Reply #62: Sure, just like the settlements are?

[Violet_Crumble]

Here's some things that I would commend to yr attention:

Yr claim that ground water is not really owned by anyone is complete rubbish:

Where groundwater is concerned the major issues that need to be covered are (Caponera,1992):

• its legal status, in other words its ownership,
  
• the protection against depletion, or the control of extraction and use,
  
• and finally the protection against pollution.
  

Public ownership or a State controlled regime of water resources in general, and groundwaterin particular, gives the State authorities, or the government a large extent to regulate water use and allocation. On the contrary, in a private ownership regime, the government has a limitedextent in regulating groundwater extraction, and ultimately resource allocation.

http://www.ipcri.org/watconf/papers/raya.pdf

And this paper points out that the problem isn't so much a shortage of water but of inequitable distribution...

In reality, the water crisis is not chiefly one of insufficient supply, but of uneven and unequitable distribution.

Furthermore, Palestinians are prevented from fully utilizing the West Bank's underground water resources. Permission for well-drilling must be obtained from the military authorities; permits have been granted for only 23 wells since 1967, only three of these being for agricultural use (The Water Commission 1993). Rigorous water quotas are imposed on Palestinians, supply is often restricted leaving communities without water for considerable periods, and excess pumping is punished by heavy fines.

In addition, Palestinians are forced to pay extortionate rates for their water supply. Whereas settlers pay $0.40 for domestic consumption and a highly subsidized rate of $0.16 for agricultural use, Palestinians pay a standard rate of $1.20 for their piped water (Zarour and Isaac 1991). And 26% of West Bank households have no connection to piped water (Isaac et al 1994). Estimates vary as to what proportion of the West Bank's aquifers are exploited by Israelis, as Table er that was still not being exploited in 1967". This argument is, to say the least, rather spurious. The claim is invalidated by the illegality of the occupation. And it is simply false to say that "Israel has honored prior use rights of Palestinians": the military authorities have expropriated wells belonging to absentee owners, as well as those within the boundaries of confiscated Palestinian land. The sometimes-invoked argument that Israel merely inherited water resources that had been under British Mandate control, meanwhile, is simply untrue. Palestinians, as the indigenous inhabitants of the region, are the party with historical prior use rights.


Israel is also keen to emphasize the economic and social damage it would suffer if its water allocation were reduced, a claim that invokes factor above. The size of Israel's population (factor ) is often cited as a corollary to this point. The common implication is that the populations of Israel's co-riparians have only minimal economic and social needs. Meir Ben-Meir states most generously that "Israel will not irrigate cotton and let Palestinian children die from thirst" (quoted in Stutz 1994): implicit in this statement is the assumption that Palestinians only have personal, minimal water needs. On the contrary, Palestinians need water to build industry and agriculture, to build a modern Palestine that is worth building.

http://www.arij.org/pub/corissues/

More here:

According to recommended standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID), a minimum of 100 liters a day per capita are needed for balanced and healthy domestic consumption in rural households. In contrast, B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, documents that Israeli per capita consumption of water already reaches 350 l/day, about five-times Palestinian consumption. Per capita consumption of water in Israeli settlements, most of which are strategically located directly above main water extraction sources, can reach even higher levels, estimated at “seven-fold” the Palestinian consumption rate. In contrast, Palestinian consumption rates per capita vary between 35-80 l/c/d , well below WHO and USAID recommendations, and in some communities, water consumption can dip to as low as 7 l/c/d under certain conditions.

http://www.fmep.org/analysis/articles/water_policy_maher.html

Violet...