Please watch this 3-minute film by Al Haq called Water Apartheid and Corporate Complicity.
Palestinians in the West Bank rely on groundwater resources because there are no surface waters and Israel has denied access to their only river, the Jordan River.
But Israel prevents Palestinians in the West Bank from accessing their groundwater—through the demolitions of wells, cisterns, pipes, and other structures via its military forces, and by other illegal means, such as denying building permits. From January 1998 to April 2020, Israel issued nearly 20,000 demolition orders for Palestinian-owned structures in Area C of the West Bank, including those related to water located on private Palestinian land.
Palestinians in the West Bank connected to the water grid receive only 73 liters, and those not connected get only 20 liters—WHO’s minimum amount of water deemed necessary for basic needs is 100 liters/person/day,
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face a scarcity of useable and drinkable water. More than 97% of the water in the Gaza Strip is undrinkable. Only 4% of households in the Gaza Strip have access to water that is free of contamination.These appalling sanitary conditions are exacerbated during the COVID 19 pandemic. But even before then, waterborne disease was a major cause of poverty and death.
Israel restricts the importation of materials to (re-)build the Gaza Strip’s water infrastructure, which it bombed and destroyed.
See this excellent new report from Al-Haq called Corporate Liability: The Right to Water and the War Crime of Pillage.
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