Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Apartheid

Israeli control of their water a continuing threat to Palestinians: Report

contributors 03/23/2015

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians are suffering from unfair distribution of water resources as Israel is consuming the vast majority of Palestinian water, Palestinian officials said Sunday.

179692_345x230
A Palestinian farmer harvests wheat during the annual harvest season in Tequa village in the West Banker city of Bethlehem on June 2, 2012. (MaanImages/File)

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) made the comments in a statement released in honor of World Water Day that underscored the challenges facing Palestinians as a result of the Israeli occupation.

The statement underscored the importance of water supplies for achieving sustainable development and highlighted that such development depended not only on the availability of water, but also on its quality, and was ultimately crucial to Palestinians’ economy and welfare.

Water resources in the occupied Palestinian Territories come from four main aquifers, but under the Oslo Accords, they are almost entirely under Israeli control.

Experts estimate that more than 85 percent of Palestinian water resources in the West Bank aquifers are currently taken by Israel, accounting for around 25 percent of Israel’s water needs.

According to the press statement, approximately 104 million cubic meters (mcm) of water was extracted from aquifers in the West Bank for Palestinian use in 2013.

Meanwhile, 101 mcm were extracted in the Gaza Strip from its coastal aquifer.

Not only are these quantities insufficient, the statement argued that the water is also of poor quality.

Water extraction in Gaza far exceeds the coastal aquifer’s recommended yield of 50-60 mcm a year, causing 90 percent of water to fail to satisfy the water quality standards of the World Health Organization, according to the statement.

Moreover, seepage of waste water into the aquifers has turned Gaza’s water saline.

Across Palestinian households, only 48.8 percent considered water quality to be good in 2013, though this figure was much higher in the West Bank, where 73.5 percent were satisfied with the quality of water, compared to only 5.8 percent in Gaza.

The statement noted that insufficient quantities of available water are also having a negative effect on the Palestinian economy, particularly on the agricultural sector.

It pointed out that agriculture is a crucial sector in developing countries as it is the main source of nutrition for the population, as well as the key source of income for the rural population.

Approximately 90 percent of extracted water is used for irrigation in the Palestinian Territories, about 20 percentage points higher than the international average.

However, the statement said that data from 2011 shows this amount of water was only enough to irrigate 16 percent of Palestinian agricultural land, or 167,671 dunams of a total of 1,034,901 dunams.

The statement pointed out that since 1967, Palestinians have been denied access to extract from the Jordan River, depriving them of their right to an estimated 250 mcm annually.

In spite of difficulties, the statement said that the Palestinian Authority has increased the number of households with access to improved water and sanitation services.

Where as in 2011 about 6.2 percent of Palestinian households had no access to improved drinking water, this figure was 2.5 percent in 2013.

Similarly, the percentage of households with access to improved sanitation rose from 51.4 percent in 2008 to 63.6 percent in 2013.

However, the Israeli authorities continue to obstruct the construction of a Palestinian waste water treatment plant, denying them the right to benefit from treated water.

Via Ma’an News Agency

Filed Under: Apartheid, Displaced and Refugees, Environment, Health, Human Rights, Israel, Israel/ Palestine, Palestine

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Israel's Netanyahu banks on TACO Trump as he Launches War on Iran to disrupt Negotiations
  • Iran's Hypersonic Missiles Hit Israeli Refinery, Military Sites, as Israel does the same to Tehran
  • A Pariah State? Western Nations Sanction Israeli Cabinet Members
  • Why did Israel defy Trump – and risk a major War – by striking Iran now? And what happens next?
  • Israel: Will Ultra-Orthodox Jews' Opposition to Conscription Bring down Netanyahu's Gov't

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved