ABSTRACT
Abstract Water in the West Bank in Palestine is a key issue due to its limited availability resulting from arid climate conditions as well as the Israeli control over the water resources available in the area. Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, Israel severely restricts the amount of water for the Palestinians. For example, the Palestinians have no access to the water from the River Jordan. As a consequence, there is unequal distribution of the water resources in the area between Palestinians and Israelis (50 m3/cap/year versus 300 m3/cap/year). The Israelis are using more than 80% of the groundwater available in the West Bank and 60% of the water flow from River Jordan. However, the current water use in the area is unsustainable because aquifers are being overexploited while deterioration of the quality of the water resources will further reduce the available quantity of good quality water. The water sector in Palestine is facing problems of water scarcity, unequal distribution of water and inadequate use of the scarce water resources and sanitation systems, in addition to the population growth and economic development which is expected to increase the pressure on the scarce resource. Therefore, there is a need for a completely new approach towards water management in the area, whereby return flows are viewed as a resource and the focus is on the conservation-oriented approach of ‘use, treat and reuse’. After considering two initial scenarios, the “do-nothing” and the “water stress”, this study develops a strategy for sustainable management of water in the West Bank that can be used to guide the development of the Palestinian water sector. Analyses of the existing situation of the water sector as well as the expected availability and demand projections for the year 2025 were conducted. It was concluded that striving for equitable water rights to the existing water resources in the area is essential to satisfy the basic water needs for all Palestinians. However, until then sustainability can gradually be achieved by the staged introduction of a combination of water management alternatives in the domestic, agricultural and industrial sectors. Key words: Palestine, strategy, sustainability, water management, West Bank. 6.1 Introduction The demand for high quality water is increasing all over the world because of growing populations and increasing demands from the industrial and agricultural sector. With finite resources, countries are, therefore, increasingly forced to device plans for the efficient utilization of the available water. The West Bank in Palestine is, in that sense, no exception. However, the arid climate of the West Bank region as well as the Israeli control over the water available for Palestinians living in the West Bank emphasize even more the need to be careful with available water. On the basis of 1988-2003 numbers, the total average water use in the West Bank is 123 million m3/year. With a population 2.5 million in 2005, this amounted to 50 m3/cap.year. Since 2004, the water availability has remained constant while the population has increased. The Oslo II Agreement of 1995, the result of extensive
negotiations between Palestine and Israel focusing on developing a state of peaceful coexistence, include a paragraph stating that the West Bank will be provided with an additional 75 million m3/year of groundwater, to be provided from “new resources” (Oslo II Agreement, 1995). Knowing the fact that there are negotiations going on between Israelis and Palestinians regarding the implementation of Oslo II promise, although very slow, we can assume that the theoretical water availability for Palestinians in the West Bank is 198 million m3/year equal to 80 m3/cap/year. The latter is expected to drop to 45 m3/cap/year by the year 2025 because of population growth and industrial development (Nazer et al., 2008). These are still very low figures by any standards, including the definition of water scarcity of less than 1,000 m3/cap/year proposed by Falkenmark (1986). It can, therefore, be stated that the West Bank is in a situation of extreme water scarcity. The scarce water resources are facing threats of water pollution due to the disposal of untreated wastewater. This pollutes water resources and further decreases water quality and, therefore, availability (Nazer et al., 2008). In most cases wastewater is discharged directly into wadis without any type of treatment increasing the environmental problems (MOPIC, 1998 b; ADA and ADC, 2007). Depletion of water resources and deterioration of water quality are key environmental challenges that require urgent action. Although the water resources are shared between Israel and Palestine, there is unequal allocation of the water. The per capita water use, for all purposes (domestic, industrial and agricultural), of the Israelis in 2000 is 324 m3/cap/year (adapted from Adin et al., 2004) while the Palestinians water use is 50 m3/cap/year (PWA, 2004). A shift in thinking is needed, in terms of both water and sanitation systems, to solve the problem of water scarcity and the problem of environmental deterioration. For water systems, the attitude of dealing with water as a resource with no value needs to change. Water is to be looked at as a scarce and valuable good for which there often is no substitute. Water should be conserved whenever possible and water conservation methods must be introduced at the domestic, industrial and agricultural levels. Also a new sanitation approach is needed, one focusing on the use of the least amount of water while ensuring the improvement of public and environmental health. This is possible through a sanitation system that treats the waste on site or even derives benefits from what is considered waste by reusing it or recovering some of its components. In order to improve the water situation in the West Bank, new ways should be travelled which change the current trend of once-through water use and identify the path towards water sustainability in the West Bank in Palestine. In 2000 the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) formulated its National Water Plan that outlines the direction in which the Palestinian water sector is proposed to develop until the year 2020. The main goal of the National Water Plan is to achieve the equitable and sustainable management of water resources in Palestine where everyone has access to 150 liters of water/day to satisfy his/her domestic needs and where enough water is
available for the development in agriculture and industry. However, the National Water Plan relies on achieving the Palestinians' water rights, through negotiations with Israel, from the existing groundwater aquifers and surface water from the River Jordan. As the political situation is complicated and the permanent status negotiations have not been accomplished and it may take ages to achieve the water rights through negotiations, the promise of the National Water Plan is unrealistic. The objective of this paper is to develop a strategy that allows the Palestinians living in the West Bank to access an adequate volume of water per day of sufficient quality for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes and that leads, after a transition period, to a situation of water sustainability by 2025. This paper consists of four sections. The first provides a general description of the situation as well as the objectives of the study. Section 2 presents a background that describes the study area, the water sector in the West Bank in terms of available resources, water use, Palestinian water rights, an analysis of the National Water Plan, a prognosis of the future development of the water sector, the existing institutional and organizational structure of the water sector and a SWOT analysis of the water sector in the West Bank. Section 3 proposes a strategy to make water a sustainable resource by 2025. The strategy includes technical, institutional and financial aspects as well as the needed regulations and awareness. Finally, section 4 presents the main conclusions. 6.2 Background 6.2.1 Study area Historical Palestine is the area situated in the western part of Asia between the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Jordan River and the Dead Sea in the east. It is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the east, the Mediterranean Sea in the west and Egypt and the Gulf of Aqaba in the south (Figure 6.1 A). Historical Palestine comprises the West Bank and Gaza Strip plus what is now called Israel (Figure 6.1A). This study focuses on the West Bank (Figure 6.1). The West Bank is situated on the central highlands of Palestine; the area is bordered by the River Jordan and the Dead Sea in the east and the 1948 cease-fire line in the north, west and south. The West Bank is occupied by Israelis since 1967. In spite of the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993 as a result of the peace process, the Palestinians are still struggling to declare their independent state on part of the Palestinian land, West Bank and Gaza Strip. The total area of the West Bank is 5,800 km2 including the area of the Dead Sea that falls within the West Bank boundaries (Figure 6.1). The results of the 2007 census show that in 2007 the total Palestinian population living in the West Bank was 2.4 million (PCBS, 2008). The population growth predictions on the basis of the 2007 census are not available yet. However, the population predictions on the basis of the 1997 census indicated that the projected population of the West Bank in 2025 is 4.4 million (PCBS, 1999).
