- 4 jan 2011
90% of Gaza's water is polluted
Gaza Strip is suffering from the pollution of its ground-water reservoir as a result of the untreated sewage water, agricultural chemicals, and dangerous wastes
An official report issued by the Palestinian Water Authority in the Gaza Strip has stated that 90% of water in the Strip is polluted posing a serious threat to the health of Palestinian citizens in the area.
The report added that water pollution has compelled Palestinian citizens in Gaza to use desalination and filtration devices in their own homes, particularly given the high concentrations of chloride in private wells, "which signifies a threat to the quality of groundwater and its effect on human health in the Gaza Strip."
The Water Authority also stated that the Gaza Strip is suffering from the pollution of its ground-water reservoir as a result of the untreated sewage water, agricultural chemicals, and dangerous wastes that were discarded by Israeli settlements before their departure from Gaza. The ground-water reservoir is considered to be the only source of water supply for Gaza with more than 170 cubic meters of ground-water being withdrawn every year. However, given the low levels of rainfall, they are not being naturally replenished.
The report warned that the limitation on water sources in the Strip, as well as the lack of capability to control these sources, due to the fact that they were seized by the Israeli Occupation, increases the severity of the water crisis in Gaza.
http://bit.ly/i9tzZn ...Read more 12 jan 2012, 13:20 , Respect -
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Israel using Gaza as waste dump
A cesspool near the beach on the outskirts of Gaza City
While dumping parts of its wastes in the coastal sliver and hogging its water supplies, Israel has made it extremely difficult for Gaza to bring in waste disposal equipments.
Tel Aviv has been imposing a bottleneck on Gaza's import route since mid-June 2007, thus almost preventing the transfer of equipment and materials needed for the water and wastewater-treatment systems into the enclave, a Press TV correspondent reported.
In 1967, when Tel Aviv occupied Gaza, the forces built three sewage treatment facilities there, which failed to treat most of the inflowing waste. The system was poorly modified during the 1980s.
Gaza, home to nearly 1.5-million Palestinians, is currently almost four times more populous than the 80s but still dependent on the system.
The already dysfunctional facilities were further damaged during Israel's frequent incursions over the past four years.
The damage done to the wastewater-treatment facilities in the northern Gaza City during a December 2008-January 2009 war by Israel made some raw sewage find its way into the ground water sources, our reporter noted. The offensives also killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and inflicted a damage of above USD 1.6 billion on the strip's economy.
Tel Aviv, meanwhile, continues to aggravate the problem by partially disposing of its wastewater in the Gaza valley. Israel's all-out land, aerial and naval blockade, meanwhile, blocks the entrance of food, medical fuel and electricity supplies to the coastal sliver.
Gaza's Coastal Aquifer yields more than 500 million cubic meters of water of which a little over a tenth is allocated to Gaza residents, and the rest is taken by Israel.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159352.html...Read more 12 jan 2012, 13:20 , Respect -
Gaza water quality still cause for concern
(2:45) Gaza Water Quality
Ashraf Shannon, Press TV, Gaza
About 95 percent of ground water in the Gaza Strip is contaminated with different pollutants posing a serious threat to the health of residents of the seaside territory.
And Israel continues to aggravate the problem by dumping part of its waste water in the Gaza valley.
A report issued by the Palestinian Water Authority along with the UN Environment Program and Gaza's Coastal Municipality Water Utility has shed light on the gravity of the crisis.
Israel has made it extremely difficult for equipment and materials needed for the water and wastewater-treatment systems to enter the Gaza Strip since it tightened its siege of the territory in 2007.
The damage done to the wastewater-treatment facilities in Gaza City during the 22-day war made some raw sewage find its way into the ground water sources.
Human rights groups say that Israel is infringing on the rights of Gazans by refusing to allow badly needed equipment for the water sector.
Most Gazans buy filtered water from water distributors because nitrate levels in water pumped from wells are six times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.
High level of nitrates in drinking water can cause anemia among children and blue infants syndrome among infants, which in some cases may lead to choking and death.
Gaza's Coastal Aquifer yields more than 500 million cubic meters of water , of which a little over a tenth is allocated to Gaza residents , and the rest is taken by Israel.
Also according to the UN Environmental Program years of drought and the digging of hundreds of illegal, unregulated wells have made it impossible for ground water sources to replenish themselves.
It has warned that damage to the underground aquifer, due to the blockade, war and years of overuse and underinvestment, could take centuries to reverse if it is not immediately halted.
