RAMALLAH, December18, 2005, (WAFA)- Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Sunday that 99.6% of households are connecting to Public Electricity Network.

In a press release, PCBS said that, in its survey during July 2005 on energy indicators in the household (electricity and petroleum fuel), that the results showed that 99.6% of the households in the Occupied Palestinian Territories(OPT) were connecting to the public electricity network in July 2005 while the percentage was 97.2% in July 1999.

It added that the south of the West Bank (WB) is the lowest percentage of households connected to electricity network while the north of the West Bank has99.7% of households connected to the network.

According to petroleum fuel, the results showed that "69.2% of households in the Palestinian Territory are utilizing solar energy by using solar energy heaters in July 2005, where this percentage was 68.0% in July 1999 distributed as: about 79.5% in the Gaza Strip and 63.8% in the WB."

"98.2% of households in the OPT depend on petroleum gas as a main fuel for cooking, where this percent was 97.7% in the same period in 1999. While 3.5% of the households depend on electricity as a secondary fuel for cooking, 6.1% households depend on wood as a secondary fuel for cooking," PCBS said.

During July 2005, the average household electricity consumption in the OPT was 264 KWh, while it was 380.1 in the same period in 1999. It reached 492 KWh in the Middle of the WB and did not exceed 202 KWh in the Gaza Strip (GS).

While the average household gasoline consumption in the Palestinian Territory during July 2005 was 11 liters, , it reached 22 liters in the Middle of West Bank and didn't exceed 11 liters in the North of the WB, and 5 liters in GS.

PCBS concluded that the main findings of the survey indicate that the average household liquefied petroleum gas consumption in the OPT during July 2005 was 18 kg, and the average was 20 kg in July 2004.

M.H.(14:14 P) (12:14 GMT)