Water has been and will continue to be of great importance in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict, though the truth of this is often overlooked. Dr Hillel Frisch of Israel's Bar-Ilan University puts the water situation in Israel succinctly: "static water supply and a growing demand for water by a rapidly increasing population."

http://www.biu.ac.il/Besa/waterarticle6.html

However ominous the implications of this are for the future, there has been no parity in the hydrological conditions experienced by Israel and Lebanon. An indicator of the state of affairs on each side of the border was observed by journalist Nicholas Blanford thus:

"On the Israeli side, dense apple orchards extend right up to the border fence. Pine forests carpet the hills," whereas the Lebanese side is "marked by a barren landscape of rocky hills, sun-bleached grass and dusty olive groves."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1021/p08s01-wome.html

Worthy of consideration in this context are two waterways of south Lebanon.

·        The Hasbani River (and its tributary the Wazzani): The river supplies 20-25% of the water flowing into the Sea of Galilee, which feeds Israeli supply. It rises in Lebanon and flows for about 50 kilometres through its territory before joining the River Jordan and emptying into the Sea of Galilee.

Following the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, Lebanon has taken steps to improve the social conditions and infrastructure of the south that previously endured military occupation – the development of water as a natural resource being of key importance. However, these moves have been met with increasingly sharp Israeli responses.

In March 2001, a pump began operation in the village of Wazzani to supply about 200 people with drinking water. Israel accused Lebanon of preparing to dam the river, and the situation was calmed only when a spokesman for UN observers in the region reassured the Israelis that it would not seriously affect their supply.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1248140.stm

More worrying still was the reaction to Lebanese plans of further development of the river, the aims of which were to supply 60 villages with water for domestic purposes – a project that represented just 0.5% of Israeli annual water consumption.

A new pumping station built on the river a few kilometers from the border was described by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as grounds for war, and just days before the inauguration ceremony, Israeli warplanes were circling the area. However, the project went ahead successfully and no military strikes took place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2333871.stm

http://www.waternet.be/jordan_river/wazzani.htm

·        The Litani River: The entire basin is contained within the borders of Lebanon. It rises in the northern Bekaa Valley, then empties into the Mediterranean near Tyre, and at its closest point flows 4 km from the Israeli border. The quality of the water is high due to its low salinity.

Israeli interest in Lebanese water has long featured in the history of the two sides, and in particular the Litani River. Historically, various and frequent suggestions were put forward for its use for Israeli purposes.

According to Michael Ben-Zohar's From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, Israel's first prime minister said in May 1948: "A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river," meaning that the river would be Israel's northern border.

And Angela Moss Joy, writing for the American University's Inventory of Conflict and Environment, notes: "After the 1967 war, Moshe Dayan, defense minister, asserted Israel achieved provisionally satisfying frontiers, with the exception of those with Lebanon."

Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon was codenamed 'Operation Litani', with intentions boldly stated. The river marked the geographical extent to which Israeli forces invaded and occupied south Lebanon.

Several commentators and analysts have agreed that during the occupation, Israel could conceivably have been diverting or siphoning water from the Litani to feed into the Jordan River basin, but because the area in which this could have taken place was closed off by the Israeli military, there is no concrete evidence to confirm this.

Professor Hussein Amery, writing in the Geographical Review, echoes these thoughts and adds that "any current or future scheme to divert the river from its basin violates the principles of international law." He then quotes the relevant law: "Water within one catchment area should not be diverted outside that area – regardless of political boundaries – until all needs of those within the catchment area are satisfied."

http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/litani.htm

http://desip.igc.org/TheftOfWater.html

http://web.macam.ac.il/~arnon/Int-ME/water/THE%20LITANI%20RIVER.htm

When viewed from a military perspective, the Litani provides obvious strategic benefits, but when viewed in the wider context also taking into account historical interest, problems relating to the water issue that have been overlooked begin to suggest themselves once again.

The Litani has of late regularly cropped up in global press coverage of the 2006 crisis because it was put forward once more by Israel as the limit to its invasion of Lebanon. Given the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure, the Litani and Hasbani rivers will prove vital to the survival and regeneration of the country.