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Palestinian Water Crisis Deepens
A World Bank report blames Palestinian mismanagement and Israeli restrictions for severe water shortages in Palestinian areas.
A Palestinian girl fills a bottle with water from a public tap in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 20, 2009. Israelis have access to more than four times more water than do Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the World Bank said in a report on Monday. It said that a 1995 interim peace accord that governs the allocation of water has proven inadequate, as the Palestinian Authority has been fragmented by the last eight years of fighting while Israel has improved its own water facilities. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa) Palestinians get only a quarter of the water Israelis have access to.
The existing problems effect not just daily supply but the development of water resources, water uses and wastewater management.
"Water related humanitarian crisis are in fact chronic in Gaza and parts of the West Bank," says the report.
For their water Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are completely depended on scarce resources controlled by Israel.
This has led to "systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources", says the report.
But the Palestinian Authority (PA) too gets part of the blame. It is struggling to establish even a basic water infrastructure and management, concludes the report.
Water supplies continue to "operate in a very inefficient emergency mode, with far reaching economic, social and environmental consequences".
'Grossly misleading'
The mismanagement is made worse by movement and access restrictions which Palestinians live under. As a result Israelis have about four times as much water available to them as people in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli officials said the report was "grossly misleading" as Israel has a much more developed industrial sector which could skew the assessment.
But in Gaza 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water at all, a report in the Palestine Telegraph says.
According to the local utility provider, several wells have been destroyed during the Israeli offensive earlier this year.
Since then only three out of 80 trucks with spare parts and pipes for the water system have been allowed to enter Gaza.
As a result the severe damages to two wastewater treatment plants could not be repaired and continue to affect water quality.
- Posted in
35 Comments so far
Show AllAnd how does the World Bank expect the Palestinians to competently administer and build water infrastructure when they are allowed almost no resources, are rarely allowed to leave for adequate education and training abroad, and as the article points out, some water resources are destroyed by Israel? Ugh.
And when they do build it, the IDF will blow it away claiming that the Palestinians are building a nuclear sub in the water tank.
Um, ok.
sorry...i should have turned on the sarcasm alert
Exactly!!!
I never imagined that the BBC and the World Bank could make such egregious errors as to confuse "effect" with "affect" (which pretty well makes the sentence mean the opposite of what was intended), or to use "crisis" as though it were a plural.
That said, I really love the Israeli government's excuse that the statistics are "skewed" by Israel's more developed "industrial sector." It's like the way they "made the desert bloom": by tapping the headwaters of the Jordan River and installing trout-farming tanks in the north of Israel. The fact remains that a large population has no clean water to drink because almost all the supply is going to the people who already have a much higher standard of living than the others do. But, of course, there's a method in that madness . . .
Rainborowe
And, they wrote "depended" for "dependent."
That said (as you said), the U.S. and the E.U. really need to push harder for a two-state existence in Palestine, then the newly created Palestinian state could possibly petiton for greater riparian rights to the waters of the Jordan River and underlying aquifers. Hey! It just occurred to me that this might be one reason why Israel opposes a Palestinian state. I heard decades ago that much of the regional conflict would come down to a struggle over water.
Anti-semite!
we all know the palestinians, like the iranians, are mad dogs who think of nothing other than the destruction of zion
they are crazed
they are........i am at a loss
we know the israelis are the best people in the world
stand up do good folks who would never - ever - and i mean never take advantage of anyone
if we give the palestinians water - how long i ask you before we see an unending deluge of water balloons pouring into the sacred land of zion from the west bank and gaza
Stealing water is the real reason behind Jewish gerrymandering of the apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.
These neverending crimes against humanity are and have been fully supported by our sadistic government.
A) This article is about Gaza and NOT about the West Bank.
B) The barrier was built to stop suicide-bombers and NOT for stealing water.
LOL Letto: You tho thilly! Thtop!
www.meetyourworld.com
I'm sorry, nycdread, Do you speak English?
Letto is sort of right,
The Fences and Walls encircling the GAZA POW Camp were "not for stealing water," Gazans had water. Until the POW camp's water and waste treatment facility was bombed allowing sewage to run for 1.2 kilometers and seep into the groundwater. Two wells were also bombed and 100,000 people left w/o tap water after the fires died down and the smoke cleared. There were however 5,000 less people asking for water.
Meanwhile the Taliban is closing in on Islamabad, Pakistan will fall soon,
And the US is one factor motivating them. IsraHell the other-slowly turning the heat up on militant Islam, which is coming knocking.
Be funny if some nukes fall into Arab militant's hands,
Mohammed Atta was set in motion by Israeli horrors visited upon his brothers.
BLOWBACK
I'm pretty sure India will take care of Pakistan if that happens...which is why we can't let it happen. But, surprisingly enough, bombing villages by remote don't seem to work. Ugh, total imagination fail.
LOL!
"GAZA CITY - A stream of sh*t snakes through Gaza’s streets. It is a noxious mix of human and animal waste. The stench is overwhelming. The occasional passer-by vomits.
The sewage treatment plant in al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City requires 20,000 litres of fuel a day. Last week Israel ceased delivery of all fuel and supplies to Gaza. The consequences have been catastrophic.
Without fuel to pump it away, the waste backs up, flooding the streets and clogging the plumbing. The local ministry of health has declared this an environmental catastrophe. Doctors have warned that a medical catastrophe could follow by way of spread of cholera and other diseases. That is at a time when not even life-saving medical services are on offer any more.
