Tag: Sewage

Olive tree planting in the village of Bruqin

9^th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Bruqin, occupied Palestine

On 8^th April 2017 an ISM team joint Abu Skander, a farmer from the village of Bruqin, Salfit district, to plant 30 new olive trees on his field within the village. The village is located close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Bruchin and several others.

Since the beginning of 2017, the Israeli water company Mekorot has started to build new water and sewage pipelines for nearby illegal Israeli settlements, on private Palestinian farmland near Bruqin. Abu Skander found six trees cut down and 14 trees were damaged, after the company first started its work on 30^th January. This happened during the building of a temporary street on the field, as first step of the construction activities. Three of his neighbors lost another 20 olive trees and many more were damaged at this time. In total 2.5 dunums of agricultural land has been destroyed so far.

Construction work on Palestinian land for illegal Israeli settlements

Approximately two weeks ago, the company started to lay the pipes while the farmers were trying to talk to the construction workers and preventing them from destroying their fields, sometimes by standing in front of the bulldozers. The Israeli army was eventually called in. After some arguing, the Israeli forces eventually requested the construction workers to leave the site due to an existing agreement. The agreement states that no trees should be cut down and the land has to be given back after finishing the construction work. Nevertheless, this agreement was reached between the Israeli civilian administration and the water company, without any approval or voice from the farmers.

The construction workers then continued to work on a different part of the field without olive trees. However, after a few days the company returned to work on the other field and as a result, even more trees were cut down and damaged. This time the Israeli army told the farmers that they would come with army vehicles and destroy everything themselves, if they keep resisting. The laying of the pipes is currently ongoing, which makes it impossible for the farmers to return and work on their fields.

The construction of the water infrastructure for the illegal Israeli settlement has not just caused already considerable agricultural losses; it is also a threat to the health of the farmers. One of the farmers suffered an anxiety attack, after he was exposed to the stressful and exhausting situation of seeing his livelihood being destroyed. He was treated in hospital with an intravenous drip and oxygen for several hours; and still has to take medication because of the after effects.

Although the company offered a compensation (either new trees or money), which Abu Skander has rejected, the economic loss is still much higher and he simply demands that they leave his land. It needs years of hard work and resources until the new olive trees bear the same amount of fruits than the already 45yo, which were destroyed. It is not just, that for the construction and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements private Palestinian land often gets confiscated or damaged; despite plentiful water resources, the water supply for the Palestinian residents in the area is highly restricted, whereas, this is not the case for the illegal Israeli settlements.

The town of Bruqin, in the Salfit municipality, is surrounded by a string of illegal Israeli settlements belonging to the ‘Ariel finger’ – a stretch of illegal settlements that carves in deep into the West Bank in an attempt to split the West Bank in two. These settlements have also been exposed as unlawfully dumping untreated waters and sewage onto Palestinian land. The residents of Bruqin are regularly subjected to harassment by settlers and the Israeli army. The farmers are often verbally and physically attacked whilst working on their fields or are even denied access to their own land by the Israeli army.

Sewage flows in Gaza streets for 18 hours a day

21st November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

The lack of electricity in the Gaza Strip is also creating an environmental crisis. Wastewater treatment facilities have stopped due to the lack of fuel. In the Zeitoun neighborhood, in the east of Gaza City, a sewage pumping station has stopped working due to the lack of electricity. The wastewater flooded the streets and houses in the neighborhood.

In the few hours when electricity is on, the water is again partially collected from the plant, leaving mud and putrid slime on which children walk to reach their homes. In some cases, inhabitants have built small bridges. In others, where this is not possible, people have to look for alternate routes through the neighborhood. When the system stops, sewage again starts to submerge the streets.

At the entrance one building, residents had placed wooden boards to walk on until they reach the stairs. The building was partially evacuated, with only a few families remaining.

“We have lived here a month, and we would like to leave,” Nadia, a young mother, said shortly before the electricity cut. “We haven’t gone out for a week. My kids are sick. I needed to take them to the hospital to see what they had. The doctor told me they contracted an infection due to the dirty water. They had high fevers. Their temperature was over 40 degrees.” Nadia has three daughters and one son. During the night, they can’t sleep because of the stench of sewage. There are also insects and rats.

