User:Carter McCrae/Israeli–Palestinian conflict

A map of all roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank

Article Draft

Lead

The history of environmental impacts almost goes as far back as the conflict does. Despite present-day agreeance between the two parties to start being accountable for environmental protection(UNEP 19), substantial damage has already been and continues to be done. The damage continues to occur due to the lack of trust between the Arab communities and Israeli communities at the governmental level and the public level.

Water

The most significant resource involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict is water. Historically water sources have been meager; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, water resources were in critical condition due to sewage contamination; a lack of treatment plants and an increase in population meant that the majority of the region's water sources were contaminated. More recently, Israel had been treating 65% of wastewater with plans to increase that number more; Israel urged Palestinian authorities to help and used this as a chance for common ground, but Palestinians “claim they have done their best, but that violence and political tension have made it impossible to deal with the problem effectively”. Currently, Israel treats around 90% of its wastewater, while Palestine still suffers with contaminated water, outdated technology, infrastructure and practices. Of about 180 different facilities involved with wastewater, only 10 of the facilities actually treated the wastewater.. The rest of the untreated water is disposed of without consideration of potential environmental or health impacts by being poured into valleys. This eventually runoffs into freshwater streams and rivers, which pollutes freshwater resources as well as pollutes the soil and air in which it was disposed of. The restriction on how many agricultural wells Palestinians are permitted to drill makes it increasingly difficult to grow healthy, uncontaminated food and increases the risk of sickness for civilians in heavily polluted areas.

Waste

Previously, in the 1980s and 1990s, waste management was similar to water resources in each state, as environmental and health risks would pose a threat if improvements were not made to their facilities. Underdeveloped landfills housed 90% of all waste produced by the two states. Today, there are more developed landfill sites that have been built to replace the underdeveloped sites, and they are being utilized throughout Israeli-occupied land, but waste still fails to reach these new facilities. Additionally, the older sites that were closed down due to being underdeveloped have not been properly managed as they still hold extremely toxic waste. Waste management is alarmingly poor in areas like the Gaza strip and the West Bank, many landfills are unlicensed and of the licensed sites that exist, they are so full that they have transcended the maximum duration of the site's capacity by 10 years. Of the unlicensed sites, many of them have been established in conveniently placed locations for residential areas; not just where they contaminate groundwater and agricultural lands but also where they pose a threat to human health. Many of these sites are near residential areas as it's easily accessible to dispose of waste there but because of their close vicinity, many diseases are spreading among the local populations. The world bank had previously attempted to resolve this waste management crisis in the West Bank but due to the second intifada, the development of new landfills was never complete. With a large number of military blockades and checkpoints all throughout the network of roads on the West bank, it's increasingly difficult to transport waste from the town to landfills.

Fence and unexploded ordinances (UXOs)

Map of Gaza Strip fence border. Dark Red: no access allowed.Pink: limited access permitted.Tinted Pink: at risk if caught accessing area.

The fence that finished construction in 2005 raises issues on the front of water flow regarding rivers and streams, damage to land and soil that interferes with agriculture practices due to restrictions in crossing the fence. Although this fence impacts the environment negatively Israel sees it as a higher priority due to the reduced bombings that have occurred since its construction of it. Many areas of occupied Palestinian territory are plagued with landmines from previous years of wars. Since these areas are not properly marked or fenced off this has resulted in road networks being built around suspected danger zones. Aside from this being a threat to civilians causing habitat loss and disruption due to fragmentation as well as increased noise and greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles and militarized vehicles (which produced drastically more emissions) driving through these already damaged ecosystems. Greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by a factor of 2 if there were no military checkpoints, blockades, or detours due to hazards like UXOs.