- 6 aug 2011
Gaza looks to upgrade ageing sewage system
(2:17) Finding better solutions for Gaza's waste
New treatment plant hopes to end the deluge of sewage being pumped into the sea every day.
For years Gaza’s sewage system has been close to collapse.
Beaches along the Strip’s 40km of coast are heavily polluted by waste being pumped directly into the sea – 14,000 cubic metres of it per day.
The people who depend on the Mediterranean for their livelihoods are the ones who suffer the most.
Now, work on a new mutli-million dollar treatment plant is underway. Residents are hopeful this will mean the days of dumping waste into the sea are set to become a thing of the past.
Nicole Johnston reports from Gaza.
http://fwd4.me/08Nk 12 jan 2012, 13:24 , Respect -
IOA cuts off water to Jenin neighborhoods
JENIN, (PIC)-- The Palestinian municipal council in Jenin city strongly denounced the Israeli water company Mekorot for cutting off arbitrarily the water supply for the fourth consecutive day to many neighborhoods in the city.
The Jenin council stated in a press release that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) turned off the water valve in Suwitat neighborhood cutting off the water supply to the areas of Suwitat, Marah Sa'ed, and Al-Mirah as well as the eastern district.
It added that this unwarranted action caused a crisis of drinking water in these areas, and called for urgently moving to put an end to this Israeli violation.
http://fwd4.me/08RO 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
TRC to modernize water pipeline network in Gaza
ANKARA, (PIC)-- The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) announced plans to overhaul the water pipeline network in the Gaza Strip, which suffers acute shortage in potable and irrigation water due to the ongoing five-year Israeli blockade.
The organization said in a statement on Wednesday that repair works would focus on eight sites that were badly damaged in the 2008 Israeli war on the Strip, adding that on completion 400000 Palestinian would benefit from it.
The TRC has been working for the past two years in Gaza in a bid to solve the water crisis and had recently finished modernizing water tanks in many areas in the Strip allowing 50000 citizens to enjoy anew clean running water.
http://fwd4.me/0B8Q 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
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IOF soldiers raze artesian water wells in central Jordan Valley
NABLUS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in tens of armored vehicles escorted huge military bulldozers into Al-Nasariya village in the central Jordan Valley on Thursday and demolished a number of artesian waters wells.
Eyewitnesses said that the IOF unit destroyed three water wells under gun threat and were planning to raze others before the distressed villagers.
They noted that the village was already suffering acute water shortage because of the Israeli occupation authority’s control of all water sources in the region.
They said that the village was in the area declared closed military zone by the IOF.
http://fwd4.me/0B8V 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
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Committee for Defense of Silwan Reveals Israeli Theft of Palestinian Water Reserves
JERUSALEM, September 25, 2011 (WAFA) – The committee for the defense of Silwan revealed on Sunday that Israeli forces are stealing Silwan’s water reserves, according to the committee’s statement.
The committee stated that the occupation authorities set huge water pumps and prepared enormous tanks to speed up the steeling from Ayoub’s well (Job’s well) in Silwan, a town south of Jerusalem.
It indicated that the occupation forces set huge pumps in Wadi al-Rababah area, near al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, to draw water from the historical Ayoub ‘s well, which lies to the south of al-Aqsa mosque, which is 130 meters deep and is considered the underground water reserves for the area.
The committee said that occupation forces started years ago transferring part of the ‘ targeted’ well’s water to the nearby settlements, adding that the occupation authorities also set huge tanks to collect water to finish off the entire underground water reserves.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=17513
(7:31) Wadi Fuqeen:Palestinian Village between Hope and Despair 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
“We are running out of time” — Water in the West Bank is scarce for Palestinians (The Palestine Monitor)
Summer means water shortages for Palestinians. With global warming and a population increase in the West Bank and Gaza, water scarcity becomes even more critical. Experts—both Palestinians and Israelis—address the water problem as urgent, but few can see solutions ahead.
