Qabatya Second Round of Pilot Projects

Study and redesign of the municipality water network, and installation of water meters at agricultural wells

Pilots for Sale *

Qabatya is located at 11 kilometers southwest of JeninCity. It is the biggest town in Jenin Governorate in terms of area and population (about 20,000), and is renowned for its fertile agricultural land, number of agricultural wells, its quarries, and stone cutting industries.Qabatya town area lies between 250 to 475 meters above sea level.

On the basis of EMPOWERS participatory water planning approach, discussions among the different stakeholders in town (community, local water management committee, local government, and staff of the Municipality’s Water Division), two community groups were identified as having most critical water access problems.The two groups are:

- Town dwellers, especially those living in uphill areas, suffer from repeated water cut-offs. This interrupted water supply also result in higher water-meter readings due to meters measuring/counting air which gets trapped in the network in between cut-offs.

- Irrigation farmers (those cultivating irrigated crops as opposed to rain-fed ones) face several problems such as:

• serious water losses due to leakages and deterioration of the irrigation pipes system;
• high maintenance cost of those pipes;
• and high prices of agricultural water - framers get charged by private well owners on hourly basis (time taken to pump water to a farm),
  instead of the volume of water supplied to their farms (See Box).

• Due to seasonal changes in well’s discharges (yield), there are several implications to the use of time-based water meters:- Farmers and well-owners cannot know the actual amount of water pumped out of the well (or that received by the farmer);- farmers are unable to estimate the approximate water requirements of each crop;- and most importantly, during the high demand summer season, well’s discharge decreases to more than two thirds than what gets pumped during winter. This result in an increase in the price paid by the farmers in exchange for the unit (1 m3) of water pumped during summer.

Selected Pilot Projects:

Several interventions / activities were proposed by the participants which were in line with Qabatya’s vision in increasing the individual’s access to adequate and good quality drinking water; and to conserve agricultural water and increase the area of cultivated land. Out of the proposed activities, two main pilot projects were selected to best address the groups' problems taking into account their applicability within the current conditions (economic, social and political/occupation conditions).

The first pilot that targets mainly the farmers is the installation of water meters both at agricultural wells, and farm inlets to organize and account for the use of agricultural water for farmers without wells. Other parallel activities include:

1. Change the selling method of agricultural water in Qabatya from selling on hourly basis to one on quantity of water pumped;
2. Limit the control of well owners on water' price rates;
3. Conduct workshops on efficient use and water conservation practices; ways to increase crop production per water unit ; determine different crops’ water requirements and move away from growing water intensive crops.

The second pilot to be chosen by the community stakeholders and which targeted the town dwellers was to conduct a study and to redesign the town’s water network. This was to be considered as the first phase in the overall plan to rehabilitate the network, whereby the redesign would take into account future network expansion to accompany the expected increase in the populated areas (due to population growth).

Looking into the causes of the water problems in town, it was found that they were mainly due to low storage capacity of the municipal reservoir and old deteriorated municipal water network. Furthermore, about 40 -45 % of water conveyed were estimated to be lost due to leakages from fittings, and inaccurate domestic water meters). Other pressure and access problems recorded in town (for those living uphill) were also due to the old design of the network that exceeded 30 years making maintenance, future expansion and connection work difficult to conduct. Therefore this pilot (study and redesign) will;

1. Complete the first stage network’s rehabilitation process.
2. Prepare the proposal and study needed to raise funds (local or external sources) for the following steps in the rehabilitation process.
3. Contribute to achieving the town’s vision in improving access to domestic water by all inhabitants. A rehabilitated network would significantly reduce water losses, and decrease expenses made for its maintenance. This makes available enough water and funds for the municipality to expand the network, connect more people, and provide better water service, especially to those living uphill.

Cost estimates:

Cost estimates for implementing the two pilot projects are summarized in the following table:

* A proposal summary for each pilot is provided below. If inetersted in contributing to the implemetation of this pilot project kindly Contact Us to provide you with the detailed pilot proposals