Israelis 'deny Palestinians water'

JERUSALEM - Israel was yesterday accused of denying the West Bank and Gaza access to adequate water through a "total" and "discriminatory" control that enables its own people to consume four times as much as the Palestinians.

An Amnesty International report paints a picture of many Palestinian families struggling - and often failing - to secure enough water for drinking, cleaning and agriculture while Israelis, including residents of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, have all they need for lush, irrigated farmland, swimming pools and gardens.

Amnesty also suggests that taxpayers in countries who donate aid to the Palestinians are facing unnecessarily high costs to meet severe water shortages because their governments are unwilling to challenge "the most unreasonable" restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinian access to the regionally scarce resource.

It claims the 450,000 settlers who have taken up residence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Six-Day War in 1967 consume as much as or more than the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

It says the overall Palestinian per capita consumption of 70 litres per day compares with the WHO recommended level of 100 litres and Israeli consumption of 300.

The report adds that between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities - especially in the Israeli controlled "Area C" which comprises 60 per cent of the West Bank - have no access to running water.

According to Amnesty, the Israeli military "often" prevents them from accessing rainwater - for example, by destroying water-harvesting cisterns or even confiscating water tankers.

The report also highlights the unequal distribution of water from the mountain aquifer which is the principal groundwater resource for both communities, most of which is located in the West Bank and from which Israel draws 80 per cent.

It also points out that using water for Israel's supplies from the River Jordan - as Jordan does, and Syria and Lebanon do further upstream - before the river reaches the West Bank, deprives Palestinians of any access to the river's water.

The report is critical of past mismanagement by the Palestinian Water Authority and says the international donors sometimes lack co-ordination in funding water-related projects in the occupied territories.

But the bulk of the report blames Israeli restrictions and repeated refusals to grant permits for wells and other installations.

While the Oslo accords in the mid-nineties agreed to a highly unequal distribution, the report suggests the disparities have worsened since then.

Instead of challenging restrictions, international donors - among which the principal governments are the US and Germany - choose to divert "significant funds" to short-term projects such as repairing war damage or funding tanker shipments at many times the cost of piped supplies.

In Gaza, the report says, 90-95 per cent of the water from the coastal aquifer which has traditionally supplied it is now unfit for human consumption.

It adds that Israel's refusal to allow water to be exported from the West Bank to Gaza, now compounded by the embargo on materials for infrastructure development and repair, have brought Gaza's water and sewerage system to "crisis point".

Israel's water authority complained the report was "biased and incorrect" and said it had met its obligations under the Oslo agreement while Palestinians were not distributing water efficiently.

It also challenged the Amnesty figures and said the real gap was 408 litres per head in Israel and 287 litres for the Palestinians.

But Amnesty said Israeli figures did not take account of desalinated and treated water consumed by Israel, or the 35 per cent of leakage from the Palestinian supply caused by Israel's failure to build new infrastructure.

Amnesty said its own figures showed a slightly smaller gap than that identified by the World Bank.

UNEQUAL SHARES
* 450,000 Jewish settlers consume as much water as 2.3 million Palestinians.
* Overall Palestinian per capita consumption is 70 litres per day compared to Israeli consumption of 300.
* The WHO recommended level is 100 litres a day.
* 180,000- 200,000 Palestinians have no access to running water.
* The Israeli military prevents Palestinians from accessing rainwater.
* It criticises Palestinian water authorities for mismanagement.

- INDEPENDENT