[Ynet News] Assaf Shmueli - The underground water reservoirs in the West Bank are in severe risk of contamination due to wastewater, a report by the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Civil Administration and the Israeli National Parks Service revealed this week. Raw wastewater from the West Bank cities of Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and their adjacent villages are pumped either to sewage pits or local treatment facilities, where they undergo little to no treatment before being pumped out to major West Bank streams. The West Bank cities have several treatment infrastructure plans in the works, but most are still only on paper. Creating an infrastructure which could both remedy the existing situation and avert future pollution is expected to cost $200 million, and Israel, international environmental groups and the World Bank are willing to foot the bill. The problem is that the Palestinians see any cooperation on this issue as "collaboration" with Israel.
2008-09-25 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive