Israeli water company Mekorot has reduced the daily amount of water supply provided to the Palestinian landowners in the occupied West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) said Saturday, July 17, 2023.
PWA stated that Israeli Mekorot has reduced the water supply by 6,000 cups, which denies Palestinians of having sufficient access to water, especially during rising summer temperatures currently, describing the move as “racist.”
“There are no technical reasons behind this reduction,” it said.
“No faults were detected in the supplying source, but rather it [the move] comes as a discriminatory measure that adds to the racist policies practiced by the occupation authorities,” PWA continued.
The Israeli occupation controls over 80 percent of Palestinian water, which aggravate the Palestinians’ long suffering from insufficient water supplies and droughts by the Israeli occupation, especially farmers, whereas it facilitates the illegal Israeli settlers’ access to Palestinian water.
According to the Israeli NGO B’tselem, Israeli settlers consume on average 247 liters per person a day, which is three times more than Palestinian landowners, who consume an average of 82.4 liters a day.
Only 36 percent of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are daily supplied with running water, B’tselem said in its report last May.
The Israeli water company “Mekorot”, which in Hebrew means “headwaters” or “water sources”, was established by the Jewish Agency in 1937 in cooperation with the Histadrut, the General Organization of Workers.
In 1956, the Israeli occupation government became a partner in this company and took control of Palestinian water across historic Palestine.
In 1959, the company obtained a concession to explore and search for water and supply drinking water for homes and irrigation water for agricultural lands in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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