Um Hamzeh’s daily quest for water!

Situated on a hill, Jalboun[1] overlooks the 33,000.0 dunums of fields that were once farmed by its villagers. Now the villagers are living off 1/6th of that land, after it was illegally confiscated during the 1948 war; and recently, more than 2,000 dunums[2] have been lost to the apartheid wall, which is currently being built by the Israeli Authorities. Snatched of their sources livelihood and water, many of the villagers fell into poverty and scores became unemployed.

When EMPOWERS came to Jalboun in early 2004, it found that besides poverty and unemployment, all of the community suffered from severe water scarcity. Jalboun is not connected to a public water network, and most of its water sources are now inaccessible since they lie within the confiscated lands. Currently, the only water sources they have access to, is rainwater harvested from rooftops during the rainy months[3] and stored in household cisterns. While during the summer season, the villagers are forced to buy water from private agricultural wells from nearby villages.

Jointly working with the community in Jalboun, EMPOWERS found that 85% of the houses had cisterns, storing up to about 18,794.0 m3 each year. This was still less than the 22,304.0 m3 of water that is purchased from private agricultural wells. It is worth noting that many of the cisterns are shared by more than one family, since it is normal in Jalboun to at least two families sharing one house (cistern). This brings down the average available water for each individual to 48 liters/day!

One of many cases is that of Um Hamzeh. Um Hamzeh is an old woman, living with her two daughters in run-down one-room house. Buying water from private vendors is also beyond her means. Also, the type of rock and the small area around her house renders it unsuitable to dig and construct a water-harvesting cistern.

Therefore, to cover the family’s daily water needs, her daughter Renad, has to make several trips each day to bring water from their neighbor’s well.

This requires Renad to walk far, over very bad roads to reach this well, and then carry it on her head all the way back to her house.

Managing these scarce amounts in the house is no easy task. Um Hamzeh and her daughters have to make do with several ‘Tisht’and ‘Ebrik’ (plastic or tin utensils) for the different household chores, drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.

With many in Jalboun facing similar problems and living conditions, EMPOWERS worked together with the community to formulate their vision, find practical solutions and pilot activities to attain their vision. Jalboun’s Vision was to raise, by the year 2010, the share of drinking water of an individual from the current 48 l/c/d, to 70 l/c/d.

To achieve this vision, the local community, governorate staff and EMPOWERS team formulated several scenarios, each with several proposed activities.

Under the current conditions - inability to acquire licenses from the Israeli Authorities to build or connect to public water network- the community agreed on the most suitable activity/pilot to undertake. They decided to increase the amount of harvested rainwater in the village by constructing eight additional water-harvesting cisterns in the village serving 70 – 80 people.

Unfortunately, Um Hamzeh and her two daughters were not one of the beneficiaries because of the unsuitability of their house. The EMPOWERS team have raised Um Hamzeh’s problem to our key stakeholders, other NGO’s, and even other CARE projects working in Jenine Governorate. Until a solution is found, Renad will keep on doing her daily trips and her family’s problem remains unanswered.

[1] Jalboun sits 300-350 m above sea level. Bound from its eastern side by the 1967 cease-fire line (green line), the village is located 12 Km east of Jenine City and has a population of about 2,300.These days, the area of the village is estimated to be 5000 dunums only.

[2] Dunum = 1000 m2

[3] Rainy season is between November and March, with an average rainfall 396 mm/yr.