RAMALLAH, Monday, April 6, 2020 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Water Authority Monday warned that dumping colonial Israeli settlements wastewater onto Palestinian vineyards in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron city, exposes Palestinians to the novel coronavirus risk.

The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) condemned the dumping settlement wastewater onto Palestinian vineyards in Beit Ummar as well as the leveling of Palestinian land in Ad-Dhahiriya town, southwest of Hebron, as a crime that could have very serious implications, especially at this sensitive stage with the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19.

PWA said that several researches conducted in the US, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as a recent study conducted by the Netherlands National Institute of Public Health and Environment, prove the presence of the new COVID-19 virus in wastewater, and therefore, Israeli settlement wastewater exposes Palestinians to the risk of contracting the disease, especially in light of the high number of cases in Israel and its illegal settlements.

RIVM National Institute of Public Health recently conducted a study titled Novel coronavirus found in Wastewater. The study found that “A small percentage of patients with COVID-19 have the novel coronavirus in their gastrointestinal tract, and thus excrete it in their faeces. When their stool is flushed down the toilet, it ends up in the sewer, and then in the wastewater.”

PWA urged the international community to intervene in order to stop this crime, regardless of whether these Israeli practices are aimed at spreading the viruses or other goals to expand settlements or evict the Palestinians.

K.T./ K.F.