In Nabi Salih, a Palestinian village just north of Ramallah, the time between May and November is a challenge. Villagers rely on Israeli-controlled pipelines and only have access to water once a week. Abdul Karim Tamimi, who has been living in Nabi Salih for 25 years, says that he is used to the water shortage. It’s been like this for the last six seasons.
“Because of the warm weather, we have a special need for water during the summer months. The water shortage makes everything difficult,” says Tamimi.
This year, midway through July, Israel cut off water supplies for 40 days. Nabi Salih families relied on water from local tankers and springs. Water cuts like this are not unusual, meaning villagers are frequently unable to purchase water.
Neighboring villages are also affected by the problem. Palestinian Hydrology Group PHG, a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah, has found the situation has only gotten worse in recent years. Dr. Abed al-Rahman, Director at PHG, notes that there have been an increasing number of complaints from private households and farmers all over the occupied territories. Water cuts are hazardous to Palestinians’ health and livelihoods, he notes.
“We are running out of time,” al-Rahman says, “People have to drink water.”
Climate change
Water is pumped from a natural spring near Nabi Salih.
Internal demographic growth and external climate change make the already limited resource of water even scarcer.
According to United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Gaza Strip and the West Bank experienced a growth in population from 2.9 million in 1997 to 4.3 million in 2011. The rapid demographic change compounded by the expected increase in temperatures due to global warming is likely to further aggravate water scarcity.
Al-Rahman worries about the consequences of this development.
“Demographics and warmer temperatures will have a crucial societal impact, also affecting the overall food situation. There will be less water for agriculture,” says al-Rahman.
Since 1967, Israel has maintained—in violation of international law—control over water resources in the occupied territories.
To adapt to the situation, many Palestinians use alternative methods to reduce water consumption. The reuse of “grey water,” from the kitchen and bath, is popular in Nabi Saleh and other villages in the occupied territories. Bath water can be used again on farmers’ crops, helping villagers to get the most out of what little water they have.
During summer months, when Israel closes the valves or the settlers manipulate the water pressure, Palestinians get frustrated. “In the critical months I spend 30% of my salary [on] water from tanks. [This] is very expensive and frustrating,” Tamimi says. “The only thing we can do is be patient.”
“Unequal water distribution” ?
Children stuggle to fill bottle
While the Israeli Water Authority controls access the resources, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) is only in charge of the its distribution in the occupied territories. According to the Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the Palestinians’ water rights in the West Bank, but these rights were never clearly defined and Israel maintains effective control.
Israel prevents the Palestinians from accessing water resources legally, technically and physically. Legally, the main consequence of the classification of water as Israeli public property requires that Palestinians apply for a permit in order to drill new wells or fix existing ones.
Israeli lawns flourish with unrestricted irrigation for Israeli citizens
In many cases, Palestinians are deprived of access to water resources by being deprived of access to their land in general. De facto expropriations are frequently carried out by establishing military areas on natural reserves, especially in the Jordan Valley.
Technically, Israel makes no effort to maintain the water system, nor do the Palestinian municipalities have the financial means to intervene. The price of water supplied by private tankers has increased in recent years.
Yousef Awayes, the General Director of the International Coordination Unit at the PWA, is eager to resume negotiations with Israel to resolve the “grossly unequal water distribution.”
“Palestinians are consumers”
Nabi Salih's Abdul Karim Tamimi stands in front of the Israeli settlement of Halamish, which enjoys regular water access
“How can we negotiate water, when we do not know the borders?” asks Shimon Tal, the Executive Director of Water Authority in Israel and President of the Israeli Water Association.
Tal encourages Palestinian and Israeli authorities to find a solution to the dwindling water supply by using processed seawater.
According to Tal, the PWA and the Water Authority in Israel can build and share regional water supply systems together with national resources. In three to four years, he says, they could double the potential of water resources, many of them from desert plants. This solution is expensive, but Tal sees it as the only possibility to resolve the situation.
