By Devin Watkins
“As Pope Francis said in the days leading up to COP26, only if we all stop hiding behind our borders and work together can we create climate resilience and create solutions. “
Dalit Wolf Golan offered this perspective to Vatican News ahead of an event in Rome on climate change and the role of women in finding solutions.
“Thinking green together: a female perspective on climate change and sustainability” is the title of the conference organized on Tuesday at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium, organized by the Embassy of Israel to the Holy See and the Association of Women in the Vatican (DIVA).
long standing problem
Ms. Wolf Golan, Deputy Director of EcoPeace Middle East, is working to turn a common problem in the Holy Land – the lack of clean drinking water – into an issue on which consensus can be reached.
Some households in the Middle East, she said, live with an intermittent water supply, only having access to water once a week, once every 2-3 weeks, or even once every 3 months in summer.
“Now imagine running a household like that,” she said. “You have a tank on your roof that stores water. But how can you bridge that gap when it becomes two weeks, three weeks, three months? »
This daily ordeal can greatly affect the quality of life of women in her region.
women and water
Although the burden of water scarcity falls heavily on women, Ms. Wolf Golan noted, most political leaders are men, who potentially have the tools to effect change but, at the same time, often lack of interest to make the issue a priority.
Thus, EcoPeace Middle East seeks to educate residents of Israel, Jordan and Palestine about the realities of water in their region and how climate change will make the situation worse.
Palestine and Israel, for example, have a water agreement that dates back to the 1995 Oslo accords and allocates 75% of the water to Israel and 25% to Palestine, according to Ms. Wolf Golan. The arrangement remains unchanged as water is among the 8 “permanent status issues” to be decided between Palestine and Israel.
Dalit Wolf Golan in the Vatican Radio studio
Political will for change
Mrs. Wolf Golan underlined that the situation has changed a lot since 1995 with regard to water. Israel, she said, has more than enough water due to increased desalination capacity and the ability to reuse wastewater.
She added that this new reality offers the “technical and real opportunity to discuss these allocations, if there is the political will to do so”.
Turning self-interest into mutual gain
Although the borders between Jordan, Israel and Palestine are more or less open, Ms Wolf Golan pointed out that there is very little political or common contact between the three and that “there is a lot of mistrust”.
She highlighted her NGO’s work in breaking down misconceptions through education and drawing attention to common challenges.
Faith-based reasons for working together
Religion in the Holy Land, rather than being a barrier, can help people overcome their differences to work towards a common goal.
Ms. Wolf Golan noted that the Jordan is sacred to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but is currently flowing at 5% of its former flow.
“It’s also a symbol of a problem that can only be solved if we work together,” she said. “It’s a border. It doesn’t matter if one side cleans the river, if the other doesn’t.
Yet, as a religious symbol, leaders of various faiths can engage each other to seek a solution at the political level.
The example shows how the environment can help different nationalities “come together to work on a common problem”, said Ms Wolf Golan.
