Jordan wants to reach an agreement with Israel on increasing the allocation of water it draws from the Yarmuk River, according to a report Monday in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.
The paper said that Amman has asked Israel for a one-time gesture, and senior sources are quoted as having told Ma’ariv that the gesture will apparently be authorized.
The request was made by Munthir Haddadin, the senior Jordanian representative to the multilateral talks on water resources, which were held in Vienna in May and are scheduled to resume sometime in September.
He requested authorization for an additional allocation of about 60 million to 70 million cubic meters of water from the Yarmuk River, a tributary of the Jordan River, over the course of one year. The amount would be above the current level, which was set in 1957.
Haddadin told his Israeli counterparts, led by Eliyahu Rosenthal, that there is a great shortage of water in Amman and its environs.
The Israelis reportedly said they would consider a one-time gesture, but the Jordanian government has not yet been given a final answer.
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