Israel ‘cutting Palestinian water’
- report Al Jazeera Tuesday, October 27, 2009.
- Photo: Palestine across the Dead Sea, viewing from Jordan.
Israel is denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water while allowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said.
“Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements… stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic water needs,” the group said in a report released on Tuesday.
Amnesty said between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry.
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank”, Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, said.
Israel’s daily water consumption per capita is four times higher than the 70 litre per person consumed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to the report entitled: Troubled waters – Palestinians denied fair access to water
Shortages
Israel, which itself faces unprecedented water shortages, controls much of the West Bank’s supplies, pumping from the so-called Mountain Aquifer that bridges Israel and the territory.
The Amnesty report said Israel uses more than 80 per cent of water drawn from the aquifer and while Israel has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank’s only supply of water.
In the Gaza Strip, several repair works were under way to improve sanitation before the Israeli blockade was imposed in 2007.
But the projects have been on hold under the siege, as Israel is preventing repair materials from coming into the Strip.
Adding to an already dire situation, Israel’s war on Gaza early this year left water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations severely damaged.
The Amnesty report said Gaza’s coastal aquifer, its sole fresh water resource, has been polluted by infiltration of seawater and raw sewage and degraded by over-extraction.
The water situation in Gaza had now reached a “crisis point,” with 90 to 95 per cent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption, Rovera said.
Israel’s water authority called the report “biased and incorrect, at the very least” and said that while there is a water gap, it is not nearly as big as presented by Amnesty.
The authority said Israel had met its obligations under the Oslo peace agreement but said the Palestinian authorities had failed to meet their own requirements to recycle water and were not distributing water efficiently.
I am from vancouver and i wanted to say that no one should be denied the right to water.What Israel is doing is a disgrace to humanity.The united nations,amnesty international,the internationalred cross and all govs.of the world should condemn this atrocity by the israeli gov.The govs.of Cuba,Venezuela and Bolivia are doing the right thing and cutting all relations with Israel.All other govs.should do the same.The israeli gov is the biggest problem in the middle east.
Commentaire par stan squires — 28 octobre 2009 @ 0:02I have come before you to declare that us cockroaches are tired of being stepped on. We are persecuted all the time in the news and media (whine) although we now own most of the media through our means of staying out of the light and hiding in dark corners. I know we prey on the little bugs but I guess that is our nature. I am here to tell the bug world that we are the chosen insects of the world by God himself in our book written by us “the holy Talbug”. Our rights have been destroyed and we will seek revenge against the tIRANnts (even though we ignore that we eat what we do not sow, etc., hey we’re cockroaches, usury is written for us). They have gassed us with aiRAID (at least we like to say that) and we have died by the millions (we like to say that too but the count is still ongoing) but we continue to come back. We have sworn to have revenge and reinfest the world (so far so good) and will use the aiRaid weapons against those who actually gave them to us (we don’t tell them that we have them though, but they know we do and we have them aimed at their domiciles). Be afraid of us cockroaches, be VERY afraid. But keep believing us cause we said so and are pretty much infested in the whole world. Get over it. We only want what the Talbug says is ours. Do you have a problem with that? Disclaimer: The author of this comment does not imply anything by it to bugs living or dead or to bugs of certain ethnic or religious beliefs but if the shoe fits then wear it because the rest of the bug world is tired of this double standard. Bugs should not be against bugs. All bugs are equal bugs and we should all unite instead of eating each other. I’m bugging out now. Bye. Please don’t bug me about this. It is my own bug opinion.
Commentaire par Vee — 29 octobre 2009 @ 5:43