'Polluted West Bank streams pose threat to a third of Israel's drinking water'

Parks head says many more wastewater treatment plants need to be built to bring situation under control.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
sewage kidron 224.88 (photo credit: Israel Nature and Park Authority )
sewage kidron 224.88
(photo credit: Israel Nature and Park Authority )
The vast majority of wastewater in the West Bank goes untreated and presents a significant threat to groundwater, Ariel Cohen of the Nature and Parks Authority Environmental Unit revealed Monday during a press conference at the Afek national park. Instead of being processed, sewage from Israeli settlements and Palestinian towns and villages is released into streams, and therefore all nine of the major streams in Judea and Samaria are polluted, he continued. This is particularly worrying because the mountain aquifer extends below the West Bank and the cesspits and sewage streams are leaking into it, he explained. While the aquifer can absorb some sewage, there is a distinct risk to the aquifer unless the situation is rectified, Cohen said. Many more wastewater treatment plants need to be built to bring the situation under control, a report authored by Cohen and his team on the West Bank's streams concluded. The NPA, the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Civil Administration conducted the largest ever analysis of the West Bank's streams in 2007 and released their conclusions to the press on Monday. The first report was released in 2006, but was nowhere near as comprehensive as the 2007 report. The team sampled water from the nine major streams of the West Bank: Kishon, Shechem, Kana, Shilo, Soreq, Modi'in, Michmash, Kidron and Hebron. In all of them, there were high concentrations of organic pollutants, salts and heavy metals. Most of the pollution originates from approximately 2 million out of the 2.8 million residents of the West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian alike. Palestinian towns and cities produce an estimated 56 million cubic meters of sewage per year, 94 percent of which isn't treated at all. Israeli settlements produce an estimated 17.5 million cubic meters per year, 31.5% of which isn't treated. Most Israeli sewage is treated either in Israel or in the West Bank, although many settlements have not yet built proper facilities, Cohen said. Entire kilometer-lengths of winding streams are essentially flowing sewage, Cohen said, which should be treated close to the source of the damage, but isn't. For example, 43 km. of the Hebron stream is untreated sewage water, as is 33 km. of the Kidron. Overall, there are approximately 178 kilometers of untreated sewage running through the West Bank, according to the report's findings. While the high pollution is in and of itself problematic, the porous rock over which it flows means that much of the sewage gets absorbed into the land and eventually into the aquifer as well. While a few treatment plants do exist, several of the Palestinian ones can't handle the loads and much needs to be improved, Cohen said. Benny Elbaz, head of the Civil Administration's environmental unit, said that there were several wastewater treatment plants in the works, but that most were in the early planning stages. Much of the funding for such projects comes from international donors, he added. Currently operational are a project to clean up the Shechem stream once it crosses the Green Line, and another that treats and moves the Kidron wastewater through pipes to the Jordan Valley's agricultural settlements, Elbaz said. "If we clean up the problem in a decade's time, that'll be good. As usual, it's a matter of priorities. With the right resources, we could clean it up in five years," Allon Zask, head of the Environmental Protection Ministry's sea and beaches branch, told The Jerusalem Post. Both Cohen and Zask noted that Palestinians are averse to using treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. Such a move could free up millions of cubic meters of drinking water which is used for agriculture now.