Settler sewage poured onto Palestinian communities
B'tselem: West Bank sewage runs amuck
By Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post 27th June 2009
Jewish settlements are...built on the top of hills...[so]..."the sewage flowed down towards the olive orchards of Azmut village and then, along an open channel to the center of the village, a few meters from the houses and adjacent to a school," wrote B'Tselem. "The sewage includes industrial waste from tanning and food preparation factories in which the acidic content is very high and can cause burns...grave health danger to humans and animals."
[Raw sewage] includes 17.5 million cubic meters from 121 Jewish settlements, of which 12 million cubic meters are treated and 5.5 million flow into the West Bank as raw sewage.
In Jerusalem, the amount of sewage that flows eastward into the West Bank includes 10 million cubic meters of raw sewage and 7.3 million cubic meters which are treated when they reach the Og water treatment center near Jericho and are then used by Israel. Most of the untreated sewage ends up in the Dead Sea.
Between 1996 and 2001, the international community raised NIS 230 million to NIS 260m. to build 15 new sewage treatment centers. So far, however, only one has been built, for the city of El-Bireh. Another three planned centers have received preliminary approval, two of them only in 2008. Israel is largely to blame for the delays that have accrued, B'Tselem charged...
Another problem is that Israel insists that wastewater from Jewish settlements be treated in the Palestinian centers. The Palestinians refuse to agree because they claim it would indicate that they legitimize the Israeli settlement program.
...[T]reatment facilities in the Jewish settlements are...poorly maintained. Often they stop functioning and the raw sewage flows uncontrolled...most of the settlements are built on the top of hills means that the sewage flows downwards into the Palestinian population centers.
When this happened at Alon Moreh, "the sewage flowed down towards the olive orchards of Azmut village and then, along an open channel to the center of the village, a few meters from the houses and adjacent to a school," wrote B'Tselem. "The sewage includes industrial waste from tanning and food preparation factories in which the acidic content is very high and can cause burns. The results of a laboratory examination pointed to the grave health danger to humans and animals from the contamination of the village wells and to the underground waters of the mountain aquifer."
Original report in Jerusalem Post 27th June 2009