The Palestinian Water Authority announced yesterday that the reduction from the main water source at Deir Sha’ar, which supplies these governorates, has reached approximately 35 per cent.
The Water Authority also clarified that Mekorot completely halted water pumping for several hours, negatively impacting the southern region generally and Hebron governorate and its southern areas in particular. This reduction has exacerbated the crisis for many communities, making it difficult to provide them with the water quotas designated to them.
Rights groups have long accused Israel of imposing “water apartheid” upon Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). This “constitutes a systematic attack on the Palestinian people’s right to water and sanitation, that actively endangers the health of Palestinians and holds the Palestinian economy captive to corporations who exploit this market for commercial profit,” Al-Haq said in a 2022 report.
It highlighted how a Palestinian living in the OPT must obtain permission from Israel, the occupying power, to drill a new water well or repair an old one. Permissions which are largely denied. However illegal Israeli settlers “face no such restrictions, and enjoy an abundance of water, well-irrigated farmlands, and access to swimming pools.”
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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240606-israel-reduces-water-supply-to-bethlehem-hebron/