Jordan Valley Solidarity and LifeSource connect the village of Al-Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley with water, freeing up many thousands of dollars in resources that NGOs were planning to spend delivering water to the community via water tanker this summer.

Every summer iNGOs spend 6 million dollars to deliver water to communities in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron where Israel has been denying Palestinians permission to develop any infrastructure, including homes, schools, clinics, and water and sanitation infrastructure.  80% of the costs of delivering water to communities are transportation costs.  This “emergency water delivery” in the West Bank, mostly funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), would not be necessary if NGOs responded to the creativity and ingenuity evidenced in homegrown Palestinian solutions on the ground.

For two years Jordan Valley Solidarity has been consulting with NGOs and PA ministries in the Jordan Valley urging organizations to fund rubber pipes and metal reservoirs that do not need permission from Israel according to the Oslo Accords.  Some organizations have sought to implement these projects but ultimately declined citing fears that the projects would be demolished by the Israeli Military and that all of the resources would be wasted.

LifeSource granted Jordan Valley Solidarity $6,000 to lay pipes in Al-Farisiya.  Both groups are now fundraising for two 250 cubic meter reservoirs to complete this project and to ensure 24-hour water supply for the community to use for domestic purposes, livestock and agriculture.  Jordan Valley Solidarity believes it is possible to solve most of the water supply needs in the Jordan Valley for just around $50,000.

Meanwhile, iNGOs and ECHO continue to plan to spend millions of dollars transporting water for a 3 month period this summer – 80% of which will be entirely wasted on transportation costs.

LifeSource is a Palestinian-led collective organizing to build a popular movement for water justice – www.LifeSource.ps

Jordan Valley Solidarity is the leader of this campaign –www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org

http://www.lifesource.ps/?code=331&PHPSESSID=2e8457bb46c1cb48de30eec77a631852