“The Palestinian people thirst for water justice.” So claims a recently issued statement by a fact-finding group that this month visited Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza to better understand the critical issues of water and sanitation in Palestine.
Comprised of ten members of the international reference group of the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN), a network of churches and Christian organizations promoting people’s access to water around the world, the group spent nearly ten days in the area, interacting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, non-governmental organizations, and church leaders.
The network is a global initiative of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The EWN programme executive Dinesh Suna said, “The trip was an eye-opener for me. Never had I seen this glaring a level of disparity over water.”
“The problem is not scarcity as such,” he said. “Though an arid area, Israel and Palestine both receive enough precipitation. Ramallah gets more rain per year than London! But an average Palestinian there gets only 70 litres water per day, while the average Londoner gets around 150 litres per day, and the average Israeli over 300 litres per day.”
