Don't kid yourself imagining that, if only Hamas was out of the way, the Israelis would leave the West Bank and Gaza and a lasting peace would break out.
There are a few obstacles in the way, the greatest of them would be Israeli access to groundwater from the West Bank and the consequent deprivation of Palestinian access to that same essential resource. There are two key reservoirs, the biggest being the Yarkon-Taninim Stream aquifer. Now here's the problem. As far back as 1989 the Israelis drew 320-million cubic metres of water while allowing the Palestinians 20-million cubic metres annually.
A 2008 Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry report suggests that settlement over the past two decades has increased the draw rate to 600-million cubic metres annually. The problem posed is that the maximum recharge rate of this aquifer is believed to be 360-million cubic metres a year. Worse yet, global warming is having a significant effect on ground water in the Middle East and the region is steadily drying out. If the recharge rate is just 60% of the draw rate it represents an unsustainable overdraw of the resource.
So settlement is consuming far more water than the region's system can produce. As though that wasn't bad enough, the existing groundwater is being ruined by pollution.
Some 2.8 million people reside in the Judea and Samaria region, including both Israelis and Palestinians. Due to conflicts and economic constraints, the effluents of more than 2 million people are inadequately treated, and only some of the cities and villages are connected to a sewage system. As a result, effluents have penetrated into the subsoil and polluted groundwater and springs.
In recognition of the problem, the environmental unit of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Judea and Samaria regional office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection selected the main streams suffering from pollution and initiated long term monitoring in order to evaluate the extent of the pollution and to quantify and evaluate the effluents flowing into these streams.
According to the report, Palestinian towns and cities produce an estimated 56 million cubic meters of sewage per year, 94 percent of which is disposed in cesspits or discharged without treatment into streams. Israeli sources produce an estimated 17.5 million cubic meters per year, 31.5% of which is disposed in cesspits or discharged without treatment into streams.
http://www.sviva.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDisp
What=Object&enDispWho=News^l4345&enZone=e_news
Of course when the Israeli military occupation restricts Palestinian water use to drinking water only, it's a bit hard to imagine where they're supposed to find the water necessary for sewage treatment.
By what right is Israel draining the shared resource and by what right is the occupying military administration depriving Palestinians of access to this essential resource? The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has an interesting analysis of the situation:
1. Prohibition on altering legislation
Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits an occupying state from changing the legislation in effect prior to occupation. The military orders that Israel issued regarding the water resources and the supply of water in the Occupied Territories significantly changed the legal and institutional structure of the water sector. The water resources in the Occupied Territories were integrated into the legal and bureaucratic system of Israel, severely limiting the ability of Palestinians to develop those resources.
2. Illegal utilization of water resources
Article 55 of the Hague Regulations limits the right of occupying states to utilize the water sources of occupied territory. The use is limited to military needs and may not exceed past use. Use of groundwater of the Occupied Territories in the settlements does not meet these criteria and therefore breaches article 55.
3. Discrimination between Palestinians and Israeli Settlers
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits an occupying state from discriminating between residents of occupied territory. The quantity of water supplied to the settlements is vastly larger than that which is supplied to the Palestinians. Similarly, the regularity of supply is much greater in the settlements. This discrimination is especially blatant during the summer months when the supply to Palestinians in some areas of the West Bank is reduced in order to meet the increased demand for water in the settlements receiving their water from the same pipelines.
The discrimination in utilization of the resources shared by Israel and the Palestinian Authority is clearly seen in the figures on water consumption by the two populations. Per capita water consumption in the West Bank for domestic, urban, and industrial use is only 22 cubic meters a year, which translates into 60 liters per person per day.
There is a huge gap between Israeli and Palestinian consumption. The average Israeli consumes for domestic and urban use approximately 104 cubic meters a year, or 280 liters per person per day. In other words, per capita use in Israel is four and a half times higher than in the Occupied Territories . To make a more precise comparison, by also taking into account industrial water consumption in Israel, per capita use per year reaches 120 cubic meters - 330 liters per person a day - or five and a half times Palestinian per capita consumption.
The World Health Organization and the United States Agency for International Development recommend 100 liters of water per person per day as the minimum quantity for basic consumption. This amount includes, in addition to domestic use, consumption in hospitals, schools, businesses, and other public institutions. Palestinian daily consumption is 40 percent less than the recommended quantity.
http://www.btselem.org/english/Water/Shared_Sources.asp
Even without the problem of inadequate access to minimal quantities of freshwater by the Palestinians, it's pretty obvious that the illegal Israeli settlements present an unsustainable draw on the groundwater resources of the region. Put another way, if the Palestinians were allowed the same per capita draw on the aquifers, no one would have any water in very short order.
When you look at the history of this problem going back twenty years you'll see that Israel has never been willing to entertain an equitable sharing of the West Bank ground water and it's more than hard to imagine that changing anytime soon. That, in my view, makes a compelling argument for the international community to impose a peace settlement on the Palestinians and the Israelis which incorporates a total removal of all Israeli settlements from the Occupied Territories and a return to the precise 1967 borders.
What other solution could there be to this water crisis? How long can we allow the Palestinians to be treated inhumanely, forced to accept a water ration 40% below the World Health Organization's minimum basic consumption threshhold?
This problem is going to worsen in the coming years and there isn't going to be any peace while it remains unresolved. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.
There are a few obstacles in the way, the greatest of them would be Israeli access to groundwater from the West Bank and the consequent deprivation of Palestinian access to that same essential resource. There are two key reservoirs, the biggest being the Yarkon-Taninim Stream aquifer. Now here's the problem. As far back as 1989 the Israelis drew 320-million cubic metres of water while allowing the Palestinians 20-million cubic metres annually.
