palestine: occupation and privatization
of water aquifers
Following its occupation of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, Israel
took control of Palestinian water
resources. In the West Bank, well water
abstraction by Palestinian communities was
put under tight control. Furthermore, any
water development, drilling or building of
infrastructure now required a permit from
the military “water officer”. Not a single
permit has so far been issued for domestic
or agricultural use, for any of the areas
that would benefit from the main source of
underground water known as the western
aquifer. As a result, Palestinians have had
to sustain themselves with the same
quantity of water available to them forty
years ago, despite a significant increase
in population.
Immediately after the occupation, Israel
also began to drill its own groundwater
wells, tapping into the same western
aquifer. One year on, settlements began to
appear on Palestinian lands and hilltops
and further wells were drilled in close
proximity to Palestinian water resources.
The settlers’ standard of living benefited
dramatically, with water available for
gardens, fields and swimming pools. The
average water consumption of a Jewish
settler is now twenty times that of a
Palestinian.
Since the start of the second Intifada,
in September 2000, Israeli occupation
forces have uprooted over 982 000 trees
(some of which were over 1000 years old),
destroyed 907 reservoirs and agricultural
water pools, dismantled 687 km of water
networks and ruined 243 wells. They have
also demolished 4500 homes and confiscated
and razed to the ground tens of thousands
of hectares of productive agricultural
land.
Furthermore, this already very limited
access to water and agricultural land has
significantly deteriorated since the
Israelis began to build the Wall. The
completed ‘first phase’ of construction is
in the northern part of the West Bank,
where the most fertile lands - the
Palestinian ‘bread basket’ – are located.
In this phase alone, much of the
Palestinians’ key agricultural and water
resources – including 36 groundwater wells
- have been confiscated.
According to international law,
Palestinians should have complete
sovereignty over all the eastern aquifer
resources beneath the West Bank. They
should also have at least equal rights to
water from the western and northeastern
aquifers, as these are also recharged
almost entirely from the West Bank. In
1999, experts estimated compensation for
damages to Palestinian water resources by
Israeli settlers at a minimum of $US 45
billion.
more information
Friends of the Earth
Palestine
Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network:
www.pengon.org
,
www.stopthewall.org
Applied Research Institute
Jerusalem
Palestinian Hydrology
Group
Palestinian Academic Society for
the Study of International Affairs
