Conservation efforts pay off: Water consumption down 20% per person
Ynet, October 19, 2009
By Zvi Lavie
The consumption of water per capita dropped 20% since the beginning of the year, according to statements made by Israel Water Authority Director Uri Shani to the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee.
Conservation came as a result of a conservation campaign and the imposed drought tax. Shani added that if there is a lot of rainfall in the winter, the will consider cancelling the drought tax, but noted that such a decision will not be made before February.
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Amnesty International: Israel denying Palestinians' water rights
News Agency: Ma’an News Network, October 27, 2009
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – Israel is denying Palestinians the right to sufficient water through discriminatory policies, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released on Tuesday.
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s researcher on Israel and the Palestinian territories in a statement.
“In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse,” she added.
Amnesty said Israel uses more than 80% of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and Palestinian territory. Israel also takes for itself all the water available from the Jordan River, according to the report.
While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 liters a day per person, Amnesty said, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 liters per day, four times as much.
In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 liters per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations.
Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater.
“In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools,” Amnesty said in a statement announcing the release of the report.
“Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million,” the statement continues.
Meanwhile, Amnesty notes that the Gaza Strip’s only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Despite this Israel does not allow Palestinians to transfer water to Gaza from the West Bank’s Mountain Aquifer.
The report also notes how Israel’s restrictions on the import of construction materials o Gaza meant that water infrastructure there has fallen into disrepair, a situation Amnesty says has reached a “crisis point.”
“Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians’ access to water have prevented the development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denying hundreds of thousands of Palestinians the right to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economic development,” said Amnesty’s Donatella Rovera in the statement.
“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford,” added Rovera.
“Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.”
Mark Regev, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, dismissed the report as "preposterous."
"Israel supplied Palestinians 20.8 million cubic liters above and beyond what it is obliged to do under the water agreement," Regev told the Reuters news agency.
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Marchers highlight urgency of action on climate change
Jordan Times, October 25, 2009
AMMAN - More than 200 environmental activists marched along Rainbow Street on Friday, calling for rescuing the earth, preserving the environment and curbing carbon dioxide emissions.
Dubbed "350 Wake Up Call", the march was organised by the Jordan Environment Society (JES) as part of an International Day of Climate Action, marking 50 days until world leaders meet in Copenhagen to thrash out a new climate change treaty.
"Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis - to create a new sense of urgency and possibility for our planet," the JES said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.
"Our focus is on the number 350 - as in parts per million (ppm), the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number - it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet," the society noted.
Citizens, scientists and world leaders in 181 countries were expected to take to nearby streets, mountains, parks and reefs yesterday to demand strong action on climate change, in what was expected be the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history, according to 350.org, which coordinated the events.
According to a 350.org press release, 350ppm originally came from a NASA research team headed by American climate scientist James Hansen, which surveyed both real-time climate observations and emerging paleo-climatic data in January 2008.
Their peer-reviewed article concluded that above 350ppm of carbon dioxide, the earth’s atmosphere couldn’t support “a planet similar to the one on which civilisation developed and to which life on earth is adapted,” the statement said.
Climate change is a concept referring to the variation in the earth's global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over timescales ranging from decades to millions of years.
The region, due to its arid climate, is one of the areas most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Arab states face several threats due to increased drought and desertification, scarcity of water resources, increased salinity of groundwater and the spread of pest epidemics and diseases caused by the phenomenon, according to previous declarations by the Arab Environment Ministers Council.
So far, climate change has caused a 30 per cent reduction in the Kingdom's surface water resources, as well as a decrease in the volume of rainfall and agricultural production, both of which the country and the Arab world heavily rely on.
If climate change continues at its current pace, Jordan is expected to witness a 1-2°C increase in temperatures by 2030-2050, diminished aquifers and oases, reduced green cover and the transformation of semi-arid lands, some 80 per cent of the country's total area, into arid deserts, according to environment experts.
The Environment Ministry recently announced that a team of Arab experts will be formed to document the impact of climate change on the Arab region in order to unify Arab states' stance on the phenomenon.
