1. Source: PWA archive, Jericho
Water Allocation Under the Socio-Economic
Criteria Between the Cities and villages in the
West Bank, Palestine
Introduction
Contextual Background and Current Situation
The water sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is currently going through a crucial period; the existing situation is set
in the context of unbalanced opportunities. Since 1967, Palestinians have lost their share from and access to the Jordan
River which is the most important surface water resource in the region, in addition to most of the groundwater that is
considered as the main source of water supplied annually with insufficient quantities that is less than half of the basic needs.
The full control of the Israelis over water resources and infrastructure development has resulted in obvious poor capacity
building for practitioners working in this field, as well as poor economic growth accompanied with increased poverty. A living
proof for this dilemma is the Palestinians’ actual water consumption rate (82l/c/d) that lies below the minimum World Health
Organization’s (WHO)’s standards (100 l/c/d). It is worth mentioning that in rural communities which are not connected to a
water distribution network, Palestinians survive on far less that 70 l/c/d, and in some cases barely 15 liters per day.
Hani A. Shraideh, Palestinian Water Authority
Study Area Water Resources
Water Distribution
Conclusion
ReferencesAcknowledgmentContact Information
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has a land
area of 5,640 km2 and 220 km2 water, the northwest
quarter of the Dead Sea. It has an estimated population
of 2,622,544 (June 2012). More than 80 percent, about
2,000,000, are Palestinian Arabs, approximately 500,000
are Israelis settlers living in the West Bank, including
about 192,000 in East Jerusalem, in Israeli settlements.
The international community considers Israeli settlements
in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, illegal under
international law. The terrain is mostly rugged dissected
upland, some vegetation in west, but somewhat barren in
the east. The elevation span between the shoreline of the
Dead Sea at -408 m to the highest point at Mount Nabi
Yunis , at 1,030 m above sea level. The area of West
Bank is landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for
Israel's coastal aquifers. In the central figure shows the
rainfall distribution allover the West Bank, which is clearly
high in the Northern west and low at the Southern east.
The overall natural water resources for Palestinians in the
West Bank mostly stretch out in the Mountain Aquifer
(containing –based on the Israeli practices- three shared
aquifers: the Eastern, the Western and the North-Eastern
aquifers). In 2010, the abstraction of the Mountain Aquifer
did not exceed 98 MCM: with 29 MCM from the North-
Eastern Aquifer, 25 MCM from the Western Aquifer and
44 MCM from the Eastern Aquifer, Which is less than
15% of the “estimated potential” of those three aquifers.
In order to overcome the water shortages, purchased
amounts from the Israeli national water company
“Mekorot” are needed, The annual quantities provided
from both resources in 2010 are demonstrated in Table
1.1. Local resources are managed by village councils,
municipalities, water service providers and the WBWD,
where PWA follows up the whole process. Springs
production formed 27% of the local this source of water
has two main uses, domestic and agricultural.
Social and economic development in Palestine is directly
affected by the negative impacts of the OSLO II
agreement consequences. This affected the
enhancement and management of the infrastructure
serving water and sanitation services. PWA in
cooperation with international institutions, donors and
Ministry of Finance provided the funds, plans, and labor
force to implement the needed water projects. These
continuous efforts are desperately needed to serve a total
population of 2275982 residents (excluding 237,301
residents living in the parts of Jerusalem that was
annexed by Israel in 1967), distributed over 490
communities in the West Bank, of which 435 of them are
currently served with a water network. The total served
population in the West Bank (2,194,944 capita) is more
than 96%. This population is distributed over different
types of localities: urban areas, rural areas and camps.
November
2012
Water allocation in the West Bank is mainly based on the
available water resources. Economic and social aspects
affecting but not controlling water distribution processes.
The discussion here for the criteria and the basis that
influence the allocation of water between the
communities and the different activities in the West Bank,
which may vary between the communities through cities,
towns, villages, and camps, and between the activities
through domestic, agricultural, industry, tourism and
recreation, aquaculture, and livestock. It is shown that
many non-technical circumstances control the allocation
process, starting with Israeli occupation and the political
situation, limited accessibility to the water resources, lack
of funding to support the infrastructure projects, social
and cultural differences between the communities. We
conclude that the socio-economic criterion is present but
not the major effect in the water allocation, since other
overwhelming factors control the process.
Hani A. Shraideh
E-mail: h.shraideh@hotmail.com
Mobile: 00970-595-9595-11
The author wishes to thank the Palestinian Water Authority
and the Department of Data Bank to the valuable Information
and all colleagues for their assistance and contributions. And
to thank SMART project for the financial support.
[1] Water Supply Report, PWA 2012. [2] Environmental & Natural
Resource Economics, Tom Tietenberg Emeritus, Colby College Lynne
Lewis Bates College. [3] ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS and Natural
Resource Management, David A. Anderson Centre College