“On this hot, early Spring day, twelve villages lose their water supply. Water required by roughly fifteen hundred men, women and children and tens of thousands of animals cared for by these people. There was no fighting. One old shepherd shouted at soldiers that he needed water for his sheep. My colleague saw some children start to throw stones at soldiers. They were quickly stopped by their elders. The response from the forty or so Palestinian men who watched this destruction of their water pipes at close quarters was one of quiet desperation and resignation. What could they do?” EA Mike

Water is essential to sustaining all life on earth. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 50 and 100 litres of water per person per day are needed to ensure that most basic needs are met and few health concerns arise. Viewed in the context of Israel and occupied Palestine, where temperatures regularly exceed 30’c for much of the year, access to sufficient amounts of water becomes particularly important.

Despite its arid appearance, occupied Palestine is abundant with natural water. The West Bank sits atop three large aquifers (subterranean water reserves), capable of providing ample water for all of the land’s inhabitants. However, the reality on the ground is that many Palestinians find themselves without enough water to meet their daily needs.

More than 70% of communities located entirely or mostly in Area C (which makes up some 61% of the total West Bank) are not connected to the water network and rely on tankered water at vastly increased cost. Water consumption in some Area C communities drops to 20% of the minimum recommended standard (20 out of 100 litres per day per capita).* Whilst this is sadly not uncommon in many places on earth, the difference here is that this deprivation is entirely avoidable. Israel has established an extensive network of water mains and reservoirs across the West Bank, to service its many settlements and associated industries. However, permission is seldom granted to rural Palestinian communities to connect to it. Even when the pipes run through their land.

In the years since the occupation began, Israel, via its state water company Mekarot, has gained a near monopoly on all water in the West Bank. Even in Area’s A and B, where civil matters are supposed to be governed by the Palestinian Authority, permission must be granted by the Israeli Civil Administration before any new wells can be dug. According to one local UNHCHR source, Palestinians in Area C are prohibited from drilling wells beyond a depth of 30m. This is often not enough to reach fresh or ‘sweet’ water; meaning that newly dug wells will only produce brackish water, unsuitable for drinking and with a saline content that is too high for watering most crops.

Where there have been existing Palestinian wells, it is a common scenario that Mekarot, with their superior technological ability and support from the military apparatus, have dug a much deeper well close by; effectively undermining the Palestinian’s water source. In some cases, in order to prevent economic collapse, Palestinian municipal authorities in farming areas have signed agreements with Mekarot; whereby they will buy back some of the water being extracted from their land. Where once the water was free and plentiful, communities now have to pay to receive limited access to the same water.

Israeli water restrictions have had a significant impact on Palestinian agriculture. Farmers find themselves increasingly having to move away from growing traditional staple crops; switching to others which are more drought resistant, require less water or can be watered with waste or saline water. One farmer from Al ‘Auja, an area in the Jordan Valley once famous for its bananas, told visiting EA’s about how, within a matter of years, he went from having 80 dunams (approximately 20 acres) of bananas to just three plants behind his house (which he feeds with harvested rain water). Since Mekarot began pumping water close by, the water which he is able to extract from his well has become too salty to sustain bananas. He now grows less profitable date palms on his land.

Elsewhere, to accommodate increasing demand for water by Israeli settlement plantations, Mekarot has been significantly cutting the amount of water allotted to Palestinian farming communities. One farmer reported that, since the restrictions took hold, his output has halved. “Of 30 dunams, now I only grow on 15. It’s just too much of a risk to cultivate more as we never know if the amount of water we get will decrease again.”. In his eyes, these restrictions are part of a deliberate policy designed to drive them from their land. He explains, “They’re trying to turn our land into a desert. This way they displace us without force. When our youth can’t find jobs here, they’ll leave.”

The clearly preferential provision of water resources to the settlements and settlement enterprise (whose very existence is a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention), at the expense of the Palestinian population is a violation of International Humanitarian Law.

In reference to this, Al-Haq Centre for the Application of International Law has written: ”…under international humanitarian law, Israel is obliged to administer the natural resources belonging to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) without damaging or diminishing them. Accordingly, it is prohibited from exploiting them in a way that undermines their capital and results in economic benefits for Israeli citizens, including settlers, or for its national economy.”