Palestinian residents of Jensaffut village, east of the West Bank city of Qalqilia, lost approximately 200 olive trees over the past three years, due to contamination of industrial sewage collected at the Emanuel settlement, and flooded on the farmlands of the residents. ÂÂ
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The Israeli Municipal Environmental Associations of Samaria, which is responsible for maintaining the Israeli settlements sewage systems, claimed that the problem was fixed, and that “no sewage spills outside the sewage line” exist anymore.
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Yeshiyahu Arnreich, head of the Emanuel settlement council claimed that the council installed new pumps and “solved the problem”, and admitted that a problem with the Emanuel pumping installation has caused sewage to flow into the Palestinian orchard near the settlement.
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The settlement has an industrial zone and pumps sewage containing high salt concentration, recently the residents Ja’far abu Sha’er, and Ahmad Hasan, from the village of Jensaffut lost 200 of their tree after their dried up and died as a result of the sewage pumping from the settlement into their land, settlement council claims that faults un the pumping installation caused this problem.
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The residents asked “Yesh Din” which is an Israeli organization that promotes human rights in the Palestinian territories, for help. The farmers said that they headed to the Qadumim settlement police, and an army liaison office in Qalqilia, but they were told that they should head to the Israeli Environment ministry.
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The two residents said that the sewage caused their trees to shed their branches and leaves, after drying up and fell apart.
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“We tried to minimize the damage, and dug a tunnel to collect the sewage, in an attempt to stop it from reaching the trees, but this didn’t prevent the damage”, residents abu Sha’er told Raheli Merhav, and activist of Yesh Din organization. ÂÂ
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“We already suffered very heavy financial losses; we fear that we will lose more trees”, abu Sha’er added.
