Liquid Assets

Liquid Assets shows that the common view of water as an inevitable cause of future wars is neither rational nor necessary. Typically, two or more parties with claim to the same water sources are thought to play a zero-sum game with each side placing a high emotional and political value over the ownership of the water. However, Franklin Fisher and his coauthors demonstrate that when disputes in ownership are expressed as disputes about money values, in most cases, the benefits of ownership will be surprisingly small. By assigning an economic value to water and treating water as a tradable resource, parties see that the gains from cooperation exceed the costs resulting from the change in ownership. A zero-sum game becomes a win-win situation. To support this new approach, Liquid Assets presents an innovative water allocation model that can be used to assist water management, the cost-benefit analysis of water infrastructure, and the resolution of disputes. The model takes system-wide effects into account and is the first to overcome the failure of actual water markets to cope with the divergence between social and private benefits (as implied by agricultural subsidies), permitting the model-user to impose his or her own values or policies. Liquid Assets applies its methodology to Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, a region where water is scarce and water conflicts are often thought to be explosive. Indeed, this book is the result of a joint effort of Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian, American, and Dutch experts. But the book's message and methods are not restricted to the Middle East. They are applicable to water management and water disputes around the globe.

Anan F. Jayyousi is deputy director of House of Water and Environment and is an associate professor of water resources at An-Najah National University. Ammar M. Jarrar is director of the Water and Environmental Studies Institute at An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. Salem Ghazi Hamati is proprietor and managing director of the firm IBS JO and is a managing partner of Jordan TechnoTrade L.L.C. Munther J. Haddadin is director of the Office for Integrated Development, Amman, Jordan, a courtesy professor at Oregon State University, and an affiliate professor at the University of Oklahoma. Zvi Eckstein is a professor of economics at Tel Aviv University and the University of Minnesota. Saul Arlosoroff is a director and chairman of the Finance/Economic Committee of the National Water Corporation of Israel. Ilan Amir is now retired as an associate professor from the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Annette Huber-Lee is the director of the Water Programme for the Stockholm Environment Institute and senior research director of the Tellus Institute.