Israel and PA agree new water deal

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has agreed a deal to purchase 33 million cubic metres of water from Israel as part of the Red Sea-Dead Sea $10 billion canal project.

The deal announced during a press conference early this morning by the US envoy Jason Greenblatt comes on the back of a separate agreement made on Monday to establish a mechanism for the PA-owned Palestinian Electric Company to purchase electricity from the Israel Electric Company.

In the press conference attended by Israel’s regional Cooperation Minister, Tzahi Hanegbi, and PA Water Authority head, Mazen Ghuneim, Greenblatt mentioned that US President Donald Trump was “working toward a lasting peace agreement between Israel” and said that “Palestinians is a top priority for him.”

While cutting off questions in the press conference that did not deal with the announced project, Greenblatt said that the water deal and the electricity deal are examples of cooperation between the parties that “will lead to economic improvement in the lives of the Palestinians”.

Read: Gaza heading for serious water crisis

In the span of a week, he said,

the Palestinians will benefit from agreements that provide key improvement in the areas of water and electricity.

According to Ghneim, Gaza, which faces a chronic water shortage, will receive 10 million cubic eeters of water from the deal. Ghneim was keen to stress that the deal was a localised one, and had no bearing on final status negotiations where water allocation is one of the main issues along with refugees, borders and Jerusalem.

Under the Oslo water regime agreed in 1995, Israel gained control of 90 per cent of Palestinian water sources. The share of water Israelis receive is far higher than that allocated to Palestinians. This has led to a chronic shortage of water in Palestinian communities prompting Amnesty to warn: “Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements stand in stark contrast to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their essential domestic water needs.”

In parts of the West Bank Israeli settlers use up to 20 times more water than neighbouring Palestinians who survive on barely 20 litres of water per capita a day, the minimum amount recommended by the WHO for emergency situations response.