Palestinian residents in West Bank face severe water crisis

Over 3,500 citizens of Duma village in the Jordan Valley in the northern West Bank are struggling to find enough clean water to meet their basic required and support livestock. And many of them cannot afford the $ 100 cost of purchasing a water tank.

Suleiman Dawabsheh, head of the Duma village council, told Arab News that local residents only received 1,280 glasses of water a week and that four neighboring Bedouin communities also relied on Duma for water supplies.

He said, “They call us the thirsty village because of the small amount of water that reaches us and the little rain that falls every year, which does not exceed 420 mm.”

Dawabsheh said the settlers had prevented them from rehabilitating four springs in the village that could have helped alleviate the water shortage.

“We have a large number of cattle that consume large quantities of water, especially this summer which was hotter than the previous ones, and consequently we cannot find enough water for human use and to water the sheep.”

Duma is just one example of many Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, where 3 million people live, suffering from lack of water.

Meanwhile, many of the 700,000 people living in Israeli settlements across the West Bank are thought to have access to abundant water supplies for drinking, filling pools, irrigating crops and washing vehicles.

Huge black and white plastic water tanks are a common sight on Palestinian house roofs as a back-up when taps run dry for weeks, but containers are rarely seen in nearby Israeli settlements where water is available 24/7 .

Israeli authorities have been accused of stealing 85 percent of Palestinian water and then reselling it, even refusing license applications to drill additional wells or install booster pumps.

Bassam Darwish, supervisor of five residential and commercial buildings in Ramallah housing some 65 apartments and shops, told Arab News that this year’s water crisis was worse than last year as the number of hours and days of pumping water in citizens’ homes had been reduced. Sometimes, he said, the water could take up to 10 days to reach the area.

“Every day I get requests from residents in the buildings under my responsibility and everyone asks me when will the water arrive? Why is the water cut off? I don’t have an answer for them and some residents ask me for the phone number of a water tank owner to buy a tank at his expense, “he added.

Darwish pointed out that supplies had been decreasing since April.

Thirty-four of the 42 water wells controlled by the Israeli national water company Mekorot were located on Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian Authority asked Israel to increase the amount of water sold to the West Bank, but the Israelis say the Palestinian water infrastructure was unable to handle larger quantities.

Mahmoud Barham, mayor of Beita, south of Nablus, said his city of 15,000 only received 50 percent of its water needs.

“We need 2,400 cups of water, but Mekorot only supplies us with 120 cups and pumps them into our city intermittently. For eight years the company has refused to increase the amount of water, despite the sharp increase in the city’s population, ”he added.

He noted that the Israeli authorities would not allow water wells to be dug on land belonging to the village.

Bassam Al-Sawalhi, director of operations at the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, told Arab News that he is still able to supply the 380,000 residents of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh areas with their basic water needs, despite constraints. And he said the authorities were trying to rehabilitate the water wells around Ramallah in an effort to alleviate the crisis.

Although the average daily water consumption ranged from 60,000 to 65,000 cubic meters during the summer, Al-Sawalhi pointed out that the Jerusalem water company could only supply 53,000 cubic meters per day to its customers.

Mekorot reduced supplies to 32,000 cubic meters per day from 38,000 in previous years and was accused of transferring the difference to Israeli settlements around Ramallah.

On 1 July, dozens of Palestinian youths closed the southern entrance to Bethlehem to protest the city’s water shortage.

But the Israeli authorities argue that it is the Palestinian Authority’s job to provide water to its citizens. Al-Sawalhi said Israel provided another 76 million cubic meters of water per year, using 200 connection points.

A Palestinian resident of Ramallah, Mohammed Abu Qassem, owner of a water tank, told Arab News that his cell phone has never stopped ringing with residents and owners of cafes, restaurants and hotels offering to buy his. reservoir.

He said the current situation probably won’t ease until early November. “I think the next war between Palestinians and Israelis will be a war for water, not just for land,” she added.