Last winter was a very dry one in Israel and Palestine. Bad news for the water resources in the region, for they depend on winter rains to regenerate themselves and store enough water to quench the thirst during the hot summer season. The low level of the water resources, combined by high demand, of freshwater, will have an impact on the living conditions in the region.
But the effect of water scarcity depends on who you are and where you live.
In Israel, households will be urged to look after their water consumption (which will cause some annoyance), and in some occasions water will be put on rations (e.g. prohibiting washing cars or filling swimming pools). There will be discussions whether or not public parks and lawns must be irrigated. Special measures will be taken to provide sufficient water to the farmers, who will continue to grow the patatoes, bananas, oranges and organic tomatoes which will end up in the supermarkets in Western Europe.
The Palestinians in the Occupied Territories depend on the same water resources as their Israeli neighbours. Here, water isn't just a refreshing resource that flows out of the tap to quench your thirst on warm days. On the contrary, running water will become a rarity in this part of the region where everyday's life is still determined by the laws of occupation. Palestinians cannot enjoy the water from their country, because they are not allowed to so by the Israeli Occupational Forces. Indeed, during the Oslo Process a Palestinian Water Authority was created to manage some water resources in some areas under Palestinian self-rule. But without sovereignty over their natural resources, the PWA has very little to manage. Palestinian dependence on Israeli consent for using the limited amounts of water which are slipped to them (no water from the Jordan River, a very low percentage of the other transboundary water resources) makes them suffer in 'normal' years with average rainfall in winter, and regional water shortages will make it worse in 2008. Complete cities will be laid dry for several weeks, after which water will be only occasionally available for a few hours. The water will be of poor quality, causing illnesses and further deterioration of living conditions. Farmers cannot grow their crops and get ever more impoverished. A whole society will come crunching to a standstill.
Is this doom-mongering? Probably not. Just remind the series of dry summers in the 1990's and the effect they had on the ordinary Palestinians (and some underpriviliged groups in Israel), and you will have a scenario for the coming summer. The difference will be that we are more than ten years later, pressure on water resources has increased during that period, and very little has been done to avert and avoid unnecessary human suffering from water shortages.
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