HAARETZ – Israel Admits Cutting West Bank Water Supply, but Blames Palestinian Authority

Israel says region’s intense heatwave combined with Palestinian Water Authority’s refusal to approve additional infrastructure had led to ‘old and limited pipes being unable to transfer all the water needed.’
Amira Hass Jun 21, 2016

Since the start of this month, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been suffering the harsh effects of a drastic cut in the water supplied them by Israel’s Mekorot water company.

In the Salfit region of the West Bank and in three villages east of Nablus, homes have had no running water for more than two weeks. Factories there have been shut down, gardens and plant nurseries have been ruined and animals have died of thirst or been sold to farmers outside the affected areas.

People have been improvising by drawing water from agricultural wells, or by buying mineral water or paying for water brought in large tankers for household use and to water their livestock. But purchasing water that way is extremely expensive.

Palestinian Water Authority officials told Haaretz that people at Mekorot have told them the supply cuts were going to last the entire summer. The sources said they were told by the Israelis that there is a water shortage and that everything must be done to assure that the local reservoirs (located in the settlements) stay full so that the necessary pressure can be maintained to stream the water through the pipelines leading to other settlements and Palestinian communities.

Palestinian municipal officials say that Palestinian workers for the Civil Administration who are sent to regulate the quantities of water in the Mekorot pipes told them the water cuts were made to meet the area settlements’ demand for water, which is rising in the hot weather. Similar cuts were initiated in the same areas last year, when the severe water supply interruptions also occurred during Ramadan.

Mekorot would not answer questions, referring Haaretz to the Israel Water Authority and the Foreign Ministry. Uri Schor, the Water Authority spokesman, wrote that the quantities of water Israel sells to the Palestinians throughout the West Bank, including in the Salfit area, has gone up over the years.

“A localized water shortage has developed for Israelis and Palestinians alike in northern Samaria and it stems from the especially high consumption because of the region’s intense heat,” Schor wrote. He added that the shortage developed because the Palestinian Water Authority is refusing to approve additional water infrastructure in the West Bank through the joint water committee, “which has led to the old and limited pipes being unable to transfer all the water needed in the region.”

An Israeli security source said settlements are also complaining about water shortages.

Palestinians deny foot-dragging, say water goes to settlements

A senior Palestinian Water Authority official denied that Palestinian foot-dragging was contributing to the water shortages.

“The Israeli Authority is misleading the public,” he said. “The pipes do not need to be upgraded. USAID, for example, just finished the new pipeline in Deir Sha’ar to serve the population in Hebron and Bethlehem. Israel needs to increase the pumping rate from the Deir Sha’ar pumping station and more than half a million Palestinian would receive their equitable share.

“Israel, however, submitted a project to increase the size of the pipe serving Israeli settlements in the Tekoa area, and the Israel Water Authority is blackmailing the Palestinian Authority to approve the Israeli project in exchange for increasing the water from the Deir Sha’ar booster station.”

Schor brought examples from the months of January-May over the past four years that show that there has indeed been an increase in the quantities of water supplied to the Salfit and Nablus districts, from 2.7 million cubic meters of water in 2013 to 3.48 cubic meters this year.

But the internal records of the Palestinian Water Authority show that in May of this year there was a cut in the water supplied to the town of Bidya, with 12,000 residents, from 50,470 cubic meters in March, to 43,440 in May. In May of last year, Bidya received 45,000 cubic meters.

In the town Qarawat Bani Hassan, consumption in May was higher than in March (17,000 cubic meters compared to 15,000), but last May consumption reached 20,000 cubic meters, and according to a Palestinian official there’s no way to explain the drop in usage other than by a drop in supply. The supply cut in June, meanwhile, has been much sharper – of up to 50 percent per hour.

The Oslo Accords, which were meant to remain in effect until 1999, preserved Israeli control over the West Bank’s water sources and discriminates in how the water is divided. Under the agreements, Israel gets 80 percent of the water from the West Bank mountain aquifer, while the rest goes to the Palestinians. The agreement also sets no limit on the amount of water Israel can take, but limits the Palestinians to 118 million cubic meters from the wells that existed prior to the accords, and another 70 million to 80 million cubic meters from new drilling.

For various technical reasons and unexpected drilling failures in the eastern basin of the aquifer (the only place the agreement allows the Palestinians to drill), in practice the Palestinians produce less water than the agreements set. According to B’Tselem, as of 2014 the Palestinians are only getting 14 percent of the aquifer’s water. That is also why Mekorot is selling the Palestinians double the amount of water stipulated in the Oslo agreement – 64 million cubic meters, as opposed to 31 million.