We have to choose between cutting the electricity on babies in the maternity ward, cutting it to heart patients, or shutting down our operating rooms,†says Dr. Mawia Hasaneen, director of emergency at al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza."
http://meetyourworld.com/page25.html
And of course nycdread, for years, Izrael has taken their own sewage, their own s***, from IzraHell, an endless river of Jewish S***, and they have pumped it into Gaza, into the bulldozed-under olive orchards where it seeps into the ground, the water, the reek into the air. Psychological Warfare? It would be except Gaza is a POW camp, so it is Torture pure and simple. Like the starvation, just Torture.
Zionism is
Hijacking Judaism.
For many anyway, Joseph.
Humbaba was talking about the barrier in the West Bank. Not about Gaza.
The wall was also built to hold back any attempts to retaliate for stealing land and water.
After the latest US/Jewish 'homicide twins' war crimes in Gaza I must say the 'terrorists' seem to have 'hooked noses' and wear clothes of sewn together $20.00 bills that we stolen from Wall Street and taken by 'super tanker' to that 1/2 acre of Zionist hell by the same 'hook nosed thieves' to what the Jews call Eretz Ysriol - and the rest of the world calls 15/20 for land fraud.
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL! STOP MEDIA CONTROL!
media control, stopped. now what?
"There is no greater power in the world today than that wielded by the manipulators of public opinion in America. No king or pope of old, no conquering general or high priest ever disposed of a power even remotely approaching that of the few dozen men who control America's mass media of news and entertainment... "
I'd like to add education, the arts, etc, etc.
Stop media control! Liberate our politicians and members of our government! Liberate our school children! Liberate the voting public!
So long as we're talking about liberation..."We will be greeted as liberators" --Dick Cheney.
Incredible what kind of characters are attracted to public "service".
Talk about what happens presumably.
Of course, in the outside world, media control is still very dominant.
Media Control is a threat to freedom and justice EVERYWHERE!
www.meetyourworld.com
The first 7 words, "A World Bank report blames Palestinian mismanagement"
Under a bold headline Palestinian Water Crisis Deepens.
The Spin, the Lie of this is to blame the Palestinians.
The BBC Scum also REFUSED to air that appeal for Gaza Aid. A putrescence.
EFF the BBC,
Joseph
The following are 4 excerpts from the World Bank report (www.worldbank.org):
"The governance system established by Article 40 (Oslo accord) requires the approval by Israeli authorities of any proposed PA management measure or infrastructure project within the West Bank. This arrangement, together with the way it has been implemented, gives Israeli authorities control over the allocation and management of West Bank water resources."
"The Israeli Water Authority has used its role as de facto regulator to prevent Palestinian drilling in the Western Aquifer, despite growing demand from Palestinian consumers and whilst increasing its own off take from the aquifer above agreed levels."
"Gaza has a well designed Master Plan for water and sanitation, but less than 2% of the investment program has been implemented."
"In Gaza furthermore, the closure severely limits the movement of goods and people with negative effects on basic delivery of water supply and sanitation services. The closure of Gaza from Israel and Egypt since August 2007 hinders n ormal water operations, e.g. by preventing CMWU’s ability to drill wells, to stand as conduit and guarantor for donors, or to import chlorine for water
disinfection and fuel for operating water and sanitation pumps. Since the December 2008-January 2009 military offensive on Gaza, the continued closure is preventing the import of pipes and other materials needed to rehabilitate destroyed water supply and sanitation systems."
Yes, it is tough to manage a water program when all you are given are cups and pans to collect rainwater. Did the BBC even read the World Bank report, or did it just decide to use the opportunity to blame the Palestinians, when the report clearly indicates Israel's is the principal cause of the crisis?
Progressive101, Thanks for some real fact which the above article hides.
As long as America doesn't try to save the day again and help them when they can't even take care of our countries own people right now.
http://profitwithnickb.com/12monthinternetmillionaire/
"Palestinians get only a quarter of the water Israelis have access to."
Get a clue Israel bashers. How much water do you think the palestinians would share with Israel if they controlled the water? My guess would be none.
The Palestinians should just stop being pawns for the muslim extremists and move to other areas where there is plenty of water. Don't give me that ancient homeland crap either because I am sure you don't demand the mexicans stay home in their own country. And don't give me that we stole this country crap either until you give your house to an indian and leave.
Nobody has to give you any crap... you are already full of it.
real world, thanks for your honesty, because the words out of your ugly mouth are true Israeli policy and many Jew's desires. Are the 2 not linked?
"The Palestinians should just....move to other areas," real world.
That or get a free bus ride to the sea to be drowned?
Or stay in the GAZA POW camp and be torturered?
Israel bashers got too many clues. Over 5,000 in January alone.
Great opinion: AssZoe. :) LOL!
TAC,
With the Jewish 'perros' you need an AK-47 just to have 10% of your own water to use. Currently, the Jewish 'perros' are stealing 90% of the water out of the Gazan and West Bank aquifers - the richest aquifers in Palestine and Israel, and with the continuing building of 'illegal' settlements (Har Homa. Bil'in, Nil'in, Jordan valley and East 'Arab" Jerusalem and the 'expansion' of the other Jewish rats nests around Ramallah and Hebron, it looks like the Jews will leave Palestine when the skies over Dimona, Tel Aviv and Haifa are filled with a massive radioactive cloud of kosher confetti - and not a day sooner.
TheAZCowBoy
(Recruiter for Hezbollah and Hamas @ Freedom Fighters, Inc.)
Tombstone, AZ.
'Kill 'em all Hezbollah - Let their G-d sort them out.'
And isn't this Israel's aim? To destroy Palestinian lives any which way? And doesn't the Western world keep looking the other way while remaining silent? And isn't this "ethnic" cleansing? There is a price to pay for this, Israel.