Israeli Policy of Distribution Creates Unprecedented Water Shortages for West Bank, Gaza Palestinians By Maureen MeehanOctober/November 1998A small crowd of people gathered in the Halit Hadul area of Hebron where the Washington Report began its investigation of this summer's Palestinian water crisis, the worst on record to date. People here and throughout the West Bank were desperate to tell their stories, which were basically the same: they have had no running water for the past four months.
"Not a drop has come out of our water taps for over four months now; our only option is to buy water," said Mohammed al-Kawasme, a resident of the neighborhood, who led a small delegation to the mayor's office to complain and seek solutions to what he describes as an intolerable situation.
"There is no water at the schools for the kids to drink, no water for washing, cooking, drinking, bathing. It's been like this since before the beginning of summer," said Kawasme, whose frustrated neighbors chimed in.
"Either we buy water at a premium from the private trucks or we wait weeks to buy from the city. The crisis has gotten out of hand," added Samir Julani, who, from Kawasme's rooftop, pointed down to his own parched garden of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and herbs. "I know we can't water our plants when we've nothing to drink ourselves, but isn't it sad to see our gardens dry up and die when people are hosing their gardens in the settlement just a few streets away?"
Israel's near absolute control over all water resources in the West Bank and Gaza provides the basis for discriminatory policies and practices which favor the 140,000 Jewish settlers living in these areas while guaranteeing Israel's water access with little obligation to share or distribute it equally.
Palestinian water experts estimate that the amount of water normally available to the nearly two million Palestinian residents in the West Bank and Gaza is less than two-thirds of what is needed to meet basic needs. In the case of Hebron, according to the Palestinian Water Authority, daily water use for the city's 120,000 residents is less than 45 liters per capita, whereas each resident in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba is guaranteed at least 600 litres daily per person, not taking swimming pools into account. Such contradictions are repeated throughout Palestinian areas of the West Bank, where there are no public swimming pools, parks or playgrounds.
Given the lack of running water, Kawasme explained that people are forced to buy water from private vendors or the city municipality. A tank of 8,000 litres of water from a private vendor, who buys it from Kiryat Arba, costs about $60 (U.S.) while the city sells the same amount for half the price. Unfortunately, city deliveries can take up to a month.
"You could die of dehydration waiting for the city trucks to arrive. Besides, we should have running water just like the settlements," said Kawasme angrily, pointing toward the double barbed-wire fence that encloses Kiryat Arba's 5,800 Jewish residents.
"From our rooftops, we actually see settlers washing their cars," added Hatem Zatari, a biology student at Hebron University. Zatari explained that when people have an opportunity to purchase a full tank of water, they have to store it in old and often dirty wells. Zatari says the quality of the water, even under ideal storage conditions, is questionable.
"We've had numerous children hospitalized with amoebas, dysentery and skin lesions caused by contaminated water," said Zatari, whose extended family of 24 members has to buy water once a week.
Hauling a small (1,000 liters) water tank with his blue tractor, Abed Najari stopped in the road to answer a few questions about how the water sales system works. The otherwise unemployed Najari explained that he can wait up to three hours to buy a tank of water from a Palestinian middleman at a site just outside Kiryat Arba.
"With the tiny hose they use, it takes about half an hour to fill a large tank, so we just wait in line until it's our turn," said the sunburnt Najari. He explained the reason private water vendors charge so much. "The water is sold to us from the settlers who charge a lot, then the middleman takes his cut…so it ends up being expensive. But what can we do? We're desperate." He hinted at a black market system run by settlers which is even more expensive but quicker. "But only a handful of people can afford to get involved in providing water for the wealthy."
The Palestinian middleman selling water outside Kiryat Arba denied knowing anything about bribes or a black market. He said he didn't even know for whom he was working as his contact with the settlers was indirect.
Most of the West Bank is in a similar situation as Hebron. Abdel Rahman Tamimi, director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, said more than half a million Palestinians-almost a third of the total population including 162 villages-have no access to running water in their homes. People, mostly women, often wait hours and walk kilometers to fetch water in clay pots which they carry home on their heads.
Tamimi said it is not a matter of scarcity but deprivation. "In many cases the water pipes of the Israeli Water Company, Mekorot, pass by within meters of Palestinian villages on their way to Israeli settlements. But Israeli authorities refuse to connect the villages to the running water systems," Tamimi told reporters at a conference sponsored by EcoPeace, an Israeli/Palestinian environmental NGO.
