Israel 'denying water' to Palestinians
Amnesty International report claims Israel denying water to Palestinians
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Tuesday, 27, Oct 2009 11:05
Israel is denying water to Palestinians by controlling shared water resources, an Amnesty International report has claimed today.
The organisation said Israeli settlers are "enjoying lush lawns and swimming pools" while Palestinians are without adequate water supplies.
Amnesty's report, Troubled Waters: Palestinians denied fair access to water, found Israel uses over 80 per cent of water from the Mountain Aquifer - the only source of water in the West Bank -, while restricting Palestinians to 20 per cent.
Amnesty International Israel and occupied Palestinian territories researcher Donatella Rovera said: "Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford.
"Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources."
The report also found that while an Israeli's daily consumption of water is on average more than 300 litres a day, for a Palestinian it is near 70 litres, reduced to 20 litres in some areas.
Amnesty International said: "Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater. In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools. Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the entire Palestinian population of some 2.3 million."
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC "the idea that we're taking water away from someone else is simply preposterous".
"They have received billions of dollars in international aid over the last decade and a half, why have they not invested that in their own water infrastructure?" he asked.