Ramallah: Nearly 3,500 Palestinian residents of Duma village in the Jordan Valley in the northern West Bank are on the verge of a severe water crisis, local media reported.
Community leaders have revealed that a Palestinian village surrounded by three Israeli settlements and an IDF station struggle to meet their basic needs and get enough drinking water to support their livestock. Many of them cannot afford the $100 to purchase a water tank.
Suleiman Dawabsh, head of the Douma village council, told Arab News that local residents only received 1,280 cups of water per week and that four nearby Bedouin communities also depend on Duma for their water supply.
“This is called a dry village because we only get a small amount of water and the annual precipitation is less than 420 mm,” he said.
Dawabsheh claimed that the Israeli settlers prevented them from rehabilitating four springs in the village that could have helped alleviate the water scarcity.
As per media reports, Palestinian residents said, the current situation would not improve until early November and the next battle between the Palestinians and the Israelis will be over water as well as on land.
On July 1, dozens of Palestinian youths blocked the southern entrance to Bethlehem in protest against the city’s water shortage.
Since 1967, more than 700,000 Israelis have moved into settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal according to international law and an obstacle to a two-state solution to the conflict. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of an independent state.
