Water crisis: Whose hand is on the tap?
Palestine, Politics, 9/6/1997

It all sounds like living in the Arctic Circle, but with a different system. There, they have six months of night and six months of day. Here, in many of the West Bank towns, they receive water for six months and then remain without water supplies for another six months. The Bethlehem and Hebron areas, south of Jerusalem, are the most affected by the unjust distribution of water between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in their surroundings.

The control is in Israel's hands. The underground wells supply water without any limits to the Israeli settlements but lesser quantities go to the Palestinian towns and villages in the area. Israel blames the water infrastructure in the Palestinian territories. But it ignores the fact that it controlled the area for the past three decades since the June 1967 war and did nothing to repair that infrastructure. Besides, when setting up the infrastructure for the settlements' water supply, not only were the Palestinian territories ignored, but work is even done in such a way that the vast majority of water goes directly to the system that supplies water to the Israeli settlements, giving them top priority and leaving the Palestinians down at the bottom of the list.

According to official estimates, Bethlehem district, for instance, needs some 700 cubic meters per hour. Yet what Israel pumps through the water system for the area is no more than half of that amount. In Jewish settlements surrounding Hebron and Bethlehem, the settlers have enjoyed the luxury of having swimming pools, green lawns and gardens and even the chance to wash their cars daily outside their homes. But for the overwhelming majority of Palestinians living in the area, water shortage is so serious that they have to fetch alternative sources, whether through buying tap water from Israelis or collecting water from the nearest wells in the area.

Financially-stable Palestinian families can afford to buy water from whichever source is available. They also can afford to buy huge water reservoirs on their roofs and fill them with water almost anytime. For them water shortage is a matter of inconvenience. For others, it is a matter of survival. Needy families or those families with limited income rely on their children or wives to ride their donkeys or their bicycles, if they are lucky enough to afford one, to go to the nearest well for water.

Yousef, a 10 year old child, spends most of this day shuttling on his donkey between his house in Al Khader village and the water spring in Artas village. The trip takes him some two hours. "In the beginning I enjoyed doing it. If felt like a new way of entertainment. But now I am so bored doing the same thing every day and sometimes more than three times a day," said Yousef, dressed in old shorts and a Coca Cola T-shirt. Besides, he added, traffic is heavy on the main road out of Bethlehem towards Hebron. "I often have to fight with my donkey to steer him back to the sidewalk. I want neither of us to be run over by one of those cars driving along the road," he said.

Mahmoud Jaafari of Dheisheh refugee camp is 68 years old. He remembers how, as a kid, he used to do almost the same job for his father. Today, he too goes to the well in nearby Artas village to collect some water. "So many things have changed in the last four decades except for the water problem. I am still living in the thirties searching for every drop of water to drink while Jewish settlements in the surroundings havemuch more water than what they need."

Rizeq Yaacob is an employee of the Palestinian Water Commission in the Bethlehem district. Before the PNA was proclaimed in 1994, he had worked with the Israeli civil administration's water department. His job is to monitor water distribution in his district. As such his duty, almost on a fortnight basis, is to open up some water taps and close others. In other words, if the eastern parts of the district receive tap water, the western side will have to wait for its turn two weeks later. "There is a serious shortage of water in the area," admitted Rizeq, noting that his job is to try and partially satisfy the residents of the area "otherwise none will receive water at all."

Despite his efforts and those of his department, Yaacob has failed. The rare amounts of water supplied to the Bethlehem district had forced some houses to stay unhooked to the water system for quite some years. Some families said they had not received water for at least two years. One family said no tap water has run through their pipes for more than five years and that they have finally dropped the hope of being hooked up to the system.

This family now relies on water it buys from different sources. According to Rizeq, the settlers consume more water in one hour than the Palestinians do in one day. Statistics that were published two years ago said Palestinian water consumption is 35 cubic meters per person per year while that of the settlers is 106 cubic meters. Water, along with borders, status of settlements, refugees and the question of Jerusalem, are all issues that were left for deliberations between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel in the final status talks.

The Palestinian spokesmen blame Israel for trying to determine the shape of the final status by means of introducing unilateral steps that would affect each of those outstanding fields. As far as the water crisis is concerned, Palestinians are not allowed to dig new wells in their areas because of Israeli fears that subterranean water resources might be affected. But the real purpose, Palestinians argue, is Israel's intention to keep its hand on the taps. "Whoever's hand on the tap can control the fine details of other people's daily life. Israel is imposing a general siege on the PNA areas and allows herself to decide how many glasses of water Palestinians are allowed, or rather unallowed, to drink," said Mahmoud Jaafari.

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search