10 January 2012

Translation:  Suzanne O.

A year and a half ago, in August, as part of the tours which Dalia and I arranged to make contact with the Palestinian villages on the West Bank we came to the village of Kafr ad Dik.

We entered the room of the head of the village, Jamal, and he told us of the difficulties experienced by the inhabitants of the village.

You know that there are endless difficulties, but one complaint stood out, the fact that there is not enough water for their village and the neighbouring village of Bruqin.

This was during the hot, hot days of August and we saw people tramping along, furiously, holding containers to the 'Baladia' asking them to provide water.

From that day Dalia and I tenaciously telephoned several times a day to the water company Mekorot and to the head of the water authority on the West Bank,  Mr Baruch Nagar,  and were repeatedly told that we were mistaken and all of their water allowance reaches the villages.

It wasn't until after the water engineer, Ms Kinneret Cohen, came back from her holiday that they found out that although the computer showed that water was flowing into the village, there was an obstruction and the water pipes were disconnected from the computer, preventing the water from getting to the two villages.

So, a year and a half ago, we succeeded in solving an acute problem and gained the acquaintance of Kinneret from Mekorotl.  Later we made contact with the Mekorot employees.  We wanted to know why the water allowance for these two villages is so low – only 14 cube an hour for the village for 24 hours.

I won't tire you with the whole long process which consisted of hundreds of telephone calls to Ramla, to Ariel, to Ramallah, to Tel Aviv, and all this to get the joint Israel Palestine water authority (JWC) to meet and decide to increase the water allowance.

Well, with great good luck, yesterday 10 January 2012, while Dalia and I were on our way to Kafr ad Dik , for another reason, we received a telephone call from dear Ms Cohen to say that, from this moment, an increased amount of water is flowing to Kafr ad Dik and Bruqin, 20 cube/hour.

Although the villages had requested double the amount of water, meanwhile they will accept an extra 6 cube/hour with the promise that, possibly in the summer, there might be another increase.

On our arrival we gave the news to Hassan, the water engineer of the village, a charismatic, industrious and very special man, and he was delighted!!!

We drove with him to prepare for a visit from the Mekorot people to the village because they have never been to a Palestinian village.  The person who helped us to arrange the tour is Anat Sapir.

We drove with Hassan and saw where the sewage from the settlements in the area floods all the fields, the olive groves of Kafr ad Dik and Bruqin and pollutes the water sources from which we all drink.

Afterwards we toured around in Hassan's jeep and got to the hill tops surrounding the village, with their exceptional scenery and the tranquillity.  We saw birds that I have not seen in Israel for years and the first anemones starting to sprout from the earth.

We realised how wonderful it could be here if it weren't for the occupation and the plundering of land and water.