A crippled economy, poverty, high unemployment and significant dependence on international aid affect most Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. These are all outcomes of Israel’s strict control over the movement of people, goods and water between and even within the Palestinian territories.

The West Bank experiences significant climatic variation within a very small area. It lies within the Mediterranean climatic zone, which is characterized by winter rain and summer drought. Only the Lower Jordan Valley has a different transitional climate, between dry steppe and the extreme desert conditions of the Dead Sea region. Rainfall is limited to the winter and spring months, mostly between October and April.

Palestine is divided into two physically separated areas known as the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, with areas of 5,661 km and 365 km respectively. In 2012, the average population density was 456 inhabitants/km² in the West Bank and 4,353 inhabitants/km² in the Gaza Strip …

The water crisis in Palestine cannot be presented in isolation from the political context, which continues to affect the economy, population, resource distribution and land ownership in the territories. However, because of the complexity of the issues and the limited scope of this report, the events that have impacted the water situation are only briefly discussed on this page …

Given the issues discussed above regarding the amount, reliability and quality of surface water sources, the Jordanian population relies mainly on groundwater for its domestic water supply.

Part of the river’s watershed extends eastward into the West Bank. The river’s water level and quality have been deteriorating since 1955 . . .

If the water issue is not urgently addressed, the outlook for the future is catastrophic. Gaza’s growing population needs water and the aquifer can no longer meet demand. It will take decades to reverse the damage to the aquifer, but we must to everything we can to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Jordan’s water resources

The cost of the falling level of the Dead Sea has been estimated at $73-227 million/yr. The cost of producing potable water at Aqaba and transferring it to Amman is estimated at $2/m3, considerably higher than the cost of water produced through the RSDS Project (<$1.5/m3).