Experts warn that the lack of equipment to treat wastewater and the damage being inflicted on Gaza water resources by Israel will increase the severity of the water crisis in the strip.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159132.html - 21 jan 2011
Germany welcomes Israeli approval of Gaza sewage works
Berlin - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Friday welcomed an Israeli decision to allow the German-funded upgrading of a sewage works in Gaza.
The development of the sewage treatment plant, to which Germany is donating 20 million euros (27 million dollars) was a 'tangible element to improve the life of people in the Gaza Strip,' a ministry spokesman said.
The plant currently receives sewage from households totalling around 600,000 people, though it can process only around half that. The rest is pumped into the Mediterranean or runs into the groundwater.
After its upgrading, it should be able to treat all of the sewage.
Gaza is expected to come up in German-Israeli talks due to take place in January 31.
However, due to a strike at the Israeli Foreign Ministry it is not yet certain that the talks, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to attend, will be able to go ahead.
http://bit.ly/eKEV1k 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 23 jan 2011
Water authority discloses Israeli crime on Gaza's water supply
GAZA, (PIC)-- Gaza's water authority has uncovered a crime Israel has been committing against the Gaza Strip's water supply.
Over the last three decades, Mekerot, an Israeli water company, has been supplying the strip with no more than 5 million cubic meters of water annually, actually an integral part of the water Israel drains from the occupied region's water supply.
The Cairo Agreements, undersigned by both Israel and the then Palestinian Authority, stipulate Israel is obligated to double the amount of fresh water supposed to be supplied to the Gaza Strip (10m cu. meters).
The Gaza municipality operates most of its water wells on electricity, which is currently in limited supply. Power outages have thus caused hours of water shortages. Authorities have blamed Israel's blockade for the shortage of fuel necessary to operate power plants.
Electricity is also used to operate the strip's needed water treatment plants.
The water authority called on the international community to pressure Israel to allow water treatment equipment into the region so it can be recycled to mitigate depletion in the aquifer and save it from deteriorating.
http://bit.ly/fc4TfK 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 1 febr 2011
PA: Israeli destruction of water resources must stop
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israel has "intensified its campaign of targeting Palestinian water cisterns for destruction," Minister of the Palestinian Water Authority Shaddad Attili said Tuesday, condemning the acts.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee's 'Declaration for Keeping the Water Infrastructure out of the Cycle of Violence,' Attili accused Israel of using water to target Palestinian communities in vulnerable areas and force their departure.
"Cisterns were vital to the very survival of Palestinian communities with little access to water," the official said, adding that "the Government of Israel uses water to target some of the most vulnerable and marginalized Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank."
Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in "Area C" are not connected to a water network. For most, water cisterns serve as the only available source of water alongside water delivered in tanks, which remains prohibitively expensive.
Israeli officials have prevented the rehabilitation of hundreds of cisterns, Attili said, and "has recently intensified its campaign of destroying these same cisterns."
According to the official, the rehabilitation of water cisterns does not require prior approval from the Joint Water Committee or a construction permit from Israel's Civil Administration, the body in charge of civil affairs in areas under total Israeli military and civil control in the West Bank.
The destruction of Palestinian water-related infrastructure is in clear violation of the 2001 Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee declaration," Attili said, calling for interested parties to help protect the Palestinian civilians, who he said "inevitably pay the highest price for [the] destruction."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=355866
12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 2 febr 2011
UN joins PA slamming Israeli water infrastructure destruction
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- It is difficult to understand the reasoning behind the destruction of basic rain water collection systems," the UNs Humanitarian Coordinator in Jerusalem Maxwell Gaylard said Tuesday after PA officials condemned what ministers called an "escalation."
Minister of the Palestinian Water Authority Shaddad Attili, speaking on the 10th anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee's 'Declaration for Keeping the Water Infrastructure out of the Cycle of Violence,' accused Israel of using water to target Palestinian communities in vulnerable areas and force their departure.
Gaylard warned that the continued destruction of water infrastructure, particularly for Bedouin populations and farmers, would endanger their way of life. "Such deliberate demolitions in occupied territory are also in contravention of Israels obligations under international law," his statement said.
In 2010, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded the demolition of 27 water cisterns and other rain water collection systems in the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356297 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 15 febr 2011
UN condemns Israeli destruction of Palestinian water systems
Water a scarce resource in Palestine
After documenting the destruction of 27 water cisterns, and diversion of 15 mountain springs by Israeli forces over the last year, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Territories for the United Nations, issued a statement condemning the attacks on water.
Israeli occupation forces and settlements control 75% of the water in the West Bank, and many Israeli officials, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have stated on multiple occasions that part of the reason for expanding settlements on hilltops in the West Bank is to control the dwindling water supply there, and divert it to the people of Israel.