A 2008 Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry report suggests that settlement over the past two decades has increased the draw rate to 600-million cubic metres annually. The problem posed is that the maximum recharge rate of this aquifer is believed to be 360-million cubic metres a year. Worse yet, global warming is having a significant effect on ground water in the Middle East and the region is steadily drying out. If the recharge rate is just 60% of the draw rate it represents an unsustainable overdraw of the resource.
So settlement is consuming far more water than the region's system can produce. As though that wasn't bad enough, the existing groundwater is being ruined by pollution.
Some 2.8 million people reside in the Judea and Samaria region, including both Israelis and Palestinians. Due to conflicts and economic constraints, the effluents of more than 2 million people are inadequately treated, and only some of the cities and villages are connected to a sewage system. As a result, effluents have penetrated into the subsoil and polluted groundwater and springs.
In recognition of the problem, the environmental unit of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Judea and Samaria regional office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection selected the main streams suffering from pollution and initiated long term monitoring in order to evaluate the extent of the pollution and to quantify and evaluate the effluents flowing into these streams.
According to the report, Palestinian towns and cities produce an estimated 56 million cubic meters of sewage per year, 94 percent of which is disposed in cesspits or discharged without treatment into streams. Israeli sources produce an estimated 17.5 million cubic meters per year, 31.5% of which is disposed in cesspits or discharged without treatment into streams.
http://www.sviva.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDisp
What=Object&enDispWho=News^l4345&enZone=e_news
Of course when the Israeli military occupation restricts Palestinian water use to drinking water only, it's a bit hard to imagine where they're supposed to find the water necessary for sewage treatment.
By what right is Israel draining the shared resource and by what right is the occupying military administration depriving Palestinians of access to this essential resource? The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has an interesting analysis of the situation:
1. Prohibition on altering legislation
Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations prohibits an occupying state from changing the legislation in effect prior to occupation. The military orders that Israel issued regarding the water resources and the supply of water in the Occupied Territories significantly changed the legal and institutional structure of the water sector. The water resources in the Occupied Territories were integrated into the legal and bureaucratic system of Israel, severely limiting the ability of Palestinians to develop those resources.
2. Illegal utilization of water resources
Article 55 of the Hague Regulations limits the right of occupying states to utilize the water sources of occupied territory. The use is limited to military needs and may not exceed past use. Use of groundwater of the Occupied Territories in the settlements does not meet these criteria and therefore breaches article 55.
3. Discrimination between Palestinians and Israeli Settlers
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits an occupying state from discriminating between residents of occupied territory. The quantity of water supplied to the settlements is vastly larger than that which is supplied to the Palestinians. Similarly, the regularity of supply is much greater in the settlements. This discrimination is especially blatant during the summer months when the supply to Palestinians in some areas of the West Bank is reduced in order to meet the increased demand for water in the settlements receiving their water from the same pipelines.
The discrimination in utilization of the resources shared by Israel and the Palestinian Authority is clearly seen in the figures on water consumption by the two populations. Per capita water consumption in the West Bank for domestic, urban, and industrial use is only 22 cubic meters a year, which translates into 60 liters per person per day.
There is a huge gap between Israeli and Palestinian consumption. The average Israeli consumes for domestic and urban use approximately 104 cubic meters a year, or 280 liters per person per day. In other words, per capita use in Israel is four and a half times higher than in the Occupied Territories . To make a more precise comparison, by also taking into account industrial water consumption in Israel, per capita use per year reaches 120 cubic meters - 330 liters per person a day - or five and a half times Palestinian per capita consumption.
The World Health Organization and the United States Agency for International Development recommend 100 liters of water per person per day as the minimum quantity for basic consumption. This amount includes, in addition to domestic use, consumption in hospitals, schools, businesses, and other public institutions. Palestinian daily consumption is 40 percent less than the recommended quantity.
http://www.btselem.org/english/Water/Shared_Sources.asp
Even without the problem of inadequate access to minimal quantities of freshwater by the Palestinians, it's pretty obvious that the illegal Israeli settlements present an unsustainable draw on the groundwater resources of the region. Put another way, if the Palestinians were allowed the same per capita draw on the aquifers, no one would have any water in very short order.
When you look at the history of this problem going back twenty years you'll see that Israel has never been willing to entertain an equitable sharing of the West Bank ground water and it's more than hard to imagine that changing anytime soon. That, in my view, makes a compelling argument for the international community to impose a peace settlement on the Palestinians and the Israelis which incorporates a total removal of all Israeli settlements from the Occupied Territories and a return to the precise 1967 borders.
What other solution could there be to this water crisis? How long can we allow the Palestinians to be treated inhumanely, forced to accept a water ration 40% below the World Health Organization's minimum basic consumption threshhold?
This problem is going to worsen in the coming years and there isn't going to be any peace while it remains unresolved. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.
To get an idea of how a lot of Israelis view the Palestinian water issue, click on the following link:
2 comments:
Excellent post. I wonder if Gwynne Dyer will cover this in his upcoming series on Climate Wars (to be broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas. When I heard him interviewed, he recognized Darfur as being a climate change aggression.
Here is the link to Dyer's site:
http://www.gwynnedyer.com/
I didn't mention the groundwater problems faced by Gazans. Israel admits it messed up when it allowed overdevelopment outside Gaza. That development drew too much groundwater which caused Gaza's water to salinate. Since then Israel has tried to remedy the problem by supplying its developments with water brought in by pipeline.
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