The Coordinator for Government Activity in the Territories said, “As a result of increased water consumption in the summer, it’s necessary to manage and regulate the flow to enable the highest possible supply to all the populations. Given the problem, the head of the Civil Administration has approved an emergency regulation to operate the Ariel 1 drill rig to increase the amounts of water to residents of northern Samaria, with an emphasis on the Salfit area; another 5,000 cubic meters of water per hour was also approved for the southern Hebron Hills.”

The coordinator also noted that the Civil Administration has to battle theft from water lines that lead to Palestinian communities. Just yesterday, it said, it had discovered two thefts of water from a pipeline that supplies the Salfit area.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.726132

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MAAN PM: Israel’s suspension of West Bank water supplies ‘inhumane and outrageous’
June 16, 2016
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Prime Minister’s office on Thursday slammed Israel’s decision to cut off water supplies for tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this week as “inhumane and outrageous.”

Rami Hamdallah issued a statement in response to the move by Israel’s national water company Mekorot, which saw water supplies suspended in the municipality of Jenin, several villages in Nablus, as well as the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages.

“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service,” Hamdallah said. “Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place.”

Israelis, including settlers, have access to 300 liters of water per day, according to EWASH, while the West Bank average is around 70 liters, below the World Health Organization’s recommended minimum of 100 liters per day for basic sanitation, hygiene and drinking.

Director of Communications at the Prime Minister’s Office Jamal Dajani called Mekorot’s decision “inhumane and outrageous.”

The move to deprive the villages of access to safe drinking water was seen as especially outrageous, as Palestinian Muslims celebrated the holy month of Ramadan, which entered its second week on Tuesday.

Some areas reportedly had not received water for more than 40 days, according Al Jazeera.

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Ma’an that due to increased rates of water consumption in the summer, water flow “is regulated.”

Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq estimated in a 2013 report that up to 50 percent of Palestinian water supplies are diverted by Mekorot over the summer months to meet the consumption needs of Israel’s illegal settlements.

COGAT added that a Civil Administration team repaired a burst pipe line on Thursday, which had disrupted the water supply to the villages of Marda and Biddya in Salfit, Salfit city, the Tapuach area in Salfit, as well as the village of Jammain in Nablus. “The water flow has been regulated and is currently up and running,” they added.

COGAT also claimed that water supply had in fact been increased in the evenings to meet the needs of those observing Ramadan, who fast throughout the day.

The spokesperson added that “despite the difficulties,” Israel, through its Joint Water Committee (JWC) works to improve water infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, while Palestinians “don’t cooperate for the improvement of the water flow in the region.”

According to Al-Haq, JWC holds complete decision-making power over the coordinated joint management and development of all water resources in the West Bank.

The establishment of JWC more than two decades ago “should have been a positive reform for Palestinians,” Al-Haq wrote. However, their report notes that the consensus system enables Israel to veto any proposal by Palestinians to maintain existing water infrastructure or build new projects.

Just half of Palestinian proposals for wells and improvement projects to the water network were approved by Israel between 1995 and 2008, compared to a 100 percent approval rate for Israeli projects, a study cited in the report found.

According to Amnesty international, nearly 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank do not have access to running water.

“Israel is waging a water war against Palestinians,” Dajani said. “It is not enough for Israel to systematically appropriate Palestinian land and usurp Palestine’s natural resources; they also refuse the Palestinians the right to water.”
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771901

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AL ARABIYA Palestinians in distress as Israel cuts water supplies in West Bank

Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Palestinians living in the northern West Bank region have a new challenge at hand this Ramadan with Israel frequently turning off water supplies to these areas.

As a result, tens of thousands of Palestinians are in desperate need of water and becoming dependent on water tanks, which come at an additional expenditure of 250 shekels (Dh237).

According to a Gulf News report, Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, has either reduced or cut off supplies to major areas of the northern West Bank to prioritize supplies to Israeli colonies. The disruption, which has been going on since the beginning of Ramadan, is causing distress to Palestinians in the area.

According to the report, Mekorot cut off water supplies to the entire governorate of Jenin, several Nablus villages, the city of Salfit and surrounding villages. The company operates all West Bank water wells and has reportedly taken the decision without prior notice.