For al-Rahman and Awayes, the problem still comes down to the fact that Israel has ultimate control over the water resources.
“Palestinians are consumers and Israel controls the water resources,” says Awayes.
Professor Hillel Shuval, one of Israel’s foremost experts in environmental science and policy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, finds the water situation disturbing. He also describes the political climate in Palestine and Israel as problematic.
“If both sides gave up principles, it might be possible to find temporary solutions until a final peace agreement can take place,” says Shuval. Israel, Shuval believes, can gain a lot by relinquishing its full control of water.
Israel should reallocate a portion of its shared water resources with the Palestinian Authority. Sharing water with Palestinians, Shuval believes, will ultimately benefit Israel by “stabilizing the region.” After all, Shuval considers, water is a “vital human need.”
Back in Nabi Salih, Tamimi waits for the situation to improve, sure of one thing. The way life is now, he says, is not sustainable.
The original article can be found here. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do not represent the policy of EWASH.
http://fwd4.me/0CHy - 26 sept 2011
New Israeli pumps aimed at stealing Silwan water supply
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A group in Jerusalem has accused the Israeli occupation authorities of using large pumps to steal the water supply from the historic Ayyoub well in East Jerusalem’s Arab Silwan district.
Located 450 meters south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the 130 meter deep well had supplied Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramallah, and Bethlehem with water, said Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the Silwan defense committee..
Before Israel, the UN Relief Works Agency installed pumps there in order to supply Palestinian communities in the occupied territories and Jordan.
Abu Diab said a few years ago the Israeli authorities began stealing part of the well’s water and transferring it to the Jewish settlements. A few days ago, those authorities installed large pumps and tanks in a step aimed at transferring the water to the western half of the city, he said.
Elsewhere, Israeli authorities flooded a large area of the historic Muslim Ma’manullah cemetery with threat of serious damage, sources familiar with the incident said Sunday.
Mustafa Abu Zahra, the chairman of a cemetery maintenance committee, said he saw large deposits of water in the western part of the cemetery caused by water pipes set up there.
The Muslim cemetery is the largest and most important in Jerusalem, with several of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions buried there. It is the site of many controversial construction projects that involved the removal of skeletons.
http://fwd4.me/0CS7 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
Maria 2 oct 2011
Economics of the Palestinian statehood-Remember Palestine
(24:40) Economics of the Palestinian statehood-Remember Palestine-10-01-2011
'Palestinians must hold referendum'
The Palestinians should hold a referendum to decide what they need to do to regain their occupied homeland, a political analyst tells Press TV.
“Now the Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli occupation, and there is no power on earth that can prevent the Palestinians from regaining their homeland, Palestine,” said Mohsen Saleh, Lebanese University professor, in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.
Saleh went on to say that there should be “no division inside for the Palestinians.”
“They should unite in order to resist. And they should put the Arabs and Muslims under their responsibility to support them by all means in order to resist,” Saleh added.
The Lebanese professor pointed out that if the Palestinians compromise with the occupation, then they would be giving something to their enemy, which is “not the right way.”
“Now it is the turn and roll of the Arabs and the Muslims, but not like what is happening with Qatar and Turkey as they are pressing Hamas in order to give up and acknowledge the Israeli existence in their homeland,” he said.
Saleh's remarks came on Saturday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he would try to win the recognition of his regime as a “Jewish state.”
More than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine as a sovereign state based on the pre-1967 borders.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202346.html 12 jan 2012, 13:25 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 14:23 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 14:23 , Respect -
Maria 6 oct 2011
Japan offers grant to 2 municipalities
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Japan and two municipalities in the occupied West Bank signed on Wednesday a grant worth $212,549 by which the Japanese government will fund two projects in education and water.
The official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa said the representative of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, Naofumi Hashimoto, initiated the project with the Ubeidiya and Aqqaba municipalities.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=426462