Israel-Occupied Territories

Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water

Amnesty International has released a report revealing discriminatory Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are the root cause of the striking disparity in access to water between Palestinians and Israelis.

 The report found that Israel uses more than 80% of the water from the Mountain Aquifer - the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT - allowing Palestinians’ access to a mere 20%. At the same time, Israel prevents Palestinians from developing an effective water infrastructure.

As a result, Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per capita (well below the World Health Organisation’s recommended minimum of 100 litres). Israel consumes four times as much, with 300 litres per day, per capita.

In some Palestinian villages – where people survive on barely 20 litres of water per day, farmers have been unable to grow even small amounts of food for their personal consumption and have been forced to reduce the size of their herds. While they struggle to find enough water for their basic needs, the Israeli army often destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their water tankers.

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