“Residents suffer badly in this hot weather and at this time of Ramadan,” Jenin mayor, Ragheb Al Haj Hassan, was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “Israel and Israel only is responsible for the water cuts as agreements signed with Israel clearly state that Mekorot should provide the northern areas of the West Bank with their needs of water,” Haj Hassan said.

The matter has been brought to the attention of the Palestinian Water Authority, which is supposed to take up the matter with Mekorot. “Water cuts are becoming routine, but in the past they used to alert us. Now, the Palestinians are being kept in the dark,” said Haj Hassan.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/06/15/Palestinians-left-high-and-dry-as-Israel-cuts-water-supplies-in-West-Bank.html
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JERUSALEM POST COGAT: West Bank water supply to Palestinians increased, not decreased
By TOVAH LAZAROFF,MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN
06/17/2016
Due to the Ramadan holiday, Israel has increased the water flow to Palestinians at night, when the usage is particularly high after the fast.
Israel on Thursday dismissed Palestinian charges that it had cut the water supply to West Bank Palestinians, explaining that a broken water pipe had caused a temporary shortage.

It published a short video of the broken pipe on its Twitter page on Wednesday, and has since fixed the pipe which services villages in the area of Jenin.

For the month of Ramadan, Israel has increased the water flow at night, when the usage is particularly high after the fast, the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a branch of the Defense Ministry, said.

Separately, it also increased the flow of water in the Hebron and Bethlehem area by 5,000 cubic meters per hour, COGAT said.

It noted, however, that water demand there exceeds supply in the summer. Israel is working to expand the water infrastructure to fix that shortfall, a step that is made difficult given by the Palestinian refusal to cooperate on water issues, COGAT charged.

Water issues are regulated by the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee, which was established under the 1993 Oslo Accords. The committee has not met for more than five years.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Thursday that Israel, through its national water company Mekorot, was deliberately cutting of the Palestinian water supply.

“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life, and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place,” Hamdallah said.

A number of media outlets also ran stories with headlines accusing Israel of deliberately depriving Palestinians of water.

In an official statement, Mekorot acknowledged the supply shortage across the West Bank, but said that water supplies were reduced, not cut off, in both Israeliand Palestinian areas of the West Bank because the current infrastructure cannot meet the increased demand during the summer months.

The company noted that a master plan was recently approved by the Israel Water Authority for the area’s water sector. This will include cleaning and upgrading the water infrastructure throughout the West Bank.

This, the statement said, will help Mekorot meet demand.

Yigal Dilmoni, the deputy head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria, said that the pipes were old and that the settlements were also experiencing a shortage.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/COGAT-West-Bank-water-supply-to-Palestinians-increased-not-decreased-457015
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AL JAZEERA Rami Hamdallah: Israel waging water war on Palestinians

Palestinians call Israel’s manipulation of water supplies to large areas of West Bank “inhumane and outrageous”.

17 Jun 2016

Palestine has decried Israel’s practice of siphoning off water supplies from large areas of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said that Israel was “waging a water war against the Palestinians.

“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place,” Hamdallah said in the statement.

Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, is accused of manipulating water supplies to the municipality of Jenin, several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Jamal Dajani, director of strategic media and communications at the prime pinister’s office, called Mekorot’s practice “inhumane and outrageous.

“It is not enough for Israel to systematically appropriate Palestinian land and usurp Palestine’s natural resources; they also refuse the Palestinians the right to water.”

On Tuesday, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, an NGO focusing on water and sanitation issues, told Al Jazeera that “some areas had not received any water for more than 40 days.

“People are relying on purchasing water from water trucks or finding it from alternative sources such as springs and other filling points in their vicinity,” Ayman Rabi said.

“Families are having to live on two, three or 10 litres per capita per day,” he added, pointing out that in some areas they had started rationing water.

The city of Jenin, which has a population of more than 40,000 people, said its water supplies had been cut by half, and warned that it would hold Mekorot solely responsible for any tragedies resulting from water shortages during the hot summer months.
Israeli denial

Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, denied cutting the water supplies to large parts of the occupied West Bank, saying there was only broad reduction in water supply to the Palestinians.

“As a result of the shortage of water supply in the West Bank … we have made a broad reduction of the supply to all residents in the area,” Mekorot told Al Jazeera late on Wednesday.

“All the facilities are working and the capability to supply is less than the rate of consumption. The water authority recently approved a master plan for the water sector and accordingly we will build the systems that will meet the West Bank’s required consumption.”

