Israeli settlers fill pools as Palestinians go thirsty

Well-watered lawns, large irrigated farms and luxury swimming pools are just part of the amenities of being a Jewish settler in Israel but on the flip side being a Palestinian means restricted access to sources and struggling to meet basic water needs, a human rights group said Monday.

In its latest report on Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Amnesty International accused Tel Aviv of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and implementing discriminatory and restrictive policies.

"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies," Amnesty researcher Donatella Rovera said in a report.

In contrast, Israelis and even illegal Jewish settlers living in the West Bank are given unlimited water supplies, meaning Israel's 450,000 settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.

"Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements in the OPT stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic water needs," Rovera said.

The report describes the hardships, both physical and financial, that Palestinians face due to water restrictions and explains that the population has to reuse water for cooking, washing and sanitation and bathing, wash and flush toilets less frequently.

Between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry, the report said, adding the situation was further exacerbated as Palestinians are not allowed to drill new wells or rehabilitate old ones without permits from the Israeli authorities, which are often impossible to get.

The report, “Troubled Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water,� also revealed that Israel used more than 80 percent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the Palestinian territories, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 percent.

Amnesty said the "inequality" is even more pronounced in some areas of the West Bank where settlements use up to 20 times more water per capita than neighboring Palestinian communities which survive on barely 20 liters (5.28 gallons) of water per capita a day.

Water is a right

Meanwhile in the impoverished Gaza Strip, already crippled by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, Israel's 22-day assault damaged water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations.

The sewage system has been particularly hard-hit and Gaza's sole fresh water resource is polluted by the infiltration of raw sewage from cesspits and sewage collection ponds and by the infiltration of sea water, also contaminated by raw sewage.

The report called on Israel to "end its discriminatory policies and immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on access to water and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.�

“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford,� said Rovera.