In summer, the demand for water in the occupied West Bank increases by about 30%. Yet this week—despite the necessity of water for combatting the coronavirus—Israel drastically reduced the amount allotted to the West Bank districts of Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin, and Nablus.
In previous summers, Nablus residents received running water on average once every five to eight days and at times once every ten to fourteen days.
Israel restricts the average Palestinian to 87 litres of water per day, far less than the WHO minimum of 100. Nablus residents must live on only 65 l/p/d. In some neighborhoods, and for people in the refugee camps, average consumption has been as low as 50 l/p/d.
Israel continues to destroy and confiscate existing water infrastructure, and limits Palestinian access to their local water sources such as fresh water springs, drilled wells, and rainwater cisterns.
This week, the Israeli army demolished an artesian water well and confiscated 25 water pipes, each 8 meters long, in the northern Jordan Valley.
In the same area, illegal Israeli settlers leveled Palestinians lands, connected a 4 km underground water line for their own use, and placed a water tank on Palestinians’ land.
Last year, in two weeks alone, Israel’s military destroyed water connections in the West Bank that had supplied running water to 18,000 people in two villages in Nablus.