Israel’s COGAT agency, a main body of the Israeli army that regulates the occupation in the West Bank, also pointed to a burst pipe, which was said to have disrupted supplies to the villages of Marda, Biddya, Jammain, Salfit and Tapuach.

READ MORE: Israel denies cutting water supplies to West Bank

“The water flow has been regulated and is currently up and running,” COGAT told Al Jazeera.

“The water supply to Hebron and Bethlehem has been expanded a further 5,000 cubic metres per hour in order to meet the needs of the residents,” COGAT said.

According to the UN, 7.5 litres per person per day is the minimum requirement for most people under most conditions but in some areas of Palestine – where temperatures exceed 35C – the minimum requirement is much higher.

Israel has limited the water available to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since its forces occupied the territories in 1967.

Israelis, including settlers, consume five times more water than Palestinians in the West Bank: 350 litres per person per day in Israel compared with 60 litres per Palestinian per day in the West Bank.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/israel-cuts-water-supplies-west-bank-ramadan-160614205022059.html

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AL JAZEERA Israel denies cutting water supplies to West Bank

Utility company says there has been broad reduction in water supply to large parts of Palestinian territory.

16 Jun 2016 11:22 GMT

Israel’s national water company has denied cutting crucial water supplies to large parts of the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying there was only broad reduction in water supply to the Palestinian territory.

“As a result of the shortage of water supply in the West Bank … we have made a broad reduction of the supply to all residents in the area,” utility company Mekorot told Al Jazeera late on Wednesday.

“All the facilities are working and the capability to supply is less than the rate of consumption. The water authority recently approved a master plan for the water sector and accordingly we will build the systems that will meet the West Bank’s required consumption,” the company added.

On Tuesday, the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, an NGO focusing on water and sanitation issues, told Al Jazeera that water was totally siphoned off in some Palestinian areas before and during Ramadan days.

“Some areas had not received any water for more than 40 days,” Ayman Rabi said.

“People are relying on purchasing water from water trucks or finding it from alternative sources such as springs and other filling points in their vicinity,” he said.

“Families are having to live on two, three or 10 litres per capita per day,” he said, adding that in some areas they had started rationing water.

Authorities in the city of Jenin, which has a population of more than 40,000 people, said its water supplies had been cut by half, and warned that it would hold Mekorot solely responsible for any tragedies resulting from water shortages during the hot summer months.
Pipe burst

An Israeli military coordinator in the occupied West Bank told Al Jazeera that a pipe that supplies water to various villages had burst, causing shortage of water.

“Israeli civil administration teams spent hours repairing it. It was fixed, the water flow has been regulated since then and is currently up and running,” the coordinator told Al Jazeera.

According to the UN, 7.5 litres per person per day is the minimum requirement for most people under most conditions but in some areas of Palestine – where temperatures exceed 35C – the minimum requirement is much higher.

Since 1967, Israel has limited the water available to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since its forces occupied the territories.

Israelis, including settlers, consume five times more water than Palestinians in the West Bank, 350 litres per person per day in Israel compared with 60 litres per Palestinian per day in the West Bank.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/israel-denies-cutting-water-supplies-west-bank-160615215243834.html
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AL JAZEERA Israel: Water as a tool to dominate Palestinians

Israel deliberately denies Palestinians control over their water sources and sets the ground for water domination.

Camilla Corradin19 Jun 2016
Camilla Corradin is advocating for Palestinian water rights with the EWASH NGOs coalition.

Occupied West Bank – As temperatures rise and summer months approach, yet again this year, thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are being deprived of their most basic need – access to water – as the Israeli national water company Mekorot restricted the water supply to villages and towns in northern West Bank.

Although extremely worrying for the livelihood and health impact on the affected tens of thousands of Palestinians, this comes to little surprise.

Since it occupied the West Bank in 1967, Israel has laid hands on Palestinian water resources through discriminatory water-sharing agreements that prevented Palestinians from maintaining or developing their water infrastructure through its illegal planning and permit regime. As a result, thousands of Palestinians are unable to access sufficient water supplies and became water-dependent on Israel.

By building on the myth of a water-scarce region – Ramallah has more rainfall than London – Israel has deliberately denied Palestinians control over their water resources and successfully set the ground for water domination, granting itself a further tool to exercise its hegemony over the occupied population and territory.

