The Water Crisis in Palestinian Villages Without a Water Network
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Following the Oslo AccordsComments of Israeli officials give the impression that the Oslo Accords transferred responsibility to the Palestinian Authority for supply of water to Palestinians. However, Israel continues to maintain almost total control over the water sector in the Occupied Territories. Every new water-related project, from drilling a well for extracting water to laying pipes or building a reservoir, including work in Area A, which is subject to “complete” control by the PA, requires Israel’s consent in the Joint Water Committee. Furthermore, for some projects proposed by the Palestinians, the consent of Israel’s representatives on the Joint Water Committee is insufficient. If the project is located in Area C of the West Bank, which remains under complete Israeli control, the Supreme Planning Committee and the official in charge of water matters, each of the Civil Administration, must also give their approval. Because the Oslo Accords created dozens of islands of Areas A and B (comprising some forty percent of the West Bank) with no territorial continuity among them, the transport of water from place to place often requires movement through Area C. The Civil Administration delays approval of Palestinian water projects that have already been approved by the Joint Water Committee. As of July 2001, the Civil Administration had before it seventeen requests that were submitted from 1997 to 2000 by the Palestinian Water Authority. On 26 June 2001, B’Tselem requested the Civil Administration’s response on this matter, but has not yet received a reply. In the Oslo II Agreement, which was signed in September 1995, Israel agreed that the Palestinians would be allowed to increase the quantity of water they extract from the Mountain Aquifer for household and urban use by some thirty percent during the interim period (1995-1999).13 According to the Agreement, this increase will result entirely from drilling of new extraction wells not from a redivision of existing sources. Responsibility for new drillings is divided between the two sides – nineteen percent by Israel and eighty-one percent by the PA. Israel performed its part of the agreement within the time allotted to it. As of today, more than three years after the interim period ended, the PA produces and supplies approximately two-thirds of the amount of water that it undertook in the Agreement. The two sides disagree over the reasons for the slow pace of performance, and B’Tselem does not have the ability to determine which party is responsible for this failure. The additional water quantities that Israel and the PA developed pursuant to the Interim Agreement led to a certain improvement in the supply of water for household and urban use in various areas of the West Bank. The southern part of the West Bank felt this improvement only in 1999 and in subsequent years. However, in the summer, many Palestinians continue to suffer from frequent disconnection of the water network. These disconnections result from the allocation programs that various cities are compelled to implement because of the increased demand in summer months. Residents without a Water Supply B’Tselem’s research conducted during June 2001 indicates that 218 Palestinian communities are not connected to a water network.14 A few of the communities included in this list have an internal water network, but it is no longer in use, usually because water is not supplied to the network. The 218 towns and villages on the list are home to 197,000 residents, comprising ten percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank (not including the areas that Israel annexed in the Jerusalem area). The average number of residents in each of these communities varies greatly depending on the district: in Hebron District, for example, the average number of residents is 370, while in Nablus District, the number is 2,200 people per community.
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