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A 2002 Municipal Environmental Association of Samaria report (responsible for 100 settlements,) showed 14 left their wastewater untreated. Eleven others either didn't treat it or only partially did for 25 years until the Kana stream conduit was completed in 2006.
Other reports document the same neglect, citing defective maintenance, no electrical connection, raw sewage seepage into groundwater, "usually primitive" factory wastewater treatment, and pollution caused by "cow pens."
For over 40 years of occupation, "Israel has not built advanced regional wastewater treatment plants in the settlements to match those inside Israel" even though a 1983 master plan was formulated. After its cost was estimated to be $110 million, budgetary constraints stopped its implementation. The single recent facility addition began operating in 2006, servicing six settlements.
Under still in force Jordanian West Bank building and planning laws, provisions for treatment must be approved before proceeding. However, Israeli authorities ignore the requirement and allow building occupancies and industrial operations anyway. The Modi'in Illit settlement was approved even though raw sewage from 17,000 people flowed into the Modi'im stream, and construction was never completed for a Meitarim industrial area treatment plant.
Blurred authority between the Civil Administration and Ministry of Environmental Protection complicates the problem. The former ensures that building plans include treatment solutions, but enforcement power lies with the latter. From 2000 - September 2008, it was used only 53 times for not treating wastewater. Most were warnings. Only four indictments were filed. By comparison, in 2006 alone, 230 enforcement measures were taken inside Israel, mostly warnings on suspected Water Law violations. In Israel, building plans are stopped until proper hook-up to wastewater treatment is in place. "Across the Green Line," no similar action is taken.
Jerusalem's Wastewater Channeled East
Since the 1940s, untreated wastewater has been channeled from West and East Jerusalem to the Kidron Basin in the city's southeast. It flows into an open duct from where it moves over 30 kilometers into the Dead Sea.
A Horqaniya Valley diversion facility treats some of it for Jordan Valley settlements' irrigation, while the rest flows freely into the Mountain Aquifer, "an area sensitive to pollution." It creates dangerous sanitation and environmental hazards, including groundwater pollution. Yet it's used as livestock drinking water and for Palestinian farmland irrigation, "despite the (considerable) health risk."
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