In addition, according to Israeli law, Palestinians are allowed to dig wells just ten meters deep, while Israelis can dig wells up to 80 meters deep. The differential water allowances, and the control of the water sources by Israel, has resulted in widespread water shortages among Palestinians in the West Bank, particularly in summer months, when Israeli authorities cut off the water supply for weeks on end. Even though the average Palestinian uses just one-tenth the amount of water of the average Israeli, due to the cut-off of water, Palestinians often find themselves with insufficient amounts to farm or even to drink and bathe.
Maxwell Gayland, the UN Official responsible for monitoring the humanitarian condition in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said this week, "It is difficult to understand the reasoning behind the destruction of basic rain water collection systems, some of them very old, which serve marginalized rural and herder Palestinian communities where water is already scarce and where drought is an ever-present threat."
The destruction of the rainwater cisterns, and diversions of the springs, violates a 2001 agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority governing the control of water in the Occupied Territories, which states, “The Israeli and Palestinian sides view the water and waste water sphere as a most important matter and strongly oppose any damage to water and wastewater infrastructure.”
Palestinians living in 'Area C' of the West Bank, under full Israeli control, are required to obtain a permit to construct a rainwater collection cistern, or any structure at all, and Israeli authorities stopped issuing these permits completely in 2000. Claiming that the cisterns are constructed 'without a permit', the Israeli forces move in on a regular basis to dismantle and destroy them.
The head of the Palestinian Water Authority countered the claim that water cisterns require permits, stating, “In addition to preventing the rehabilitation of Palestinian water cisterns, particularly in Area C, the Government of Israel has recently intensified its campaign of destroying these same cisterns. The rehabilitation of water cisterns does not require prior approval from the Joint Water Committee (JWC), nor does it require a construction permit from the Israeli Civil Administration."
There are also a number of cases documented of Israeli soldiers invading a certain area firing directly at water tanks and cisterns to cause them to leak.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60580 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 22 febr 2011
Israel to raze more wells in W. Bank as part of water war on Palestinians
JENIN, (PIC)-- Civil servants from Israels water authority under heavy military protection stormed at noon Monday Kafr Dan village, west of Jenin, to carry out a survey of the artesian wells as a prelude to demolishing them later.
Local sources said Israeli soldiers aboard military vehicles escorted a car belonging to the water authority to protect surveyors as they were registering and taking pictures of about 70 wells.
They added that the soldiers told farmers in the village that after this process, their wells would be flattened at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Different West Bank areas have witnessed lately the demolition of many wells in order to deprive Palestinians of their water rights and provide Israeli settlements with more water amounts.
According to studies, Israel plunders Palestinian water resources through its control over 85 percent of the existing water in the aquifer in the West Bank, and not only that, but it also controls the amounts of water supplied to the Palestinian territories and sell them at exorbitant prices.
Israel, the most racist country in the world, uses water as a weapon against the rightful owners of land and water resources.
In a separate incident, the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) notified five Palestinian farmers from Beit Ula village, west of Al-Khalil, of its intentions to demolish their structures and buildings used for agricultural purposes.
The military order received by the farmers claimed that these buildings would be demolished because they were unlicensed and near Israels segregation wall.
http://bit.ly/fGDdr4 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 23 febr 2011
IOF soldiers destroy water wells
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed tents and water wells in Khirbat Susiya south of Al-Khalil on Tuesday night, local sources said.
They told the PIC that bulldozers escorted by IOF armored vehicles leveled eight tents and two water wells owned by four citizens in the area.
The IOF command announced the area a closed military zone, detained citizens, and confiscated their mobiles, which were used to document the demolition.
IOF troops accompanied the Israeli water authority officials while searching eastern suburbs of Jenin city along with Deir Ghazalla and Deir Abu Dha`if villages east of the city on Tuesday evening looking for water wells.
Eyewitnesses reported that the soldiers were looking for "unlicensed" water wells to destroy them, adding that the soldiers said the step was part of a new campaign to demolish wells in the area.
http://bit.ly/i3AHSk 12 jan 2012, 13:21 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:22 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:22 , Respect -
Maria 22 mrt 2011
The Water Crisis
Israel's citizens, like those of developed countries worldwide, benefit year-round from unlimited running water to meet their household needs. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from a severe water shortage throughout the summer.
This shortage of water affects every function that water plays in human life: drinking, bathing, cleaning, and watering of crops and animals.
The shortage drastically affects the residents' health and economic well-being. The shortage of drinking water can cause dehydration and the inability to maintain proper hygiene and thus lead to illness. Failure to water crops and animals affects the livelihood of the residents.
