Alternative Information Center - Water Issues in the Israeli Occupied Northern Jordan Valley of the Palestinian Territories

This portion of the Segregation Wall near the Palestinian village of al-Aqaba in the Israeli occupied northern Jordan Valley separates land from the farmers, and cuts off the village from easy access to closeby water supplies.

Unfortunately, this historical Navajo quote has not lost its significance in contemporary times, when one bears in mind water issues in Palestine. These days, Israel uses 85 percent of groundwater resources available in the West Bank, excluding Palestinians from their use. This confiscation and control over Palestinian water resources already started before 1967 and has continued to cause severe damage on different levels ever since:

I. On an individual level: Israel’s control and disproportionate allocation of water causes a lack of adequate drinking water, a basic human right. According to the Center for Economic and Social Rights, some 26 percent of West Bank households are left without any piped water at all. On top of that, irregular water supply and water distribution network losses constitute extra problems for satisfactory provision of drinking water.

II. On the community level: (community is defined here as the aggregation of individual households and local industrial components) Separation from water resources and destruction of water infrastructure by the Israeli military have deeply affected villages’ economic and agricultural structure.

III. On “national” political level: The unequal distribution of water is amongst the core issues complicating negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Together with the Right of Return, the prisoners issue and the status of Jerusalem, water negotiations have proven to be a serious stumbling block on the way towards a long term and equitable settlement.

This article aims at illustrating the profound impact of Israeli water policies on Palestinian communities. It tries to offer a perspective on how agriculture, local economy, politics and socio-cultural life are damaged in the northern Jordan Valley. The northern Jordan Valley is extremely important in this perspective not only for its significant contribution to the total Palestinian agriculture, but also for demographic reasons; there are 40.000 Palestinians living in the Valley.

Broadly speaking, the constraints on Palestinian agriculture take three different forms, namely the availability of land, availability of water and access to markets. Even though this article focuses on the availability of water, it is of great importance to keep the issues of land and markets in mind, since it is the interaction of these three factors that has caused Palestinian agriculture to drop significantly. According to UNCTAD, the percentage of agricultural contribution to the overall GDP in the West Bank fell from 37.4-53.5 percent to 18.5-25.4 percent between 1968/1970 and 1983/1985.

Land: Since 1967, the Israeli regime of occupation has confiscated a large amount of fertile agricultural land. UNCTAD findings show that the average of actual cultivated land in the West Bank has been reduced by 30 percent between 1965 and 1994. Another study (Agricultural Department of the West Bank) indicates a setback in agricultural land from 85,000 hectares in 1966 to some 46,000 in 1994. The construction of the Segregation Wall plays an important role in this regard, separating land from their farmers and occupying large slots of land. Unlike most foreigners are lead to believe, it is an illusion that the Wall is built on the 1967 border. The Segregation Wall is constructed so as to include as much (fertile) land as possible, and to exclude as many Palestinians as possible.

Export: In 1967, the West Bank exported 80 percent of the entire vegetable crop it produced and some 45 percent of total fruit production. Nowadays, export has become semi-impossible. The Israeli Authorities control not only export out of the West Bank, but also transport inside the West Bank. More than 600 Israeli military checkpoints and road blocks throughout the West Bank severely hinder the movement of agricultural products. It has happened on regular base that trucks were stopped for several hours for “interrogation,” causing the content of the truck, exposed to sun and high temperatures, to rot.

Water: With regards to Israeli water policy, it is of crucial importance to take the settlements into account. These concentrations of Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory are designed to “judaize Jewish Land.” Not only do these settlements affect ordinary Palestinian day-to-day life, by, amongst others, mental and physical harassment, they play a key role in understanding the depth of the water issues. In general, an Israeli has a total water consumption of some 1959 cubic meters per year compared to an average Palestinian use of only 238 cubic meters per year. The difference between Palestinians and Jewish settlers is even more striking: settlers use up some 600 liters of water each day whereas Palestinians do not even meet the minimum daily standard of 100 liters as defined by the World Health Organization.

The Jordan Valley is often referred to as the “Vegetable basket” of Palestine, a name well-earned since the Valley contribute over 43 percent to the total irrigated agriculture in the West Bank. Among the villages of the Valley, al-Aqaba is one of the most famous.

This village, surrounded by military training bases, has been under military occupation since 1967, causing the population to be set back from 1000 to 300 inhabitants today. Agriculture, of key importance to the villagers, is severely hindered by Israeli authorities and their water policies. In the entire village, there is no regular pipe network and every official request of the municipality to get permission for the construction of one, has been declined on several occasions. The only available water has to be purchased at Israeli military camps at very expensive prices.

Abu Saqir, Local Council Member of the Hudaidiyya village, states that all water has to be brought in by tanks from the ‘Ain el-Baida spring 45 km away. Transportation costs for one tank, that can only carry three cubic meters of water, are above 110 shekels (US$31.70), which mounts up the price of water in an extreme way. In comparison, the general cost of one cubic meter of water is four shekels (US$1.15) only.

Moreover, to get to the village, the water tanks are forced to use settlement roads on which they are subjected to Israeli police, often giving out fines. For instance, in August 2007, the Israeli police stopped four tractors for one month and forced each one to pay a 4,000 shekel (US$1,153) fine.

All these transport-related troubles could be overcome; there are water wells closer by, one of them only 200 meters away. Unfortunately, all of them are under Israeli control.

The contrast with the neighboring settlements could not possibly be any more striking. As Abu Saqir puts it: “There are a lot of agricultural settlements in this area, some of them very close to us, such as R'oi and Bqa'ot, and all the time, their water is running.”