Water Access in the Northern Jordan Valley

Water supply in a remote Palestinian community. Photo: Bimkom

On March 19, 2025, ACRI, together with Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights, and Jordan Valley activists, approached the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the General of the Central Command demanding that they act immediately to enable access to water for Palestinian agricultural communities in the northern Jordan Valley.  

The communities of Farsiya, Ein al-Hilwa, Samra, Khalat Makhoul, al-Hadidiya, and Humsa are home to approximately 500 people. They are traditional agricultural communities that make their living from small-scale sheep and cattle grazing; consequently, the communities’ economic survival is directly affected by water availability. 

For many years, the communities relied on natural water sources and wells for collecting rainwater scattered throughout their grazing areas. However, due to a number of environmental and engineered factors, these methods have become increasingly unavailable. Many water sources have dried up after consecutive years of drought or as a result of over-pumping of groundwater; and springs have been fenced off, preventing access. Unlike settlements and outposts (regulated and unregulated) adjacent to these communities, which have steady access to water pipes, these communities in the northern Jordan Valley have no permanent or stable access. Palestinian residents also lack access to a central tap. These communities, therefore, are forced to depend on private individuals from distant towns who generally take advantage of the situation and sell them water at very high prices. Even so, disrupted access routes and delays at checkpoints further complicate the communities’ access to a water supply, and the availability of water.  

In the appeal, lawyer Reut Shaer from ACRI and architect Alon Cohen from Bimkom emphasized that the human rights of the protected residents of these communities were being violated in the lack of adequate access to clean water. The appeal warns that as the summer season of 2025 begins, this situation is liable to become dangerous, and that it may result in the displacement of the local population as a result of the prevention of access to water—a situation that would be considered forced displacement.The appeal demands the immediate opening of the nearby checkpoint for transporting water as an interim solution, and the establishment of water points in locations close to the communities' residential compounds as a long-term solution. 

Appeal by ACRI, Bimkom, and Jordan Valley activists, March 19, 2025 (Heb) 

The appeal was written with the help of ACRI's legal intern, Yaser Abu Areesha