Water: Resources and Supply since Oslo II

The Israeli and Palestinian dispute over water has been on the agenda of the joint 'peace' talks since the Madrid Conference. Despite progress in the talks that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords, many of the patterns of control characteristic of the occupation regime, including those dealing with water, have continued.

The Declaration of Principles (DOP), signed by Israel and the PLO referred to the need for cooperation between the parties in managing and developing joint water resources, while setting fair standards of allocation that will respect the water rights and meet the needs of both parties (annex III). However, it is very doubtful that the arrangements set in the Oslo II Accord, meet these objectives. The main principle of this agreement is that the future allocation of water - the amounts each side pumps from the shared aquifer, including water for the Israeli settlements - will be based on the situation at the time the accord was signed. In order to benefit the Palestinians, the accord also stipulates that new water sources will be developed. The accord further provides that the amount of water Israel currently draws from the aquifer, will not be affected, and that the Palestinians may pump some 70-80 mcm/y (million cubic meters per year) from the aquifer that are not currently utilised, in addition to the amounts presently available to them. The accord does not address the possibility of supplying additional water to Palestinians from other sources, like the Jordan River and the springs.

There are three principal factors which explain why the Palestinian Authority has supplied only a small percentage of the supplementary water it undertook to supply:

1. Bureaucratic obstacles imposed by Israel regarding the procedure for approving new drillings by the Joint Water Committee
2. Internal bureaucratic red-tape in the Palestinian Authority and technical problems in the drilling
3. Delays in the transfer of funds promised by donor countries to carry out the drilling.

It can be said that the agreements signed by the parties eliminated the restrictive Israeli policy that sweepingly prohibited the drilling of new wells, and significantly increased the water quotas available to the Palestinian Authority. On the other hand, these agreements legitimised the blatant discrimination between Palestinians and Jewish settlers and the unfair division of the shared resources. In practice, Israeli control, indirect but tighter, continues; there are still quotas on the water available to the Palestinians; and the Palestinians' dependence on Mekorot has even increased. Moreover, even though Israel handed over to the Palestinians an extremely deteriorated water system, the agreements do not hold Israel responsible for this, and not obligate Israel to cover the cost of their repair.