November 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Water Inequalities

Nine months a year, Kathy Kamphoefner, a Quaker, is a college professor of Intercultural Communication (this year in Moscow and Beijing). For seven summers, she has served as a Christian Peacemaker Team member in Hebron.

Fifty liters a day is the average available water for West Bank Palestinians for all uses, including for industry and agriculture. In mid-October a European delegation surveyed the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza and highlighted the increasingly desperate water conditions. Most of the city of Hebron was without water for most of May, June, and July. The water shortages continue, with rural areas the worst hit.

Mekarot, the Israeli water authority, said in a Ha'aretz article this summer that its efforts to get Israelis to conserve water have largely been unsuccessful, and the supply is quite low this year in spite of good winter rains. Water has been over-consumed for many years. Unsuccessful in promoting voluntary water conservation inside Israel, the water authority is forcing such conservation on the West Bank by turning down the tap and prohibiting water use for agriculture.

There are three main sources of water in Israel and the occupied territories: the Mountain Aquifer (the Golan Heights), Lake Kineret (the Sea of Galilee), and the Coastal Aquifer, which lies under most of Gaza. All these supplies have been overused for years. The worst example is the aquifer under Gaza, which has turned saline, rendering it all but undrinkable. The Mountain Aquifer is likewise turning increasingly more saline, while Lake Kineret at the lowest level in recent memory, and is steadily dropping. The very low levels of all three this year concern hydrologists.

Israel has prevented West Bank residents from digging wells and cisterns since the 1967 war, although the population has grown considerably since then. Cisterns built in recent years face demolition by the army.

Two years ago, Ha'aretz reported that 80% of the water from the West Bank and Gaza goes to Israelis on both sides of the green line, while 20% is left for Palestinians. "I think the discrepancy of water allocated is more than that," said Wifa'a Obeidat, spokesperson for the Hebron municipality. A 1999 study by the World Bank showed that the Palestinians are the thriftiest consumers of water in the Middle East. Annual per capita use is 375 cubic meters for Israelis and 115 cubic meters for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

According to Obeidat, Hebron's water supply comes from the Far Ashion area (Gush Etzion). Prior to 1999, Hebron often ran out of water in the summer, because Mekarot, the Israeli water authority, allotted less to the city. One result of the Oslo Accords was that in 1999, the US Agency for International Development (US AID) completed two large wells in the Herodian area (near Bethlehem) to increase the supply for Hebron. The two wells can supply an additional 5000 cubic meters per day. The remainder of Hebron's 11,000 cubic meters daily supply is purchased from Mekarot.

In late May, the water coming to Hebron had slowed to a trickle of 1000-2000 cubic meters per day. The Hebron Municipality complained to the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA). The PWA requested that Israel crack down on black market water dealing, which decreases the water en route to Hebron. The PWA complains that it cannot prevent the theft of water from the pipes in Areas B and C, as the areas are under Israeli army control. Black market water merchants sell truckloads of the water. The PWA also cannot increase the supply available, which depends on Mekarot allocation.
At the same time, the pumping system of the Herodian wells ceased to work. Then the Municipality contacted Mekarot for repairs, paying the required fees in advance. But the Israeli army reinvaded the West Bank in June, so the Israeli engineers would not come to make the repair. Representatives from Hebron also could not go to Jerusalem to plead for water, due to the closure of Jerusalem to Palestinians. Little by little, residents' rooftop storage tanks ran dry in Hebron.

Those who could afford it purchased water from the Hebron Municipality, which were trucked it in. But the supply was so far behind the demand that the City soon fell a month behind in those deliveries. The Israeli army bars the water trucks from delivering in the Old City of Hebron and neighborhoods bordering Israeli settlements, leaving those areas only the supply already in the water pipes.

The Municipality rotated the meager supply of water in the pipes from neighborhood to neighborhood. Once every fifteen days it was turned on in each area. However, the water pressure was so low, it could not refill many residential tanks. In the Hisbeh, the Old City's covered market, shops are on the first floor, while homes are on second, third, and sometimes fourth floors above. With the low supply, the water has only been reaching the ground floor shops. Some families borrowed electric water pumps to refill their rooftop tanks, while many carried buckets from below, often limiting their consumption of water to drinking and cooking. Hilltop neighborhoods and areas high in population density had special difficulties getting enough water.

In a context of 60% unemployment, families are now heavily dependent on what little they can grow on their lands, but nothing grows without water. In the Beqa'a Valley just outside Hebron, farmers have been repeatedly fined for watering their fields. The Israeli army calls in the police, who arrest the farmer.  The fines have to be paid before the person is released from jail.  Later the case goes to court, where more fines and court costs may be added. In July three farm families in the valley were charged with stealing water, and fined between 1000 and 4000 shekels each (US $200- $800). The Beqa'a Valley farmers had been promised they would be given access to water over five years ago, when the Israeli-only bypass Road 60 was built on land confiscated from them. They have never received official waterlines and therefore tapped into the line to Harsina settlement.

During July and August's hottest weeks of the year, in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba overlooking Hebron, an automatic sprinkler system continued to water their green lawns and lush flower gardens.

While the water lines have resumed flowing in Hebron, some 200,000 persons in West Bank small towns and rural areas have no water lines and rely on trucking in the water.

With the severity of West Bank closures and repeated curfews, the economy is at a standstill, so many families no longer have funds for purchasing food and water. Each town is under siege, with the Israeli army controlling everything that moves in or out. Water trucks can no longer use most paved roads, as checkpoints have made them effectively Israeli-only roads, requiring longer and longer trucking distances and upping the price of water. Farmers have sold off many of their animals--one rarely sees sheep grazing on the West Bank hills anymore, as there is not even enough water for human needs, let alone watering the animals.

Officially, the Israeli government says its Civil Administration (a military administration) is managing the distribution of water and providing tankers of water where needed. In mid-October, Shimon Peres was reportedly very angry to learn the military's promises on water were not being kept. In Hebron, the only tankers Christian Peacemaker Team members have ever seen, bring water to the army and the Israeli settlements, something which they do several times each week. A new waterline is going in on Shuhada Street--to carry water to the Israeli settlements only, although the US AID laid new waterlines to the street only four years ago.

Water for Palestinians will remain in very short supply until the winter rains come. I wonder, when will justice roll down like water?

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)work to reduce violence includes using human rights accompaniment, nonviolent direct action and intervention, and communicating stories via an Email network and newsletter. CPT's work is supported by Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends United Meetings (Quaker), as well as many other Christian denominations and individuals. For more information, contact CPT at PO Box 6508; Chicago, IL 60680; 312-455-1199 or cpt@igc.org; www.prairienet.org/cpt/

Previous Article    Next Article