Amnesty: Israel denies Palestinians access to water (1st Lead)

Oct 27, 2009, 9:10 GMT

London/Tel Aviv - Israel is denying Palestinians access to adequate water while settlers 'enjoy lush lawns and swimming pools,' a report issued by Amnesty International in London alleged Tuesday.

Israel rejected the report's findings, with Minister of Infrastructure Uzi Landau calling it 'distorted and superficial,' while the Israel Water Authority said it had not been contacted by any of Amnesty's researchers to comment on the findings, or present its own.

The report, entitled Troubled Waters, claims that Israel retains total control over shared water resources and uses over 80 per cent of water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

On average, Palestinian daily water consumption barely reached 70 litres per person a day, while Israeli daily consumption was more than 300 litres per day - four times as much.

In some rural communities Palestinians survived on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended by aid organizations for domestic use in emergency situations, the 112-page report said.

It said that between 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities had no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevented them from even collecting rainwater.

In contrast, Israeli settlers in the West Bank had 'intensive- irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools,' said Amnesty.

Numbering about 450,000, the settlers used as much or more water than the entire Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.

Israeli Infrastructure Minister Landau said in response that Israel adhered to all its water agreements, and supplied the Palestinians with more water than previously agreed on.

He claimed that the Palestinians would not build water purification plants.

The Water Authority also questioned some of the report's conclusions.

It said that while Israeli access to water before the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank, was about 500 cubic metres per person per year, it has now dropped to 149 cubic metres per person per year.

In contrast, the Authority said, Palestinian consumption has risen from 87 cubic metres per person per year to 105 cubic metres per person per year.