Gaza water supply at ‘crisis point’

[mastermg]

Israel is denying Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip their fair share of the region's scarce water supplies, according to a report published on Tuesday by Amnesty International.

The human rights group finds that Palestinians consume an average of 70 litres of water a day – for drinking, washing, agriculture and all other uses. That is less than the 100 litres recommended by the World Health Organisation, and substantially below the Israeli average of 300 litres.

As many as 200,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank have no access at all to running water, while others face severe restrictions on the amount of water at their disposal. In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the availability and quality of water supplies has reached "crisis point", the report states.

Amnesty acknowledges that a recent spell of droughts has worsened the situation, but overall blames Israeli policies and practices for the lack of water in the West Bank and Gaza. The report points out that Israel uses 80 per cent of the groundwater contained in the aquifer below the West Bank. Meanwhile, the river Jordan – the only other source of fresh water – is completely off-limits to Palestinians.

The Israeli government on Monday strongly denied Amnesty's accusations. A spokesman pointed out that the allocation of water resources had been addressed in the 1994 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians and that Israel was today providing more water to the Palestinians than it was obliged to under that treaty.

Amnesty says Israel has placed severe curbs on Palestinian efforts to construct new water installations, and in some instances Israeli forces have moved to destroy water reservoirs and wells used by Palestinians.

The Palestinian water shortage is further exacerbated by the generous allocation of fresh water to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, some of which boast swimming pools, lawns and – in one case – even a fish farm. "The 450,000 Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3m," the report states.

Amnesty concludes: "Israel must uphold its obligations as the occupying power by putting an immediate end to the current policies and practices which arbitrarily restrict the Palestinians' access to and availability of water in the [occupied Palestinian territories]."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea1c8a10-c261 ... ab49a.html