RAMALLAH — A Palestinian official Sunday said that his village is without water since thirty days due to Israeli restrictions. Fawwaz Al-Rashaydeh, the head of Arab Al-Rashaydeh village's council, said that the residents are “deprived of water since after the Israeli occupation forces constructed three pipelines for the nearby Jewish settlement of Ibei Hanahal.” Al-Rashaydeh said that “the pipelines were constructed for agricultural purposes after the occupiers confiscated hundreds of agricultural dunams in the area.” Arab Al-Rashaydeh, south of Bethlehem, is home to some 1,600 residents. The people of the village are primarily shepherds and farmers who rely on water system for their animals and crops. He added that “the water crisis badly affects the residents, their sheep and camels.” The official called on the Palestinian Authority “to intervene to prevent a catastrophe in the village.” The Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH), a coalition of almost 30 organizations working in the water and sanitation sector in the occupied Palestinian territories, said that the West Bank is facing a severe water crisis due to Israeli policies. According to EWASH, this year alone there is a shortage of 40 to 70 million cubic meters for Palestinian needs. EWASH said that “the chronic water shortage results in large part from Israel's discriminatory policy in distributing the joint water resources in the West Bank and the limits it places on the Palestinian Authority's ability to drill new wells.”
