Israel Restricts Palestinians Access To Clean Water

By Luis Miranda

The government diverts water resources to the invasive Israeli colonies and leaves Palestinians without drinking water.

In the months of heat, water comes once every 25 days, for a period of between two and four hours.

In winter supply works, as Palestinians depend on their wells and the Israeli water company.

The dry pipe carries water home that is delivered by Mekorot, with the arrival of hot weather since May access to clean water has been restricted to the West Bank in favor of Israeli colonies.

This Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory increases its water demand in the summer as drinking water is used to irrigate crops and gardens and filling swimming pools.

“The settlements receive water flow that is enormously greater than Palestinian communities. In the summer we need much more water and the amount that can be pumped from aquifers is lower, so the supply is reduced to a minimum to the Palestinians,” said Pepe Gago, project coordinator in the West Bank Water and Sanitation Assembly of Cooperation for Peace (ACPP).

A settler “spends nearly five times more water per capita than a Palestinian,” says Gago.

Mekorot claims that it delivers the same amount of water as before, but the company told workers that it has reduced supplies to Palestinians because there is not enough water for the colonies.