Water: An Introduction
Water is the most basic resource for human existence. It is vital for human life itself and for personal health and hygiene. Israelis benefit year-round from running water in unlimited quantities to meet their household needs. For Israelis, running tapwater is taken for granted. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from a severe water shortage. Most of them have no running water all summer long. The shortage of water affects every function that water plays in human life: drinking, bathing, cleaning, and watering crops and animals. The shortage drastically affects their health and economic well-being. The shortage of drinking water prevents proper hygiene and leads to infections and deterioration of the health of the ill. Failure to water crops and animals affect the livelihood of the residents, and irrigating crops with sewege water is likely to cause illness when the produce is eaten.
Access to water is a basic right, derived from its vital necessity for survival. The severe water shortage, a direct result of Israel's policy since 1967, violates the basic right of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to minimal living conditions. This policy is based on an unfair division of resources controlled by Israel.
Throughout most of the summer months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from severe water shortage. This does not enable them to meet minimal living conditions and critically affects their health and welfare. Dozens of Palestinians need hospital treatment because of the water shortage and the use of polluted drinking water. The local hospitals are unable to properly treat patients, at times leading to life-threatening situations, because of the difficulty in maintaining proper hygiene due to lack of sufficient water. This situation is particularly offensive in light of the abundance of water supplied to the Israeli settlements, at times from both locally-drilled wells, contrary to international law.
The immediate and direct reason for the water shortage is Israel's discriminatory water policy, implemented through Mekorot, Israel's water authority, which drastically cuts the water allocated to Palestinian towns and villages during the summer months in order to meet the increased consumption of water in Israel and the Israeli settlements. Other reasons are unfair and discriminatory division of shared water resources, in part as a result of Israeli policy since 1967 that prevents the drilling of new wells and imposes restrictions on the quantity of water pumped from existing wells; the poor condition of the watersystem network, causing high levels of leakage. This is a result of Israel's continuous neglect of, and failure to invest in, infrastructure during the many years of its direct control over the towns and villages in the West Bank; Theft of water by Palestinians, mostly farmers, from the networks supplying water to Palestinian towns and villages.
The Oslo Accords improves the water situation of the Palestinians by increasing the quantity of water available to them and providing them with a certain degree of influence over the division arrangements. However, the agreements also preserves the previous inequality and grants Israel veto power over any change in the status quo.
International law prohibits utilization of water resources in the Occupied Territories by the Israeli settlements, and requires a fairer re-division of the shared water resources.
Israel, which controls the water sources of the Palestinians, is responsible for the water shortage suffered by the Palestinians and consequently is breaching its obligations under international law.
Israel should immediately provide Palestinians in the Occupied Territories with at least enough water to meet their minimal household needs. It should stop discriminating in the distribution of water between Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the Israeli settlements there. Additionally, the Israeli government should shorten the approval procedures to develop new water resources and carry out the water projects agreed upon in the Oslo Accords. It should additionally recognise Israel's responsibility for the poor condition of the water infrastructure in the Occupied Territories and the lack of infrastructure in many areas, and provide resources to improve the infrastructure.