Description

Tuba resident draws water from a cistern. (MaanImages/Charlie Hoyle)

Tankers supply water to residents in the south Hebron hills.
(MaanImages/Charlie Hoyle)

A young boy pictured in front of a man-made cave in Tuba.
(MaanImages/Charlie Hoyle)


By Charlie Hoyle

MASAFER YATTA (Ma'an) -- "Life is hard, but I won't leave the village," Zahira al-Jundi says.

Despite winter rainfall which has painted green patches on the rolling south Hebron hills, the 145 residents of Tuba face a daily struggle to access the most basic levels of water needed to survive.

Like 70 percent of Palestinian communities in Area C, Tuba is not connected to the water network.

The weekly sight of a water tanker negotiating the rocky sand-colored terrain to reach the village is a welcome relief for residents, but only a temporary measure to ease the humanitarian impact of an acute water shortage.

Located in 30,000 dunams of land designated by Israel as a closed military area, or Firing Zone 918, Israel's Civil Administration forbids all construction in Tuba. Villagers live in caves and tents and depend entirely on cisterns and tankered water to meet their daily needs.

"These communities live in conditions similar to that of a post-disaster situation, such as an earthquake or tsunami," Advocacy Task Force Officer for EWASH, Alex Abu Ata, tells Ma'an.

"People affected by natural disasters are forced to live in tents and have little access to water or food. They basically only have what is provided to them through aid."

International NGOs implement humanitarian projects in the south Hebron hills but cannot obtain authorization from Israel to build long-term water infrastructure.

"They can only really delay the problem, without ever solving it," Abu Ata says.