NABLUS (Ma’an) — With both the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s Civil Administration abdicating responsibility, local officials say parts of a Nablus-area village have been without water for months.

While drought is common in the mid-summer, many of the residents of Salem village have been purchasing high-priced water from local companies, or carrying buckets from municipal wells since the end of April.

Head of the Salem village Salim A’dli Ishteiyah said the eastern flank of the village had been the worst hit, with water from the taps having run dry months ago.

It is not just Salem village with problems, Ishtayeiyah told Ma’an, explaining that each month, Salem and the three surrounding villages are allocated 50,000 cubic meters of water. Salem’s share, he added “does not exceed 5,000, though we have 6,000 residents and need at least 18,000 cubic meters of water a month.”

To buy water enough to fill a four or six cubic meter tank in the village, residents pay 150 shekels ($43.70), Ishtayeiyah estimated, noting that as water in the area becomes more scarce, the price has increased.

“The village depends on raising livestock, they have to be fed and watered,” the official worried.

Ishteiyah said the village council had appealed to both the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s Civil Administration, but had received no solutions to the shortage.

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