The Alliance's Weekly Fact:
In April 2017, 40 Israeli soldiers raided the Palestinian West Bank village Bardala, bulldozed its water outlets, destroyed pipelines to farms, and confiscated 168 metres of pipes that belonged to farmers and the village.
A month later, Israeli forces opened fire at the village's peaceful Right to Water march of 500 people, injuring five youth and detaining one youth for 48 hours.
Bardala depends on agriculture. In 1964, its wells provided 200 cubic metres (52,834 gallons) of spring water/hour. The village built an 67-metre-deep well that provided 300 cubic metres (79,251 gallons) of spring water/hour.
After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, Israel and its water company, Mekorot, built several 300-metre-deep wells on Bardala's lands, 200 metres from the village's original well.
In 1974 Israel and Mekorot closed the Palestinian wells and demanded Bardala residents pay to receive 240 cubic metres of water from their own springs.
In 2006, Mekorot further reduced the supply to 60 cubic metres of water. This has had a disastrous effect on crops, livestock, and residents, whose population since 1964 has increased from 500 to 5000 people.
Sources for fact: StoptheWall.org, May 2017, StoptheWall.org, April 2017
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Nidal Al-Azraq, the Executive Director, of 1for3.