The joy of clean water in the West Bank ACTIVITIES • EWAS • Rafeed • Completed Activities RELATED ITEMS • Increasing Water Supplies In Nablus Villages • USAID and PWA Officials Tour Hebron Industrial Wastewater Project RELATED PROGRAM INFORMATION • Features • Reports • Program Budget • Program Partners • Business Opportunities

• The West Bank and Gaza suffer from a chronic water shortage, preventing sustained economic growth and damaging the environment and health of Palestinians. Further losses are caused by old, deteriorated infrastructure.
• Palestinians have a very low water consumption rate - generally using about half of internationally recommended daily amount of water for consumption, hygiene, and cleaning needs. One ten minute shower in the U.S. equals a day's water consumption for an average Palestinian.
• Hundreds of rural villages across the West Bank have no piped water, and hundreds more have it only in the winter. Residents typically use less than 30 liters per capita per day because of the high costs of water delivered by truck. Fewer and fewer families can afford basic water supplies.
• Water quality is not being tested in the Palestinian villages and much of the household water is untreated. This is largely due to the closures and curfews that prevent the access to chlorine and safe water sources. About two-thirds of drinking water in rural households is contaminated with bacteria.
• Palestinian ground water supplies have increasingly become polluted as a result of agricultural chemicals, inadequate sewage treatment, and over-pumping of wells. Untreated sewage is dumped in valleys and the Mediterranean Sea, polluting the ground water, sea, soil and coastline.

USAID Responds

USAID funds emergency repairs of water, sanitation, and solid waste services to address urgent public health problems.

Over 320,000 beneficiaries have received assistance through USAID's Emergency Water and Sanitation program through out the West Bank and Gaza. Since the start of the EWAS program in August 2006, USAID funds have helped Palestinian communities to significantly increase their access to water and sanitation services.

Results

• 15,000 households (around 255,000 people) are currently enjoying a clean and regular water supply in their houses.
• 8,000 households (around 65,000 people) have been connected to proper sewage networks, thus relieving them from pollution that has affected the health of these families, especially children.

Last updated on March 20, 2007.