Eco-facilities in the Jordan Rift Valley
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) launched an initiative to develop a number of eco-facilities at local schools as an important component for the Good Water Neighbors Youth project. Eco-facilities serve to showcase water conservation techniques and educate communities on ecological building practices. In Jordan, eco-facilities have been constructed in all eight Good Water Neighbor […]
Learning about the Environmental Bonds between Japan and the Middle East
Kneeling on the Tatami in the community center of the village of Kosuge, situated in the mountains about 2 hours from Tokyo, Japan, we carefully watched how our hostess prepared Green Tea and taught us the ritual of the traditional tea ceremony. Dressed in a pretty Yukata (summer cotton Kimono) she explained to us the […]
Water Treaties
Last week’s blog outlined the influence water can have on local security situations, specifically its role in conflicts in the Middle East. As the water wars rationale implies, these so-called water wars are based on water scarcity, competitive use and the countries being enemies due to a wider conflict. Picking up arms is not the […]
Water wars in the Middle East
“If many of the wars this century were about oil, those of the next century will be over water,”1 Ismail Serageldin, vice-president of the World Bank at the time, declared to Newsweek in 1995. Alongside the degradation of air quality and soil depletion, water resources’ quantity and quality are already defined as part of these […]
Reflections of an intern
My story with Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) began with a guide book. Coming for some time to Israel, I was willing to meet people and discover organizations that really make a change in this part of the world. Environment and agriculture being my field of interest, I paid particular attention to the […]
My FoEME internship…time to look back
After finishing my master’s degree in Physical Geography and Geoinformatics I was leaving Slovakia aiming to be active in implementing my academic knowledge and to learn more about problems with water management, pollution and treatment in the Middle East.
Op-Ed: In Israel, Water Prices Will Continue to Rise
On January 1st, the price of domestic water rose again in Israel. The cost of a cubic meter including sewage treatment is now 9.1 NIS for the first 3.5 cm a month and then 14.64 NIS for the rest. My neighbor reacted with frustration, “But we are blessed with such a good start to […]
Different actors concerned for the Palestinian environment at the 3rd EEC Conference
Nowadays, many threats are endangering the environmental heritage of the Middle East, and especially in Palestine. With many projects focusing on protection of the Palestinian environment made impossible by the occupation, the present situation is very grave. There are water disparities and restrictions in accessing natural resources or pollution sources, in addition to air, water […]
Cooperating over water, for the people of the Indus and Jordan River basins
Last month, FoEME had the pleasure to host Ahmad Rafay Alam, a Pakistani lawyer and environmental activist, advocate of the High Court and Vice President of the Pakistan Environmental Law Association. Rafay and his wife Aysha visited various GWN communities together with the Kosovar delegation, and on December 2nd, he gave a well-received lecture on […]
Creating hope for the future at FoEME’s youth water trustee camp
As part of Friends of the Earth Middle East’s Good Water Neighbors youth program, yearly camps are organized where young members of different neighboring communities from Jordan, Palestine, and Israel come together to learn about their shared environment. On December 14th and 15th, such a camp was held at the Sharhabil Bin Hassneh EcoPark where […]