The group will be tasked with compiling a report on the effects of climate change on the Arab region, which is highly vulnerable to the phenomenon due to its arid climate, prior to the December 7-18 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
The conference is expected to yield a climate change deal building upon the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide that is set to expire in 2012.
At Friday's march, held under the patronage of Sharifa Nofa Bint Nasser, CDs featuring environmental documentaries and flyers were distributed.
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Israel negotiating importing water from Turkey
Ynet, October 19, 2009
By Yael Darel
Despite recent tensions between countries, Ynet learns Foreign Ministry holding talks with Turkish companies in bid to solve water crisis
Israel has begun examining the possibility of importing water from Turkey, despite recent tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara, according to a memo obtained by Ynet.
A Foreign Ministry official confirmed the report, saying that "the Water Authority has issued an appeal for purchasing water, and Turkish bodies have responded positively and talks are being held between relevant elements in both countries."
The talks have begun despite the recent crisis over the Goldstone Report, the Turkish decision to exclude Israel from a joint air force drill, and a Turkish TV series showing Israeli soldiers deliberately killing Palestinian children.
The issue of importing water from Turkey has been on the agenda for several years now. Turkey has large water serves flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, while Israel suffers from a serious water shortage.
In 2002, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government signed an agreement to import water from Turkey, but the matter was later taken off the table, mainly due to economic considerations.
A Water Authority official said in response, "As part of emergency measures, the Water Authority is also examining the issue of importing water, and additional elements may become involved."
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UNICEF to install desalinization stations in Gaza
News Agency: Ma’an News Network, October 21, 2009
Gaza – Ma’an – The UN children’s agency UNICEF says it plans to begin installing two desalinization stations in Rafah and Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Saji Mughanni, of the UNICEF information office, said in a statement, that the equipment for the two installations was shipped to Gaza last Thursday through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The equipment will be installed on two wells with a total capacity of 50 cubic meters of drinkable fresh water per hour.
He added that about 40,000 people in Gaza will receive water from these stations which are expected to start functioning in two months.
According to Mughanni, 60% of Gaza Strip’s population has suffered a shortage drinkable water for a long period of time. He said about 10,000 Gaza residents are not connected to any water network at all.
UNICEF says it plans to install more wells, rehabilitate water and sewage networks, and install more desalinization plants.
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MKs want winter halt to drought tax
Ha'aretz, October 22, 2009
By Zafrir Rinat
The Knesset Finance Committee is pressuring the Water Authority to stop charging drought tax for the winter, Haaretz has learned.
The authority is interested in keeping the tax, as it fears reinstalling it come summer would be too difficult, and meanwhile, all the water saved last year will be spent.
A senior source in the authority told Haaretz that the committee's suggestion to suspend the water tax from December till March was fraught with difficulties. "What is the message we're trying to send here? That wasting water is fine?," said the source. "Beyond that, we would find it very difficult to renew the tax once we stopped charging it."
The Water Authority believes that if current water-saving measures are maintained, water use can be cut down even further - from 89 cubic meters per person in 2009 to 87 cubic meters in 2010. Canceling the tax, it says, will cause consumption to leap to about 99 cubic meters per person.
The authority's chief, Prof. Uri Shani, testified yesterday before a government panel on how the water market is administered. Asked whether he could justify spending NIS 23 million on buying water-savers for every home, Shani said: "Water-savers go on operating even when the water tax is no longer there, and they alone can cut consumption by 10 percent."
Shani also spoke about the "black line" for the principal water reservoirs - Lake Kinneret and the underground aquifers.
He said the black line was intended to mark the level beyond which pumping water would be prohibited, but another dry winter would force pumping even beyond that point.
Meanwhile, Mekorot Water Company published new data on the state of the Kinneret, which said the lake should remain some 37 cm. above the black line (-214cm). The company said that one of the reasons for this was its policy of tapping instead into Galilee underground aquifers, but that such drilling depletes the country's water reserves, which should be spared if the drought years continue.
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