ABSTRACT
The basin of the biblical river Jordan is situated in the arid to semi-arid climatic region of the eastern Mediterranean, the so-called Near East. The Jordan’s watershed comprises 42,800 sq km; the upper catchment (where the bulk of the precipitation falls) is in the Golan heights. Its riparians are, from upstream to downstream, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan; the Jordan drains into the Dead Sea. The Jordan river basin represents an area of around 18,000 sq km. Although it is quite small, 360 km long, the Jordan river is the centre of
relatively important tensions in the region. Because of the general lack of water resources in the region and the acute political tension among the riparian states in the Jordan basin, high stakes surround the sharing of the resources of the Jordan river between its riparians. As a consequence, data concerning the water resources in the Jordan basin are highly politicized. For this reason, any data concerning water resources in this region are presented here as ranges comprising most of the available sources. It should also be underlined that average annual flows are subject to significant variations because of the climatic variations occurring from one year to another. The Jordan river is formed from the confluence of three upstream rivers:
1) The Dan, situated in Israel. Its average annual contribution to the flow of the higher Jordan river is estimated at around 245m. cu m-250m. cu m. Its flow is the most important and stable of the three sources of the Jordan river.
