B'Tselem: Palestinian villages suffer a water shortage

The Bidu-Qatanna village bloc, in Ramallah District, suffers from a severe water shortage, as do many other areas in the Occupied Territories . Mekorot, the Israeli water company, supplies only one-half of the water consumed by the 50,000 villagers of this area. To meet the rest of their water needs, the villagers have to buy water from private suppliers at a much higher price and store it in unsanitary conditions. As a result, the residents are forced to consume poor-quality water and use it in small quantities. Meanwhile, the 3,000 settlers in the nearby settlement of Har Adar receive an unlimited amount of water, which comes from the same reservoir. (September 2007).