"There is enough water to meet the needs of both people, Israeli and Palestinians. It is Israeli greed, not need, that is that is keeping Palestinians thirsty," said Tamimi at the EcoPeace conference.
Tamimi told the meeting that deprivation and unequal distribution of water should be a security concern for Israel. "How can you expect Palestinians to be passive when they are thirsty? Nothing would raise Palestinian confidence in the peace process and therefore reduce Israel's security concerns more than for all Palestinians to have running water in their homes."
Israeli Professor Hillel Shuval of the Hebrew University expressed similar views regarding the water crisis and whether indeed Israel's security is at risk. He said the Israeli public is being misled by politicians who are using the water scarcity issue to alarm the Israeli public when in fact water is not a key factor in the success of the Israeli economy.
"There is no real water scarcity since 70 percent of our water goes to agriculture which only contributes to 2 percent of our GDP," said Shuval. He told the conference there is enough water for the domestic and industrial purposes of both Israeli and Palestinian economies for the next 30 years.
Renewable water sources in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel are rain-fed and comprise ground water and surface water. Ground waters consist of underground aquifers, while surface water sources consist of perennial and seasonal lakes and rivers such as the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Two major ground water aquifers straddle the West Bank and Israel and account for more than 80 percent of annual water replenishment in the West Bank. However, Palestinians have limited access to this important resource as digging and drilling is severely restricted by Israel. It is worth mentioning that Israel still occupies and controls 70 percent of the West Bank and as much as 30 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Groundwater, the only significant source of water in the Gaza Strip, contains high levels of salinity as a result of over-pumping which has drastically lowered the water table thus allowing the intrusion of sea water, causing permanent damage to the dwindling fresh groundwater reserves. Water experts warn that unless immediate action is taken, by the end of the century Palestinians will not have access to a single drop of fresh drinking water in the whole of the Gaza Strip.
"People are drilling wells without technical records and permits. Unfortunately they are pumping salty water. The desperation is so high, they invest thousands of dollars without real benefits," said Tamimi.
Shuval explained that groundwater in Gaza was overpumped by 50 percent before the signing of the 1993 peace accord. Since the arrival of the Palestinian National Authority in Gaza, hundreds of new wells have been put in, "and they're all pumping water that does not exist. It is suicidal. It can only be controlled if we have a rational solution for providing Gazans with fresh drinking water."
Under the peace accord, Israel continues to control water sources for the Palestinians and the amount of water available for their use. The PNA is permitted to set up its own water system in the areas it controls, although work on such projects is incomplete or at a standstill. Meanwhile, Palestinians must request permission to dig new wells.
Deputy director of the Palestinian Water Authority, Fadel Qawash, told a press conference last week that of 40 requests to dig new wells, Israel approved only 6. He updated reporters on two meetings recently held between the Israel/PNA Joint Water Committee (JWC), at which both sides hurled accusations at the other about who is responsible for the water crises.
Water experts Tamimi and Shuval agree the JWC is not making much real headway in solving the problem. "There is no strategic agenda for the meetings, no negotiations about water, but rather discussion about how to solve the daily problems," said Tamimi. He said the drawback is that water authority is not in the hands of the PNA but rather still being administered by Israel through the Ministry of Defense.
Tamimi said many donor countries are ready and waiting with money for water supply projects but cannot go ahead because there is no Palestinian access to resources. "You can't run a business without controlling your bank account."
Shuval said waste water projects are at a standstill because of disputes over who will be connected to the sewage system-Palestinian villages and Jewish settlements together? The Palestinians don't want any connection with the settlements so as not to legitimize them; the Israeli government will not approve a plant that does not include the settlements. A proposed treatment plant is at a standstill over who will manage it.
"Currently donors' money is not being spent and the sewage is running," said Shuval. "International facilitation, mediation is needed by an independent outside partner to overcome major ideological roadblocks from both sides."
Tamimi stressed that to reach a comprehensive peace, the entire Palestinian issue has to be addressed.
"Israelis talk about security and water. There are hundreds of reasons to go to war. But water is the main thing to force us to make peace," Tamimi said. "Water is social, natural and environmental; it is the life of people. Don't ask anybody to stay quiet when he is thirsty."
Maureen Meehan is an American free-lance journalist who covers Jerusalem and the West Bank.
· Washington Report on Middle East Affairs