September 10, 2007
by Eileen Hanson
I arrived back in Tuwani after short time away and the first thing I heard about was a big meeting here this morning about water. Living on the edge of the Negev desert, water is a major concern here. Normally the winter rains fill cisterns in the area, which supply water through the dry summer months. People use cistern water for watering their flocks as well as for household cleaning and bathing. The well is the village source for drinking water. All the cisterns are empty now, and the well is very low.
Many families have already brought in a truck of water to fill their cistern. However many others probably cannot afford to do this. The men of Tuwani and a number of surrounding villages met this morning to discuss the situation.
Life in this area has never been easy. Water has always been scarce. But people have been living here for thousands of years and have developed ways of living to meet the challenges of the environment.
But things have changed in recent years. Twenty years ago the settlement of Ma'on was established on land belonging to families living in Tuwani. Many of the cisterns traditionally used by families from Tuwani and neighboring villages have been taken over by settlers. Palestinians are either physically unable to access them, or fear violence if they approach what was once their family's land and cistern.
The settlement of Ma'on with its green manicured lawns, irrigated fields and orchards, draws water from the underground aquifer that supplies this entire area. The Tuwani village well is low because the aquifer is getting lower and lower by the year.
This is not an uncommon story. Throughout the West Bank, settlements are taking the lion's share of water, leaving Palestinians with scarce resources. Some estimates of settler water usage are as high as 8 or 9 to 1 compared with Palestinians water use. Many other villages in the Hebron district are also experiencing serious water shortages. It is clear just by looking as the contrasting lifestyles of Tuwani and the settlers at Ma'on that settler use of water is completely out of tune with the environment here. Worst of all, it is destroying the possibilities for others to sustain even the simplest life here.
People in Tuwani do not want water to fill up swimming pools. They simply want enough water for their flocks and their families to have enough to drink and bathe. Local Palestinians continue to live a life close to the land and respectful of the resources. It is the settlers who refuse to admit that they are living on the edge of the desert and adapt accordingly.
The lack of water is also a real concern here in part because it presents yet another vulnerability of Palestinians to the occupying powers, the Israeli military and the Israeli settlers. Perhaps Palestinian villagers can band together and buy water to provide enough until the rains come in November or December. But water trucks are a very visible target. Other villages have had roads blocked, or trucks attacked and been unable to get water to the village. A difficult situation becomes even more complex when having to consider that your neighbors might ambush your family's water supply.
UPDATE: October 10, 2007 - Water delivery in Tuwani
This week water trucks delivered water to many of the cisterns in Tuwani. Tanker trucks with water donated by an international aid agency arrived in the village and went house to house, filling cisterns. Families now have water for household cleaning and bathing. This was a welcome sight for everyone.
Trucks came after dark several nights in order to fill all the cisterns. One night, there was a checkpoint just outside Tuwani, and the water truck was stopped for over an hour.