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128
Disputes over water rights and allocation set back
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the West Bank.
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o those who live in lush,
green lands, water may
seem a rather colorless
subject. But in much of the
Middle East, this life-giving liq-
uid is fast becoming a commod-
ity more coveted than oil.
And it is a major reason why
the signing of the Israeli-Pales-
tinian Interim Agreement,
which was originally scheduled
for July 1 and postponed to July
25, has again been delayed.
The heart of the disagreement
centers on the issues of rights
and allocation of shared water
resources. Israelis and Pales-
tinians draw much of their wa-
ter from three subterranean
reservoirs in the West Bank: the
western, northeastern and east-
ern aquifers.
The Palestinians claim since
most of the water in these
aquifers originates as rain
falling on the mountainous West
Bank, they have the right to use
— or at least control the use of
—it all.
But Nature runs against
them on this point. The water in
the western aquifer flows down-
ward and westward over the
Green Line, where it feeds Is-
rael's coastal aquifer. Mean-
while, the water in the
northeastern aquifer flows
downward and northward into
the Jezreel and Harod valleys —
Israel's "bread basket."
What's more, due to the needs
of its larger population and agri-
cultural sector, Israel has always
used a far greater proportion of
the joint supply. Some 90 per-
cent of the western aquifer may
originate as rain falling on the
West Bank, but Israel draws out
over 90 percent of its water.
This lopsided ratio alters rad-
ically for the other two smaller
aquifers, which are used almost
equally by the two populations.
Still, almost a third of Israel's
drinking water comes from
sources originating in the West
Bank, and losing it all would
prove catastrophic.
The issue of water rights
might not be such a sore point
for Palestinians if the allocation
of water had been more equi-
table for the past 28 years. Since
1967, Israel has enjoyed exclu-
sive control of the water in the
occupied territories, and the
Palestinians charge that it has
been parching them.
Nader Al Khatib, a Palestin-
ian water engineer, calculates
that the quota granted to Israeli
settlers in the West Bank is over
three times the quota for Pales-
tinians — 375 vs. 116 cubic me-
ters per person.
"In many [Jewish] settle-
ments, you will find lush lawns
and many swimming pools
which do not exist in any Pales-
tinian towns or cities," he adds
bitterly.
Mr. Khatib places the total
quantity of water available to
Palestinians at about 20 percent
of the West Bank's ground wa-
ter reserves. The remaining 80
percent of ground water reserves
have been tapped directly or in-
directly by Israelis, he said.
"In many [Jewish]
settlements, you will
find lush lawns and
many swimming
pools which do not
exist in any
Palestinian towns
or cities."
— Nader Al Khatib
In the current negotiations,
the Israelis were initially un-
willing to yield on either the is-
sue of rights or allocation. They
voice their fears that the Pales-
tinian Authority will prove un-
able to control the wildcat
drilling of wells in the West
Bank (as it has failed to do in
Gaza) and the pollution of
shared resources. Palestinians
retort that Israel can hardly af-
ford to complain of pollution,
since it is the worst offender of
all. Some 88 percent of
Jerusalem's raw sewage, for ex-
ample, flows into open wadis nd
seeps into the water table.
Outside experts add because
the mountain aquifers lie so far
below the surface, only the
Palestinian Authority itself will
be in a position to drill new
wells.
To break the deadlock, Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
suggested to Palestine Libera-
tion Organization Chairman
Yasser Arafat at last week's
summit in Alexandria that the
negotiation of water rights be
postponed until the talks on the
final settlement.
In the meanwhile, Israel will
increase the allocation to Pales-
tinians from the eastern aquifer