The Economic Crisis Exacerbates the Water Shortage
21 June 2006 B’T selem
The water shortage in the West Bank will intensify during the summer months due to the economic crisis in the Occupied Territories. Some 215,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, in 220 communities, live without a central system that supplies water to their homes through pipelines. In many of the communities in which a water system does exist, a rotation is set up among the different neighborhoods such that each neighborhood receives water every few days.
Israel, which controls the West Bank water sources, discriminates against Palestinians in its allocation of water. The average water consumption in Palestinian West Bank communities connected to a central system is 60 liters of water per day. Within Israel, in contrast, the average consumption is 280 liters per day – more than 4.5 times that amount. Israel’s water supply policy in the West Bank is illegal and tainted with racial discrimination, in violation of international humanitarian law.
Sewage dumped in Brukin: Palestinian village under attack
20 June 2006 Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Sewage runs in the streets between houses attracting pests and insects into the village. As a consequence skin diseases have spread. Last year, doctors treating cases of skin disease clearly stated in their reports that the problems were caused by insects that are thriving in the sewage water. Placed in this unbearable situation, villagers are appealing to Palestinian institutions, parties and organizations to support them and to struggle together to halt this attack on their village.
Brukin is one of many villages seriously threatened by sewage water from Zionist settlements, industrial zones or military areas. To mention only three examples, the nearby village of Kufr Diek suffers pollution through sewage water from Ale Zahav settlement, whereas in Jenin district villagers in Zububa watch the destruction of their springs from the waste produced by Salem military camp and in Nablus district, the village of Deir Sharaf is suffering from the waste and sewage water coming from Kedumim settlement and a nearby Israeli industrial zone. The destruction induced by sewage hits all aspects of village life including farming and social activities. Devastating long-term effects will occur if the dumping practices are not brought to an immediate halt.
Surrounded by settlements and under the control of an Occupation watchtower surveying the village, Brukin faces land destruction and home demolitions for the construction of the Apartheid Wall all along the northern stretch of its residential areas. For several days, the Occupation has blocked the only entrances to Brukin and Kufr Diek and the road from these villages to Salfit with earth mounds and rubble. The gate of Qarawa Bani Hassan that dissects north and the southern Salfit district is again closed.