Water in the West Bank: A Case Study on Palestinian Water Security
Publisher: Penn Sustainability Review
Author(s): Kelly A. Bridges
Date: 2016
Topics: Climate Change, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Renewable Resources
Countries: Palestine
In 1989, Malin Falkenmark developed the water stress index that defnes water scarcity by annual individual usage. In her index, which the United Nations later adopted, Falkenmark categorized absolute water scarcity as when annual individual usage is less than 500 m3. Based on these metrics, Palestine suffers from absolute scarcity, as the territory only has 320 m3 per capita of water available annually. Moreover, Palestinian residents are also classifed as water insecure based on interpretation of the UN-Water’s 2013 Analytical Brief. In this document, water security is defned as the “the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability”.