In a valley south of Nablus lie a number of villages. MPT talked to Ali Omar from Huwwara who works for the Palestinian Authority. The village in the picture is Oldala, to the right- out of picture range - is Beita.
Each village in Palestine grew up around a spring, where water comes to the earth’s surface usually part way down these low mountains. In this semi arid region, water is very precious. Illegal Israeli settlements locate on tops of mountains and drill deep wells to access the water.
A Settler uses 8 times the amount of water an average Palestinian uses according to Ali Omar. There is also a problem of mountain top settlements discharging their sewage down to Palestinian communities.
The village of Oldala’s spring is 100% dried up. The Palestinian Authority closed the water bottling plant in Beita five days ago because of sewage contamination to the water.
The illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar is west of these villages. The settlement was founded in 1984 “ to take advantage of the large reserve of state lands. Itamar is known for the many farms and hamlets (outposts) the dot the otherwise barren hills east of the village” http://www.middleeastexplorer.com/Israel/Itamar
No comments:
Post a Comment