Water driven Palestinian agricultural frontiers: the global ramifications of transforming local irrigation

Abstract

In agricultural transformations, small scale farmer driven processes interact with globally driven processes. Donor-led or foreign investor-led irrigation development systematically interacts with local, farmer-led irrigation development. This article harnesses Kopytoff's concept of 'interstitial frontier' to study such interactions. It discusses the shape an agricultural frontier may have and its interactions with local forms of water and land tenure. It discusses the manner in which changing access to water may spur the development of agricultural pioneer fronts. It distinguishes surface water driven, groundwater driven and wastewater driven agricultural frontiers. It then explores the manner such frontiers are transforming water tenure in the West Bank. This is an important aspect of the globalization of Palestinian society. The method this article develops is applicable elsewhere. Within interstitial frontiers, investors, whether local farmers or outsiders, enroll a globally maintained scientific discourse of efficient water use to secure donor funding. Meanwhile, they try developing clientelist ties with the authorities to secure their new access to water. The impacts on neighbouring, peasant-run irrigated systems, food security, housing security and many other mechanisms that sustain a society, are important and too often neglected.

Palestinians and donors playing with fire: 25 years of water projects in the West Bank

“…They usually weren't aware of the impact of their projects over these institutions. (Trottier & Perrier, 2018). This transformation of agriculture matches what has been described as a neoliberal conflict resolution and state building in the West Bank (Haddad, 2016).…”

“…Palestinian irrigation, up to the advent of reuse projects, relied on farmer managed wells or springsboth tapping the unconfined aquifer -the water of which was channeled to neighbouring lands (Trottier & Perrier, 2018). Before 1999, most irrigation from wells was located in the northwest of the West Bank over the western and northeastern aquifers.…”

“…Thus, donors participated in increasing an institutional flow whereby water was first managed by Israel before being managed by the PWA. 'prior rights from springs or licenced quantity of water extracted from wells' but stops short of listing or detailing them (Trottier & Perrier, 2018). This law and decree do not foresee either a private property regime over water, yet many unlicenced private wells managing water according to a private property regime were legalised by the PWA after they started operating.…”

The political role of date palm trees in the Jordan Valley: The transformation of Palestinian land and water tenure in agriculture made invisible by epistemic violence

“…Recent political ecology work on irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa noted the importance of farmer-led irrigation development while also observing the heterogeneity of the peasantry when facing the social dynamics of accumulation or impoverishment (Woodhouse et al., 2017). Such dynamics are often rooted in the existing forms of resource tenure as was demonstrated by studying farmer-led irrigation development in the West Bank (Trottier and Perrier, 2018). Critical environmental justice studies emphasize the need to focus on multiple forms of inequality, instead of focusing only on race, class, or gender.…”

“…These were carried out in 2018 throughout the portion of the West Bank where date palms can be grown, from the Israeli settlement of Kalia in the south to the Palestinian village of Jiftlik in the north. This work was building on previous field work carried out over the entire Jordan Valley, up to Ein el Beida, Kardala, and Bardala, from 2013 till the end of 2017 (Trottier, 2015; Trottier and Perrier, 2018). Our results, in light of the contributions of political ecology, science and technology studies, and the literature on land and water tenure, allowed us to produce a critical assessment of the mainstream discourse.…”