Pilfering Water in Palestine

By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
February 14, 2004


In the recent years, increasingly, struggles over natural resources are exacerbating conflicts. Middle East is no exception. Under the hideous Israeli occupation, Palestinians are suffering from nonstop killings of their men, women and children and destruction of their home and furthermore there are acute shortages of water which is mostly caused by discriminatory allocation of this precious resource, that is causing more resentment in the occupied land.

Palestinians don’t have their freedom, under the rolling tanks and flying jets, their thirsts and tears are snubbed. The neighboring nations have their respective deals with Israel. The only surface water source, the Jordan River and the Lake of Tiberias, even a single drop of water from these are not for the Palestinians who live just along the west bank of the Jordan River.

Palestinians get their water from the underground aquifers. “Of the aquifers that lie mainly under Israel, Israel draws 100 percent. Of those that lie mainly under the West Bank, Palestinians draw 20 percent, Israel 80 percent. The average Israeli uses roughly 350 cubic meters of water per year -- four times the amount used by the average Palestinian.” [1]

The on going building of separation wall by the Sharon government deep inside the Palestinian territory is aggravating the water problem more since it has put about one third of the remaining water resources out of Palestinian reach.

In the West Bank, there are already booming black market for water, where the Israeli settlers profiting by selling water to the Palestinians at exorbitant price, in the range between five and fifteen times more than the regular government charge.

This is the irony. The drought stricken Palestinian farmers find this profiteering repulsive. “Not only is the water "stolen" from under his feet, he is then actually forced to buy it back from the "thief." Many farmers have reverted, in turn, to digging their own unregulated shallow wells. The end result: The aquifers are being pierced and over-pumped at rates unparalleled in history.” [1]

In the news, the leaders talk about lands and its distribution between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Underneath, in this arid land, the gross inequity in allocating water and its usage, is one of the mostly neglected issues that the radical Israeli government keep in mind in devising their further barefaced encroachments of Palestinian lands, and it plays a critical role in the swelling revulsion of Palestinians, among the rock throwing kids or bomb-jacket wearing terrorists.

“The situation could change from one of theft and finger-pointing to one of equal use and responsibility. Unless this happens, a technically resolvable issue will continue toward the sphere of unavoidable conflict.” [1]

Like the zigzagging borders envisioned and seemingly being executed by the Sharon Government without remorse, the likelihood of a future Palestinian state, living side by side with an Israeli state, or unified in one single coherent democratic and secular nation, without terrorism or brutal aggravation, in all probability, would remain unreachable if not compromise on the basis of equity on water distribution is reached before.


References

1. Mark Zeitoun, “Avoiding a Mideast Water War”, Washington Post, February 4, 2004.

2. Jad Isaac, “The Palestinian Water Crisis”, The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development.

3. Jad Isaac, “Core Issues of Palestinian-Israeli Water Dispute”, Applied Research Institute.

4. Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish, “What Does Sharon’s Latest Settlement Move Mean for Israel”, The Chicago Tribune, February 6, 2004.

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Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) is a freelance writer. His email address is: sohelkarim@yahoo.com.

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