AJC Lauds Fisher's Water Solution

The American Jewish Congress (AJC) will honor MIT economics professor Franklin M. Fisher '56 at their biennial meeting on December 10.

Fisher, the outgoing president of the New England region of the AJC, is being honored for his work on resolving the conflict over water in the Middle East.

"He may in fact have come up with a formula to keep these countries from fighting over water, said Sheila R. Decter, director of the New England region.

Fisher has worked on the issue with the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, as well as with the AJC and the New Israel Fund.

Fisher said that his committee at the Kennedy School is "attempting to promote new ways of thinking about water and the value of water in the Middle East."

Dr. Leonard Hausman, director of the Institute, will be speaking at the meeting honoring Fisher.

According to the August 17 issue of the Financial Times, "The Harvard study believes the prospect of war can be avoided by using an economics based model to monetize and trade water."

Decter said that Fisher's economic model emphasizes that "water should be thought of not as a scarce resource but as a resource that costs x amount of dollars."

According to the August 24 issue of the New York Times, "Fisher offers a practical way to untangle the issue of water ownership from questions of water use."

The Times also said Fisher's plan "could be a key to finessing economic conflict where grievances have a way of becoming blood feuds."

Fisher's successor as president of the New England region of the AJC will be Harvard Law School graduate A. Van C. Lanckton, an attorney with the Boston law firm Craig and Macauly.

"Fisher has worked very hard bringing about cooperation among the parties in that region on sharing thescarce resource of water and developing that resource," Lanckton said.