Nebuchanezzar
Banned
Water in West Bank | Israel | Amnesty Internationalsmh said:JERUSALEM: Amnesty International has accused Israel of allocating Jewish settlers in the West Bank four times as much water as Palestinians.
In Troubled Waters - Palestinians Denied Fair Access To Water, the human rights organisation says Israel uses 80 per cent of the water from the mountain aquifer, the only source of underground water available in the West Bank.
Israel also uses 100 per cent of the surface water available from the River Jordan, the report says.
The West Bank is the land designated to become the future Palestinian state. It is now home to 2.5 million Palestinians and 300,000 Jewish settlers.
Amnesty says Palestinian residents in the West Bank are allocated 70 litres of water each a day.
In some rural communities they survive on as little as 20 litres a day, well below the 100 litres a day recommended by the World Health Organisation.
''Water rationing is common, especially but not only in the summer months, with residents of different neighbourhoods and villages receiving piped water only one day every week or every few weeks,'' the report says.
''Consequently, many Palestinians have no choice but to purchase additional supplies from mobile water tankers, which deliver water at a much higher price and of often dubious quality.''
Jewish settlers, on the other hand, are entitled to 300 litres of water a day, which enables them to sustain irrigation farms and lush gardens, the report says.
It also condemns water conditions in the Gaza Strip, saying 90 to 95 per cent of water from the only water resource, the coastal aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
Yet Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the mountain aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza. ''Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water.''
Israel's Infrastructure Minister, Uzi Landau, said the report was ''biased, superficial and false''. ''It bore foretold conclusions, similar to the Goldstone report [on the war in Gaza],'' he said.
A spokesman for the Water Authority said Israel meets all of its commitments regarding water allocation to the Palestinians and even exceeds them.
Bllody disgraceful.