Palestinian water resources in the West Bank wouldn’t be scarce – they include the Jordan River, running all along the eastern border of the West Bank, and the Mountain Aquifer underlying the West Bank and Israel. Both water resources are transboundary – meaning that, by international law, they should be shared in an equitable and reasonable manner by Israel and Palestine.

Yet, since Israel took over the West Bank in 1967, Israel has remained in near full control over Palestinian water resources in the West Bank.

Israel fully prevents Palestinians from accessing the Jordan River and using its water. As for the Mountain Aquifer, the 1995 Oslo II interim agreement – which also defined the water-sharing arrangements between Palestine and Israel – came to consolidate the Israeli control that had been in place since 1967.

Israel was granted access to over 71 percent of the aquifer water, while Palestinians were only granted 17 percent. While the agreement was supposed to last five years only, 20 years later, it is still in place.

Water-sharing agreement discussions are left to the long-awaited final status negotiations.

While the Palestinian population of the West Bank has almost doubled since, allocations have remained capped at 1995 levels. Today, Palestinians have access to less water than they were granted by the already-inequitable Oslo agreements: 13 percent, with Israel abstracting the remaining 87.

Indeed, as pointed out by the World Bank in its 2009 report about the water sector in Palestine, due to the dual Israeli permit regime, Palestinians have been unable to maintain and develop their water infrastructure.

In Palestinian wells where the water table has dropped, for instance, the Israeli restrictions on drilling, deepening and rehabilitation have made the wells un-usable and Palestinian water abstraction levels decline.

On the one hand, Palestinian water projects all over the West Bank need an approval by the Joint Water Committee (JWC), where Israel has a de facto veto power. Only 56 percent of Palestinian projects regarding water and sanitation were granted permits by the JWC (against a near 100 percent approval rate for the Israeli projects), and only one-third of those could actually be implemented.

Concerned by the asymmetry in the JWC functioning, Palestinians have refused to sit in the committee since 2010.

In addition to the JWC approval, all projects in Area C also require a permit by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), which are notoriously difficult to obtain. As reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the ICA has refused between 2010 and 2014 98.5 percent of the Palestinian building permit applications for Area C projects.

Over 50 water and sanitation structures have been demolished by Israel since the beginning of 2016 already (more than in the entire 2015) on grounds that they were lacking the Israeli permits.

Israel’s claims that the failing water infrastructure is the cause of the water cuts in the West Bank fail to acknowledge that the poor infrastructure is a direct result of the Israeli permit regime in the West Bank.

The lack of water and other basic services resulting from Israeli policies has created a coercive environment that often leaves Palestinians with no choice but to leave their communities in Area C, allowing Israel’s land takeover and further expansion of its settlements.

But as recent events have shown, Areas A and B are not safe havens either. Due to the lack of sufficient water resources available, Palestine heavily depends on water bought from Mekorot (18.5 percent in 2014). Ironically, this is water that Israel takes from the rightful Palestinian share – which they are denied – before selling it back to them.

This has granted Israel further control over Palestinian access to water. As soon as water demand increases in the hot spring and summer months, supplies to settlements are privileged over Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

Every year, water supply to Palestinian towns and villages is cut off for days – if not weeks – during which Palestinians are forced to buy trucked water at five times the price of network water – as well as reduce their already low consumption.

Water consumption figures are telling: While Israelis have access to around 240 litres of water per person per day, and settlers over 300, Palestinians in the West Bank are left with 73 litres – well below the World Health Organization’s minimum standard of 100.

OCHA report that in Area C, where 180 Palestinian communities are not connected to the water network and 122 have a connection with no or irregular supply as a result of Israeli restrictions, water consumption can drop to 20 litres of water per person per day as people have to buy expensive trucked water.

Here, vulnerable households spend up to one-fifth of their salary on water.

For instance, while people in the Palestinian community of al-Hadidiya in the northern Jordan Valley have access to as little as 20 litres of water per person per day – settlers in the neighbouring settlement of Ro’i enjoy 460 litres of water per person for domestic use only, a swimming pool and flourishing agriculture.

Israel, as the occupying power has an obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure the dignity and wellbeing of the population under its control.

This includes obligations regarding the provision of and access to humanitarian relief and basic services, including water and sanitation.

Not only is Israel failing to provide for such basic needs. Its discriminatory water policies also prove that Israel is using water as a tool to dominate Palestinians, exercise its power, and punish an entire population by deliberately depriving its inhabitants the most basic of rights.

Camilla Corradin is advocating for Palestinian water rights with the EWASH NGOs coalition.