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Project

Blue Deal - Palestinian Territories

Work in progress

Supporting the implementation of the water sector reform: from 300 service providers to 10 regional water utilities

Region Palestinian territories
Period 2019-2030
Project partners  Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier, Waterschap Limburg, Waterproef, GIZ and The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)
Recipients Palestinian Water Authority, Municipality of Salfit and Joint Service and Council for Water and Wastewater North-Hebron.
Funding  Blue Deal programme, Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah, NUFFIC, Young Expert Programme, Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB), Jotem B.V. and WeWorld GVC.

Background

The water sector in the Palestinian Territories face systemic challenges constraining its development. The political and economic situation limits the availability and access to sufficient water resources of acceptable quality. Weak capacity throughout water sector institutions and fragmentation due to more than 300 Service Providers are huge challenges. Moreover, the Service Providers face significant problems resulting from poor infrastructure and high water losses, and insufficient revenue generation. As a result services are not meeting the needs of the citizens, leading to a lack in their willingness to pay water bills, which further affects the sustainability of service delivery. In 1995, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) was established by a presidential decree. Its functions, objectives and responsibilities are defined through a by-law, giving the Palestinian Water Authority the mandate to manage water resources and execute the water policy. The Palestinian Water Authority is faced with an ambitious reform plan that requires far reaching changes in its own institutional setup, with limited resources and in an uncertain political environment.

The Palestinian Water Authority and the Dutch Water Authorities (DWA) have entered into a long-term partnership (2019 – 2030). This partnership is funded by the Blue Deal between the DWA, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of  Infrastructure and Water Management. 

Activities

World Waternet as lead partner and regional water authorities Hollands Noorderkwartier and Limburg are the executive operating agencies in the Palestinian Territories on behalf of the Dutch Water Authorities, focussing on the municipalities of Halhul and Salfeet in the West Bank. The key objective of the partnership is to improve access to clean, sufficient and safe water for the people of the Palestinian territories and support the Water sector reform process.

For the first phase of the Blue Deal partnership (2019-2022), the partnership focusses on the following activities:

  • Improved knowledge & expertise by on-the-job training
  • Accelerated water sector reform & enhancing decentralized water management
  • New cost-recovery mechanisms: developing alternative small-scale solutions and sustainable mechanisms
  • Innovative partnerships and development of viable proposals or business cases

Results

For the first phase of the Blue Deal partnership (2019-2022), the foreseen results are:

  • Acceleration in sector reform (by law) implementation
  • PPP innovation; BluElephant, decentralized mobile WWTP
  • Shit Flow Diagram development
  • GIS and Water Cycle Management training
  • Baseline study of ISO-certification of laboratory
  • Support in Covid-19 impact on water cycle management
  • Development and implementation of  on- and offline training programs in; local governance and water cycle management (with NUFFIC and THA), fundraising, GIS, NRW and proposal development
  • Organizational development of service providers and deployment of Young Experts via YEP Programme and NWB Bank

 

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