The waste water also flooded a farmland on which many olive trees are planted. If the emergency is not solved, the land will be irreversibly contaminated. The pumping station, which is used to transfer wastewater from the center to the south of Gaza City, was flooded.

Much of the fuel arrived in Gaza through the underground tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, now almost totally destroyed by the Egyptian army. Israeli fuel, which is twice as much, costs too much for most in Gaza to afford.

The Energy Authority in Gaza had started to buy fuel from Israel through the Energy Authority in Ramallah, which exempted fuel purchases from taxes. But Ramallah Authority demanded the Gaza Authority pay taxes on the fuel due to the Palestinian Authority’s current financial crisis. The Energy Authority in Gaza, which cannot pay the costs, refused.

The only power plant in the Gaza Strip can work for limited periods. In coming days, the supply of electricity is expected to be further reduced from six to four hours per day. “A disaster, a catastrophe,” children in the Zeitoun neighborhood repeated. Employees of the municipality worked with boots and gloves. Other wasterwater treatment facilities may stop if their generators also run out of fuel.

The humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip are deteriorating. The energy crisis affects all the daily needs of the population. Israel has kept the Gaza Strip under siege for over seven years, imposing restrictions on exports (almost zero) and imports of goods, fuel, building materials and other necessities, thus creating increases in unemployment, poverty and aid dependency.

Salfit continues to suffer from illegal settlement sewage

18th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Salfit, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

The agricultural district of Salfit, about 25 miles north of Jerusalem, is facing health and environmental problems throughout its villages because of a constant stream of sewage from nearby illegal Israeli settlements, most notably Barkan and Ariel settlements which also hold illegal factory developments. See the below video with photos and video taken on a recent visit to Salfit by solidarity activists.

Salfit’s rich agriculture threatened by factory development and settlers’ sewage

3th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Salfit, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

Illegal Israeli factory settlements in Salfit are threatening to damage the rich agricultural land of the surrounding villages and are adding a health risk already escalating due to sewage flow from illegal Israeli settlements in Salfit.

Salfit municipality representatives said that some of the illegal factory developments in Salfit are banned from existing in 1948 Palestine by Israeli environmental law; however, on Palestinian land in the West Bank, the factories can run without regard to the same environmental risks. Palestinian farmers in Salfit also say that trees are threatened and dying due to the factory development.

The two largest illegal settlements in Salfit are Ariel and Barkan. Both settlements have industrial and domestic establishments. Sewage from those settlements and others in Salfit run sewage rivers in the 18 Salfit villages. Winter rains earlier this year had the sewage flooding roads, forcing village municipalities to bulldoze river trails for the sewage.

Municipality representatives in Salfit also noted that the smell and insects from the sewage streams are causing stomach and skin illnesses for Palestinians, illnesses which have in some cases not been seen for 10 years in the population. Covering the sewage is also prohibited as some Salfit villages exist under Area C, under full Israeli civil and security control.

Additionally, Salfit Palestinians are restricted by road closures and sometimes threatened by vandalism from nearby settlers. Last year, settlers set fire to a mosque in Burqeen, a village that suffers severely from the sewage overflow from illegal settlements in addition to agricultural damage from settlement factory development.

Another ongoing issue in Salfit concerns the Wadi Kana valley near Dir Istya. The 7 km rich agricultural valley is surrounded by five illegal Israeli settlements whose residents frequently use the valley for recreational visits protected by Israeli soldiers. The valley is a land cultivated by farmers in Dir Istya. During settler visits, Palestinians say they cannot be in the valley.

Salfit district is about 25 miles north of Jerusalem with about 24 illegal Israeli settlements in and around its villages. It is said to hold three tombs of prophets, making it a destination for large groups of Israeli visitors that often disrupt residents and are a source of vandalism in the area. Visits by these large groups, Israeli soldier protected, and the illegal development of settlements and factories causes constant concern for the health of the district’s agriculture and the ability of Salfit Palestinians to live peacefully on their land.