Reply #65: It doesn't say anything about Israel drilling sideways. Israel doesn't have to and never did have to

[Dick Dastardly]

even in pre-occupation

The aquifers are not fully located in the WB. The water in the aquifers that are reachable in the WB are of lower quality(too high in salinity to be usable) or unreachable in much of the WB and can only be tapped easily in Israel. Your source even states that


Fig. 3 shows a combination of best drilling conditions
(better in the West Bank, because aquifer is not deeply
buried) and best pumping conditions (better in the
coastal plain, because here the aquifers are strongly
confined): The resulting most favorable well
locations lie mainly in Israel and only in a narrow strip
along the green line inside the West Bank.


Israel's water supply always came from these Aquifers, both during mandate times and when the land was held by Jordan. Israel used to use 95% of this water in the 50s but uses only about 80% as it has allocated more to the Palestinians and Jordanians under Oslo and the Israel Jordan peace treaty. Besides a general drought that has effected everyone, many water problems the Palestinians have stem from themselves such as over pumping, contamination, poor conservation and general mismanagement.

Israel has also increased the supply greatly by using new drilling techniques to reach the water in the mountain aquifer before it becomes unreachable or unusable. Most of this aquifer flows naturally into Israeli territory and the new drilling techniques to recover water that was previously unrecoverable or unusable that has been developed at a big expense and fully implemented over the past 60 years solely by Israel. Israel has historical riparian rights on the principle of prior use.
There has always been water shortages in the area but if it weren't for Israels use of new technology and techniques to get to water it would be much worse. The total water supply and per-capita use in the WB and even Gaza has increased greatly since the occupation.



The proportion of households in the occupied territories with access to safe water rose from 15% in 1970 to 90% in 1991 according to The World Bank linked below. Israel has offered to connect Palestinian villages to the Israels water system and around 250 have done so but many more refuse to be connected to it
Developing the Occupied Territories : an investment in peace
http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?menuPK=51521804&pagePK=51351007&piPK=64675967&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=64154159&searchMenuPK=51521783&theSitePK=40941&entityID=000009265_3970311123238&searchMenuPK=51521783&theSitePK=40941





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Israel obtains roughly 40 percent of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Coastal Aquifer, both of which are entirely within Israel's pre-1967 borders. Another 30 percent comes from the Western and Northeastern Aquifers of the Mountain Aquifer system. These two aquifers straddle the Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank, but most of the stored water is under pre-1967 Israel, making it easily accessible only in Israel.

Agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs included discussion of water resources and responsibilities for them. Prior to the Oslo agreements, when Israel had full control of the West Bank, Israel's policy was to ensure a safe supply of drinking water for all inhabitants, although some Palestinian Arab communities refused to be hooked up to the Israeli-built system for political reasons. Annex III, Article 40 of the Oslo II agreement stipulates an increase of water for Palestinian use and sets forth the details of measures each side is to take to achieve this increased water supply. Two-thirds of the increase was to be developed by the Palestinians, one-third by Israel.

After Oslo II, Israel moved expeditiously to fulfill its side of the water development, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) has severely neglected its obligations. In some locations, nothing was done. In other cases, Israel produced wells but the PA did not build the pipes to carry the water to Palestinian Arab consumers. The PA has not repaired antiquated and corroded pipes which cause significant water losses. In line with other corruption rampant in PA-controlled areas, there is considerable theft of water. Water trucks tap the resource illegally from water mains, then sell the water to thirsty customers.

In areas where the PA controls water for Jewish communities, in the vicinity of Hebron for example, there are frequent supply disruptions and shortages. Some of the water that is supplied is undrinkable. Wealthy Palestinians in Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah have private swimming pools and ample water supply, a fact that always escapes the notice of pro-Palestinian reporters.

In the 1950s Israel used 95 percent of the Western Aquifer's water, and 82 percent of the Northeastern Aquifer's water. By 1999 Israel's share of those aquifers declined to 83 percent and 80 percent respectively. That is, under Israeli administration the Palestinian share of the aquifers increased. Another 40 MCM (million cubic meters) of water per year from sources within Israel is piped over the Green Line for Palestinian use and additional water is sent to Jordan. Ramallah, for example, receives over 5 MCM annually from Israeli sources. The Palestinians are using Israeli water, not the other way around.

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_water.php








Karen Hudes, PhD, JD, Senior Council for the World Bank, in a Sep. 1999 essay titled "Shared Water Resources in the Jordan River Basin," posted in the International Law Journal Across Borders, wrote:

The most important source of water in the Jordan River basin is groundwater. The groundwater reservoir beneath the West Bank is the largest water resource in the region, supplying 600 mcm of water per year. Israel uses 495 mcm/yr. and the Palestinians use 105 mcm/yr. Prior to 1967, Israel had used 455 mcm of the groundwater. After 1967, the Israelis developed a new well system on the upper slopes of the West Bank, which makes it possible to retrieve more groundwater before it becomes saline. This aquifer is the source of 35% of Israel's total annual consumption. For the Palestinians in the West Bank, the aquifer provides 90% of their annual consumption: the rest of the water (15 mcm/yr.) comes from the National Water Carrier, local cisterns and surface waters.
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/viewanswers.asp?questionID=539



Lecture Presented by Prof. Emeritus Dan Zaslavsky at Bar-Ilan University on the occasion of the inauguration of an Interdisciplinary Project entitled “Efficient Use of Limited Water Resources: Making Israel a Model State” in the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, sponsored by Soda-Club Ltd., Israel.
http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/water/zaslavsky.html


Which treaties/agreements address the issue of water?
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/viewanswers.asp?questionID=540