[News] Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/israel-rations-palestinians-trickle-water-20091027 


27 October 2009

Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the 
right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the 
shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.

These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied 
Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing 
an effective water infrastructure there.

"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the 
shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, 
while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually 
unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already 
dire situation worse," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's 
researcher on Israel and the OPT.

In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent 
to which Israel's discriminatory water policies and practices are 
denying Palestinians their right to access to water.

Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain 
Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, 
while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.

The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians in 
the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes 
for itself all the water available from the Jordan River.

While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a 
day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per 
day, four times as much.

In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres 
per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency 
situations.

Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no 
access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from 
even collecting rainwater.

In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation 
of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens 
and swimming pools.

Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than 
the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.

In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water 
resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human 
consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from 
the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.

Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry 
into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and 
repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the 
water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.

To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies many 
Palestinians have to purchase water, of often dubious quality, from 
mobile water tankers at a much higher price.

Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to their 
and their families' health and which hinder socio-economic development.

"Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by 
Israel on the Palestinians' access to water have prevented the 
development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, 
consequently denying hundreds of thousand of Palestinians the right 
to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and 
to economic development," said Donatella Rovera.

Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian 
land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them.

It has also imposed a complex system of permits which the 
Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities 
in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications 
for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.

Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods in 
the OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when 
trying to carry out water and sanitation projects, or even just to 
distribute small quantities of water.

Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli 
military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to 
Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.

In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling to 
find enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army often 
destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their 
water tankers.

In comparison, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday 
sun in nearby Israeli settlements, where much water is wasted as it 
evaporates before even reaching the ground.

In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been 
so severely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or 
even to grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or 
for animal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of 
their herds.

"Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians 
obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has 
become a luxury that they can barely afford," said Donatella Rovera.

"Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all 
the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water, and 
take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by 
allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources."








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