One third of all water consumed in Israel was by the 1990s drawn from groundwater that in turn came from the rains over the West Bank, and the struggle over this resource has been described as a zero-sum game.

On average 7 such attacks, either by settlers or the army, resulting in either contaminated or destroyed water wells, pumps and irrigation systems, took place each month that year.

[29] After the Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, water use and sanitation have been closely linked to developments in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

The water and land resources in the West Bank in particular are considered to constitute the major obstacle to the resolution of conflict in the area.

[33] The 1995 Oslo II Accord allows the Palestinians in the West Bank the use of up to 118 million cubic meters (mcm) water per year.

[4] In 2013, an analysis of nine municipal groundwater wells reported a TDS ranging from 680.4 mg/L to 3106.6 mg/L, averaging 1996.5 mg/L, exceeding the 1000 mg/L WHO acceptable level, mainly due to high chloride and sodium.

Over 20,000 consumers in over 50% of the Gaza households have installed domestic ‘reverse osmosis’ (RO) units to desalinate water for drinking purposes.

Due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, the import of spare parts – essential to operate the desalination plants of industry, communities and households – as well as necessary chemicals, is problematic.

The Israeli army frequently destroys small rainwater harvesting cisterns built by Palestinian communities who have no access to running water, or prevents their construction.

[4] For 2012, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) provided the following figures (domestic use):[68] * MCM=million cubic meters per year ** lpcd=liter per capita per day 1) excl.

[3] In the Gaza strip, for example, the estimated average per capita supply in 2005 was 152 lpcd, but due to high network losses, the actual water use was only 60% of it, which would be about 91 liter.

The household use in the Ro’i settlement, in the northern Jordan Valley, was per head 21 times that of the adjacent Bedouin community al-Hadidya, which is not connected to the regular water supply.

[71] While many Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water, Israeli settlers who export their products have irrigated farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.

[74] According to the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, about 90% of the Palestinians in the Territories had access to an improved water source.

In Gaza, the infrastructure is subject to periodic large-scale destruction by Israeli attacks, such as in the 2004 Raid on Beit Hanoun,[78] or the 2008/2009 Operation Cast Lead.

The high water loss rates are ascribed to illegal connections, worn out pipe systems in the networks, and utility dysfunction.

Several aid agencies and the top United Nations humanitarian official in the Palestinian territories therefore demanded the immediate opening of crossings.

[83] In November, Israeli airstrikes partially destroyed infrastructure providing energy for the Gaza Central wastewater treatment plant, affecting 1 million people.

The United Nations estimate that per day 50,000 to 80,000 cubic meters of untreated and partially treated wastewater are discharged into the Mediterranean Sea since January 2008, threatening the environment in the region.

[91] The largest and oldest multi-municipal utility in the West Bank is the Jerusalem Water Undertaking (JWU) in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh area.

JWU, founded in 1966 when the West Bank was still part of Jordan, serves the two cities as well as 10 smaller towns, more than 43 villages and 5 refugee camps.

[93] In other cities such as Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jenin, Jericho and Hebron as well as in small towns, municipalities provide water and - if existing - sewer services.

In Gaza, a four-year management contract was awarded to a joint venture of Lyonnaise des Eaux (now Suez) and Khatib and Alami in 1996.

[101][102] Mainly due to the continuing hostilities and the premature cancellation of EIB support, the World Bank rates the total outcome of the project as unsatisfactory.

Within the framework of the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), the EIB financed operations with more than 137 million Euro in the West Bank and Gaza between 1995 and 2010.

The construction of wastewater treatment plants in Gaza City, Western Nablus, Salfeet and the Tulkarem region, however, was substantially delayed as of 2009.

Outcomes of technical cooperation include improved performance for the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, the utility serving Ramallah, as a result of capacity building and training.

This is planned to be achieved through supporting the establishment of a Coastal Water Utility which is owned by the local governments and through increased private sector participation.

The additional funding will contribute to finance the institutional strengthening of the Coastal Municipal Water Utility, which has suffered from a very difficult security situation.

The objective is to strengthen the PWA's capacity of monitoring, planning and regulating water sector development in the Palestinian territories.