Lack of access to adequate, safe, and clean water has been a longstanding problem for the
Palestinian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), though exacerbated in
recent years by the impact of drought-induced water scarcity, the problem arises principally
because of Israeli water policies and practices which discriminate against the Palestinian
population of the OPT. This discrimination has resulted in widespread violations of the right
to an adequate standard of living, which includes the human rights to water, to adequate
food and housing, and the right to work and to health of the Palestinian population.
The inequality in access to water between Israelis and Palestinians is striking. Palestinian
consumption in the OPT is about 70 litres a day per person – well below the 100 litres per
capita daily recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) – whereas Israeli daily
per capita consumption, at about 300 litres, is about four times as much. In some rural
communities Palestinians survive on far less than even the average 70 litres, in some cases
barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended by the WHO for emergency
situations response.
Access to water resources by Palestinians in the OPT is controlled by Israel and the amount
of water available to Palestinians is restricted to a level which does not meet their needs and
does not constitute a fair and equitable share of the shared water resources. Israel uses more
than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the only source of underground
water in the OPT, as well as all of the surface water available from the Jordan River of which
Palestinians are denied any share.
Amnesty report “TROUBLED WATERS –PALESTINIANS DENIED FAIR ACCESS TO WATER”.
1.2– Importance Of The Project Study:
This project is about water distribution network for Zawata village, Located to the west of the city of Nablus.
It´s a fact that, water is an essential part of our daily life, as it is used in about all activities humans do, such as drinking, general health or any other aspect.
The sources of water in Palestine are limited, so I chose to carry out this project because I am aware of this problem, due to the increase in demand rates, with the limited quantities which is becoming less and less every day for many reasons, these reasons include, the amounts of water is descending due to climate change, and the occupation authorities are putting limits on our share of water, as they don’t permit to dig new wells in general, as part of the water war against Palestinians.
To add to these problems, there is lack of awareness in the society which doesn’t consume water effectively, the wear in the water networks, and other illegal losses.
1.3- Methodology:
In order to analyze and redesign Zawata water network, the following tasks were conducted:
1. The selection of the study area(Zawata) Near Nablus
2. Collecting the information needed to this study area, such as contour maps, sources of water existing water network plan and its characteristics, socio-economic study.
3. A questionnaire to be distributed regarding the general consumption and the facts that affects it.
4. Building a model for the existing network, analyzing it, this will be done using EPANET program.