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This
Palestinian child found no other way to obtain drinking water.
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To
contradict those who say that Camp David II and the Oslo process
offered peace and justice to the Palestinians, one can look at the
specifics of five key issues; Jerusalem, borders, settlements,
refugees and water. Isabelle Humphries reports from Palestine on
one of the fundamental stumbling blocks to peace: Israeli control
of Palestinian water resources.
While
drought and water shortage is a region-wide problem, historically
Palestinians have been some of the lucky ones in the Middle East.
The green hills and plentiful springs and wells around towns such
as Nablus and Qalqilya are legendary. Prior to the Intifada, the
farmers of Qalqilya were exporting across the region, now they
have hardly enough land or water to grow crops for themselves. In
the West Bank today, it is not shortage of water that is the
problem, but unequal distribution.
The
Palestinian-Israeli conflict is often reduced by international
media to a religious dispute over the right of Jewish settlers to
remain in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet, from the start, Zionism has
been driven by many factors other than religion. There are very
secular, strategic reasons for Israel’s desire to hold on to
‘Judea, Samaria and Gaza’, none more important than water.
Unequal
Distribution
The
main Palestinian water resources are the Jordan River basin, three
aquifers in the West Bank and one in Gaza. Aquifers are
underground geological structures, replenished by rainwater
seeping into the ground. Water should thus be accessible to people
through wells and springs. The basins of two West Bank aquifers,
the Western and the Northeastern, are considered as shared between
Israelis and Palestinians, while the Eastern and Gazan Aquifers
are endogenous to Palestine. The Jordan River system is an
international watercourse, thus bringing Lebanon, Syria and Jordan
into the Israeli-Palestinian water dispute.
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With
the occupation of 1967, Israel drastically increased its access to
water resources. While this article focuses on the West Bank and
Gaza, it is important to note that occupation of the Syrian Golan
Heights gave Israel control of the majority of the headwaters of
the Jordan. At Oslo, water was declared as an ‘interim issue’
and the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) took administrative
responsibility, but Israel remained in overall control.
Israeli
distribution of water resources today leaves the average
Palestinian with 83 cubic meters per year, while the average
Israeli has access to 333 cubic meters per year, over four times
as much (Palestinian Hydrology Group). The average consumption of
a settler is over 17 times as high as the Palestinians they are
living amongst. (Hence journalists can drive past a settlement and
see a sprinkler system watering a lawn, and within minutes be in a
refugee camp where the system has broken down completely). The
World Health Organization states that the healthy minimum of
domestic water consumption is 100 liters per capita per day. Today
Palestinians have between 57 and 76 liters per capita only.
Direct
Attack
Palestinian water supplies have been sabotaged by acts of
destruction by soldiers and settlers alike. In the Mawasi area in
Gaza, Israeli helicopters destroyed a well from overhead. Settlers
from Humesh managed to cut off water pipes to seven surrounding
Palestinian villages. Palestinians frequently report that soldiers
have shot holes in rooftop water tanks. Heavy military vehicles
have destroyed pipelines and infrastructure that are already in
place. Closures and curfews make damage almost impossible to fix.
These are just a few of countless examples of direct assault.
Access
Denied
The
continual military and settler development is often justified out
of ‘security concerns’ or ‘natural growth’, but in reality
it furthers the goal of confiscating Palestinian water resources
and preventing access to wells and springs. The building of the
so-called ‘security’ wall in the West Bank is a classic
example. The wall has encircled the Palestinian city of Qalqilya
preventing access to more than half of its former water resources.
‘The wall is simply the latest stage in the plan to isolate
Qalqilya and make it impossible for us to survive here,’ said
Khaled Shanti, a resident of the town and also General Secretary
of the Farmers and Peasants Union in the West Bank. ‘Even the
wells we do have, are not allowed to reach to the level of Israeli
wells, giving Israelis priority access,’ added Maarouf Zahran,
the mayor of Qalqilya.
It
is estimated that around 200,000 West Bankers live without access
to piped water systems. Others have the pumps in place, but not
enough fuel to run them. Some private water tankers are working in
the area, but are often prevented by closure. The price of water
has also soared owing to the difficulties of transportation. The
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has just implemented a
$3.2 million budget project funded by the government of Japan to
provide 16 water tankers with low-cost water to many isolated
villages. While international agencies can make a real difference
to individual lives, only a genuine peace settlement will overcome
the difficulties Palestinians are facing.
Pollution
Hazards In Gaza
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Father
and son clean the street a bit as a water main was destroyed by the IOF
in their part of Nablus.
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‘Water
is a priority environmental issue for the Palestinian people
today. The situation for many Palestinians is desperate’ said
Palestinian Water Authority Chair, Mr. Nabil El-Sharif. ‘In the
West Bank the problem is quantity, and in Gaza we are facing
severe health difficulties with the quality of the water.’
Poverty and lack of basic infrastructure has led to the further
deterioration of water resources. In areas where there is no
proper sewage network, raw sewage can seep into the ground and
pollute the aquifer. The overcrowding of native Gazans and
refugees in the tiny land area, has led to over-pumping of the
Gazan aquifer by both Palestinians and settlers resulting in
harmful levels of salt in the supposedly fresh water aquifer.
Glib
talk about ‘resuming negotiations’ is not a cause for hope
regarding the end of the conflict. Only when those in power are
prepared to seek a just solution to concrete issues, such as the
fair distribution of water resources, will a lasting peace appear
on the horizon. A look at the water issue alone demonstrates that
an end to occupation will require far more than a withdrawal from
the latest Israeli military invasions of Palestinian Authority
‘Area A’.
Internet
Resources
Isabelle
Humphries is a British freelance journalist and Development Director
at Sawt Al Amel (Laborer’s Voice), an organization supporting Palestinian
workers inside Israel. She has an MA in Middle East Politics and is also a
freelance writer for the Cairo Times. You can reach her at innazareth@yahoo.co.uk
