News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Mekorot, the national water company, denied allegations made by  the B’Tselem group that Israel has discriminatory water policies in Arab villages in Judea and Samaria. The company reported that it provided more water in these areas than was required under the Oslo agreements. BTselem claimed in a report today that Arabs in northern Samaria drink one-third of the per capita water consumption recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and that on average, Israelis drink more than three times as much water as Arabs. BTselem claimed 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."

But Mekorot said it provided 500 million cubic meters per year to Arab controlled areas of Judea and Samaria which was 30 percent more than required under current arrangements. This means that Israel supplies 80 percent of the Arab-controlled areas’ water needs. The National Water Authority responded that shortages in these areas were caused by the poor infrastructure built by the PA and local water thieves.