The water shortage violates the basic human rights of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories such as the right to health, to adequate housing, to equality, and to benefit from their natural resources. This harm results from Israeli policy, in effect since 1967, based on an unfair division of resources shared by Israel and the Palestinians.
http://www.btselem.org/english/water/index.asp
Palestinian Water Authority: Water Crisis Expected Over Summer 2011
Fadi Ya'coub PNN/Exclusive - Palestinian Water Authority chief Shadad al-Atili announced on Tuesday, International Water Day, that the West Bank would face a continuing water crisis over the summer.
Al-Atili told PNN that the water crisis would not end soon, on account of Israeli control of water projects and lack of Palestinian permits for projects implemented in the West Bank and Gaza. He said the deteriorating situation would be unprecedented in the Gaza Strip.
We are battling with the Israeli occupation to recover our water rights, said al-Atili, and we are battling internally over the promised repairs to the water schedule. Because of the scarcity, we are trying to manage what's available, but there are no laws governing the sector. We started a comprehensive reform program, which was ratified by the government.
Al-Atili said the Water Authority had taken numerous big steps in managing the coming crisis, and would show a film entitled Where the Water Goes at the International Red Crescent center in al-Bireh, near Ramallah.
According to al-Atili, the water crisis would deepen over the summer because of a shortage of winter rains'in the north, Palestinians received about 80% of the annual need, while in the south, only 50% need was met.
In spite of the added burden, al-Atili said the Water Authority was planning huge projects.
However, he said, we cannot solve the crisis by rehabilitating the infrastructure. We will still lack the water that we want to put in storage.
International Water Day, declared by the United Nations, is being celebrated this year with the motto, Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Water Challenge.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9746&Itemid=74 12 jan 2012, 13:22 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012, 13:22 , Respect -
Maria 27 mrt 2011
West Bank Town Gets First Water Network and Reservoir
Hebron ANERA To PNN - It is well known that water covers more than two-thirds of the earth's surface. Because of this, many people assume that water is available to everyone. However, this was not the case for the residents of Arrana. The villagers had no water network and no access to a regular supply of potable water. So, when the village council approached American Near East Refugee Aid ANERA- requesting help, there was no need for persuasion to intervene and provide a solution.
With 2,500 residents, Arrana, located just north of Jenin, is home to many farmers who grow wheat and vegetables for a living. The farmers draw water from wells using tankers. This water is suitable for irrigation, but nowhere near safe enough for human consumption.
Our only option was to use water drawn from random wells, and because we didn't know the source of the water, we couldn't guarantee that it wasn't contaminated by sewage or exposed to other unsanitary sources, confesses Mr. Ghazi Abu Hananeh, head of Arrana village council. We were all unhappy with the situation, especially since many residents were constantly complaining of illnesses. Local doctors said that their symptoms were related to water-borne diseases.
Mrs. Amina Mohammed (Um Abdallah), mother of six, tells us how inconvenient and hard life was before ANERA intervened. They were plagued by the constant fear that water would run out. Arrana's families had only one option for getting water. They had to rent a tanker, travel to a well and draw the water, then travel back to their home and fill the water tank there. The local school also needed large amounts of water which had to be collected every three days. Not only was this process a burden on the villagers daily lives, but the high cost of water was also a huge financial drain. Um Abdallah explains, We had to rent a tanker and buy water every two weeks. It used to cost us nearly 300 shekels a month, and it was too much.
ANERA used $750,000 of USAID funding under the Emergency Water Sanitation and Other Infrastructure (EWAS II) Program to construct an elevated water reservoir, install a main line, a complete water distribution network, booster pumps and a chlorination unit to disinfect the water. The village council also collected $140,000 from local households and businesses to install house connections to the water network.
Mr. Ghazi says some families were no longer able to afford water. Something had to be done. We needed help and so we contacted ANERA and, thank God, with USAID funding, they responded quickly.
Now we can clean our home and ourselves as we please without having to worry about water shortages and cuts. We are also fortunate to be able to water our plants more often. The financial burden of buying water has also been reduced, with a cubic meter of water going from 12-15 shekels down to 4 shekels. Um Abdallah's family now pays only 50 shekels for their monthly water bill.
However, one lesson Um Abdallah says her family will never forget from their previous difficult lifestyle is to appreciate every drop of water. Even though we always have access to water now, I still teach my children to conserve. For example, we recycle dirty water from washing dishes and use it to water our plants. I think it's very important to never waste such a glorious gift from God.
http://bit.ly/ejjtUE