On World Water Day, Palestinians Tell of ’Israeli’ Theft to Resources
Local Editor
Water supply and sanitation in the Palestinian territories are suffering from the unfair distribution of resources on account of the Zionist entity, Palestinian authorities said, bringing attention to their struggle in a statement issued on World Water Day.
"Palestine suffers from the unfair distribution of water sources, which remain under almost full Israeli control. As evidence to this inequality, the "Israeli" daily share per capita of water consumption reached seven times higher than the Palestinian's," PWA and PCBS said in a joint press statement.
Palestinian water resources are fully controlled by "Israel". In the West Bank, according to some estimates, "Israel" is using more than 85 percent of the water, covering around a quarter of its own needs.
In order to cover its needs in the Gaza Strip in 2013, Palestinians pump over 100 million cubic meters of water from the coastal aquifer, according to the statement, far exceeding its "sustainable yield" of some 50-60 mcm. Another 104 mcm were extracted in the West Bank.
In addition the water that remains suffers from poor quality.
"More than 90% of the water pumped from the coastal aquifer in Gaza Strip does not satisfy the water quality standards of the World Health Organization," according to the statement.
As for the wastewater, the treatment plants do not have the capacity to handle all the waste, causing severe water pollution. The development of the sector highly depends on external financing, which is highly problematic because of the "Israeli"-imposed blockade. The lasting blockade of the Gaza Strip as well as the "Israeli" aggression on Gaza has caused severe damage to the water supply infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
The water quality is considerably worse in the Gaza strip when compared to the West Bank, with only 5.8 percent of Gazans satisfied in 2013. In West Bank that number stood at 73.5 percent, the agencies said.
On the economic front, water shortages are having a "negative effect" on the Palestinian economy, especially on agriculture. It is estimated that roughly 90 percent of extracted water is used for field irrigation, about 20 percentage points higher than the international average. Yet this amount of water was only enough to irrigate 16 percent of Palestinian agricultural land.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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