Amnesty International has accused in its recent 112-page report that Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water. It further states that Israeli water restrictions discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has termed the report flawed and has said that the Palestinians get more water than was agreed under the 1990s peace deal.

However, the fact is that on average Palestinian daily water consumption reaches 70 litres a day, compared with 300 litres for the Israelis. Does it means that in the 1990s peace deal, Palestinians were given the right to have even less than 70 litres a day?

The report also criticised the Oslo Accords, which the Palestinians agreed to in 1993. It said that under them, the Palestinians gained the responsibility for managing an “insufficient” water supply and maintaining “long neglected” water infrastructure.

Also, the deal left the Palestinians paying Israel for half of the domestic water used in the West Bank, despite the fact it is extracted from the shared aquifer.

Amnesty International has described a series of Israeli measures it says are discriminating against Palestinians.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said “the idea that we’re taking water away from someone else is simply preposterous”. He argued that Israeli fresh water use per capita had gone down since 1967 due to efficiency and new technologies, while the Palestinians’ use had increased and more than a third of their water was wasted.

It is good to know that Israel is using advanced technologies to reduce wastage of water and thus reducing the per capita water usage. Now if Palestinians are getting more than what was agree in the peace agreement, then it would have been better that Mr. Regev also let the world know how much water Palestinians are allowed to receive under that agreement.

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