The title of the workshop was: “Natural Resources in the MENA region – Building a Sustainable Future under Difficult Conditions”. Participants from academia and policy-making engaged on how socioeconomic, political and ecological changes interact in different parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Abdelrahman presented on the Water Energy Nexus and outlined EcoPeace’s vision for creating win-win interdependencies to foster regional peace efforts

EcoPeace Presents Solutions for Regional Water Issues

EcoPeace’s Jordanian Director Yana Abu Taleb gave a Key Note presentation at Jordan’s Institute of Diplomacy. She spoke about EcoPeace’s approach to diplomacy through the avenues of water and the environment, highlighting our masterplan for developing the Jordan Valley.

Seed Teachers Meeting – Ramallah

17 Palestinian teachers met in Ramallah this month. The meeting aimed at introducing the Good Water Neighbors educational program and its’ objectives. It also highlighted the role of the seed teachers in developing learning material on environmental education focused on smart technology and water diplomacy.

The above activities are part of the Good Water Neighbors (GWN) project which is supported by the Swedish International Development Agency and USAID CMM West Bank / Gaza.
EcoPeace Participates in UfM Roundtable

Mojahed Al-Sagheer, EcoPeace’s investment officer presented at a roundtable in Beirut hosted by Union for Mediterranean (UfM). The roundtable is part of activities developed to facilitate dialogue processes in the region for the incorporation of Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems Nexus considerations in national and transboundary water resources management planning. Mojahed gave a presentation on the Water Energy Nexus and how EcoPeace aims to create a working pilot project.
The advancement of private sector investments in water, energy and food security projects is supported by the Swedish International Development Agency
EcoPeace participates in Innovations in Conflict Resolution and Mediation Conference at Tel Aviv University

EcoPeace Middle East presented at the Innovations in Conflict Resolution and Mediation Conference hosted at Tel Aviv University this month. Participants included conflict resolution experts, NGOs and representatives of civil society, stakeholders and students. EcoPeace’s International Affairs Manager Giulia Giordano presented on the Water Security Programme and our Palestinian Education Officer Mahmoud Drieat presented on examples from the Good Water Neighbours project. In addition, EcoPeace’s Palestinian and Israeli Co-Directors were part of a panel on “Cooperation between Neighboring Countries in the Middle East: The Case of Desalination, Water Quality and the Red-Dead Conduit.”

The EcoPeace Program on Water Security is supported by the Bosch Foundation

EcoPeace on the Gaza Water Crisis

EcoPeace in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung organized a field tour on Peace, War and the Environment in Gaza. EcoPeace’s Israeli Co-Director Gidon Bromberg provided insight to the transboundary pollution of the Mediterranean Sea caused by a lack of sewage treatment in Gaza and EcoPeace’s bottom-up and top-down approaches to regional environmental peacebuilding. In addition, EcoPeace’s Israeli director was interviewed this month by Public Radio International on the ongoing water and sanitation crisis in Gaza. Click here for the full story.
Tour and Training in the Hebron Region

EcoPeace held 3 successful activities this month in the Hebron region. We led 30 Palestinian engineers, division managers, and civil servants in the areas of planning, health, water and agriculture from the Halhul and Hebron region on a tour in the Negev. The group toured the Ashkelon desalination plant as well as the Wadi Atir farm in the town of Hura, which combines traditional Bedouin knowledge with advanced technologies. They also visited the beach in Ashkelon and learned about the cross-border pollution caused by insufficient treatment of sewage in Gaza and the resulting danger to public health in Gaza and Israel.

Additionally this month, EcoPeace conducted a training workshop for the Hebron region steering committee. The workshop educated participants on using the various media tools in advocacy regarding water and environmental issues in Palestine, as well as how to motivate community members and policy makers to reflect on public opinion.

Round Table Discussion of the Water and Sanitation Situation in the Hebron, Negev, Gaza Region

Under the auspices of the Hebron Governor, EcoPeace held a roundtable meeting to discuss the water and sanitation situation in Hebron across the communities of Wadi Al Samen. EcoPeace Palestinian Director Mrs. Nada Majdalani presented the highlights of our WASH and Gender Reports focusing on the Hebron-Negev-Gaza watershed. The workshop was attended by representatives from different ministries, municipalities and experts in the sectors of water, development, agriculture and public health.

Activities conducted in the Hebron/Negev/Basin are supported by the Government of Canada.
2 Successful Workshops with the Abu Sarhan and Asasweh Communities

EcoPeace Ramallah office held a workshop at Al-Ubeidya Municipality. The workshop discussed the water and wastewater status in Wadi Al Nar watershed generally and Abu Sarhan area specifically. Water scarcity, water services imbalance, and the openly flowing raw wastewater channels at Abu Sarhan were identified as the main potential risks to public health and the environment. Ideas such as raising awareness, the installation of decentralized wastewater treatment plants, and the reuse of treated effluent were raised as potential solutions.

In the same project EcoPeace conducted a successful training with the Asasweh Community. 40 Al Awasweh residents are now involved in the Citizens Observatory program and expressed motivation and readiness to record water related and environmental observations including monitoring the future decentralized treatment plant which will be installed under a research pilot.

These activities are part of KIDRON-NAR project funded by IHE-UNESCO