WEST BANK: Bedouins say Israel aims to drive them off land, after Israeli authorities demolish cisterns which have been restored to harvest rainwater

Record ID: 560466

  • Title: WEST BANK: Bedouins say Israel aims to drive them off land, after Israeli authorities demolish cisterns which have been restored to harvest rainwater
  • Date: 2nd August 2011
  • Summary: RASHAYIDA, WEST BANK (JULY 25, 2011) (REUTERS) MAN FILLING WATER CLOSE OF WATER BEDOUINS FILLING WATER FROM WATER WELL MAN TAKING PAIL FROM WELL CLOSE OF WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERT NADI FARAJ SAYING: "We fix these wells because the water prices are so high; each meter cost them 70 NIS (20.5 US dollars). So we help them to fix wells in this area in order to decrease the cost of animal production and increase the sheep numbers." CAMELS CAMEL DRINKING WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERT NADI FARAJ SAYING: "The aim of the project is to host the rain water from the mountains through these channels -- 2kms each-- in order to collect the water from mountains and bring it to this well." SHEEP IN DESERT ALI OUDA FILLING POOL WITH WATER FOR SHEEP SHEEP DRINKING WATER SHEEP GATHERING NEAR WATER POOL OUDA PUTTING WATER FOR SHEEP SHEEP DRINKING WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BEDOUIN ALI OUDA SAYING: "Some of the areas are military closed areas and some are Palestinian and Israeli natural reserves. So we can not go there. Since 1967 the wells were destroyed due to floods and other reasons." DESERT VARIOUS OF WORKERS ON CISTERNS PROJECT IN AREA WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERT NADI FARAJ SAYING: "We want to restore these wells. They are ancient wells, some of them are Roman, dating back more than 2000 years. We reconstructed these wells, including water channels, which also collect the water from the mountains. The water here is considered gold because it is expensive and they need water." MAN STANDING NEAR NATURAL WATER WELL CLOSE OF WATER INSIDE WELL MAN WALKING AWAY FROM AREA OF WATER WELLS VARIOUS OF DESERT OUTSKIRTS OF BETHLEHEM
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADG2JML7Z8NTJK3EAIUFFSLQT6
  • Story Text: Hewn from rock, the cavernous cisterns which dot the desert beyond Bethlehem have for centuries harvested winter rain to provide shepherds and their flocks with water through the searing summer months.
    Out into the desert, a stagnant pool marked the spot where one of the cisterns, chiselled out of a hillside, had stood until its recent demolition. A mud trail on the otherwise dry ground indicated where the water inside had drained away towards a wadi, a valley which becomes a river when the rain falls.
    "We fix these wells because the water prices are so high; each meter cost them 70 NIS (20.5 US dollars). So we help them to fix wells in this area in order to decrease the cost of animal production and increase the sheep numbers," said Palestinian Agricultural Expert Nadi Faraj, who has helped to rehabilitate around 140 old cisterns in the last four years.
    Reaching the remote sites is often the hardest part of the work, Faraj says. Once there, workers must remove sediment, waterproof the walls with plaster and then rebuild collection channels that funnel the rainwater into the cistern.
    "The aim of the project is to host the rain water from the mountains through these channels -- 2kms each-- in order to collect the water from mountains and bring it to this well," he added.
    Under a baking sun, an elderly Bedouin explains how cisterns he remembers from childhood, many of them restored to full working order in the last few years, are once again helping his goat-herding community to survive.
    "Some of the areas are military closed areas and some are Palestinian and Israeli natural reserves. So we can not go there. Since 1967 the wells were destroyed due to floods and other reasons," Ali Ouda, said.
    Israel has demolished 20 rainwater collection cisterns in the West Bank in the first half of this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which monitors conditions in the Palestinian territories.
    Their razing is part of a marked acceleration in demolition of Palestinian structures in "Area C" -- the 60 percent of the West Bank where Israel exercises total control.
    Defined by interim peace agreements concluded between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, Area C is where all of Israel's West Bank settlements are located.
    In the first half of 2011, more Palestinians lost their homes in Area C than in the whole of 2009 or 2010, OCHA says. Many of them were Bedouin. A total of 342 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished in the area so far this year.
    Typically, demolitions are carried out on the grounds that the structures, some of them as simple as tents, have been put up without Israeli permission -- something Palestinians say is almost impossible to obtain.
    As for the cisterns, the Israeli civil administration for the West Bank says that in at least two cases, probably more, it took action because they were located in military training zones where live fire could pose a danger to people using them.
    That, Palestinians say, is just an excuse, part of a system of Israeli restrictions designed to curb their development while allowing the settlements to grow.
    The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) behind the cistern rehabilitation project are deeply concerned: the Bedouin, who number around 27,500 in Area C, are some of the poorest of all Palestinians.
    Rehabilitated, the cisterns have been providing them with a free water resource, easing their reliance on expensive tankered water that they have to tow to their encampments by tractor.
    By reviving old cisterns, the project leaders hoped they could sidestep tight restrictions on the construction of new water infrastructure -- a factor which the Palestinian Authority says has exacerbated water shortages across the West Bank.
    "We want to restore these wells. They are ancient wells some of them are Roman, dating back more than 2000 years. We reconstructed these wells, including water channels, which also collect the water from the mountains. The water here is considered gold because it is expensive and they need water," Faraj said.
    The demolitions have drawn U.N. condemnation. DanChurchAid, a Danish NGO that has financed the project, says five of the cisterns it has worked on have been demolished this year, three by Israeli forces and two by Jewish settlers.
    Though Israel denies seeking to displace the Bedouin by such methods, it does have a plan for resettling them in built communities.
    The Bedouin talk of cisterns dating back to the Nabatean era, some 2,000 years ago. During their rehabilitation, workers drawn from the Bedouin communities have uncovered artifacts including Ottoman-era military helmets.
    At one remote desert site, amid stone structures believed to be the remnants of an early Christian church, workers found parts of ancient mosaic floors while rehabilitating two cisterns where goats are today taken to drink.
    ENDS.
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