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Follow Us on TwitterAriel settlement waste water damaging Salfit land 30Sep13 September 30, 2013
Ma’an News Agency - 29 September 2013
SALFIT (Ma’an) — Waste water from Ariel settlement is causing environmental damage to natural areas in Salfit, a Palestinian researcher said Sunday.
Khalid Maali, a researcher on settlement affairs, told Ma’an that the Israeli settlement in the West Bank, home to some 20,000 settlers, releases nearly 300,000 liters of sewage water daily into the neighboring valley of al-Matwi.
The area used to be a natural tourism park but sewage water from Ariel has caused severe damage to the soil, and locals can no longer stand the smell, Maali said.
Waste water from Ariel also damages Palestinian agricultural crops and pollutes water sources used by livestock.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have caused severe environmental degradation to land and water resources in the occupied West Bank, the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem says.
The research group estimates that that 80 percent of domestic water from Israeli settlements ends up as waste water, which often flows into surrounding Palestinian villages.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law. The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
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