Today, Wednesday, the Palestinian government signed three agreements with the World Bank and Germany to finance projects in the water and local government sectors, at a value of $103 million, in a ceremony that took place in the office of Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, in the presence of the head of the Economic Development and Education Department at the German Development Bank, Jan Wegelmann, and the list Acts of the German representative office in Ramallah, Anne-Sophie Beckedorff.

The first agreement was signed by the head of the Water Authority, Mazen Ghuneim, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, Farid Ghanem, and the representative of the World Bank in Palestine, Stephen Emblad. For the villages of Deir Abu Daeef, Jalboun, Arbouna, and Beit Qad North and South, support for the operation and maintenance of the water treatment plant in Hebron, technical support for water service providers, and others.

The project is funded by: The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, Italy and Finland through the Trust Fund Administered by the World Bank.

As for the second and third agreements, they are for the benefit of the Ministry of Local Government and the Municipal Development and Lending Fund, with a total amount of $52 million, including $30 million from Germany and $22 million from the World Bank, for the benefit of municipal infrastructure and capacity building. It was signed by the Minister of Local Government, Majdi Al-Saleh, Ghannam and Emblad.

Shtayyeh said, during the signing ceremony of the agreements, that there will no longer be any Palestinian village, town or camp without a water network in Palestine, since these agreements include the implementation of water networks and transmission lines for the last number of villages that are still without water networks in Jenin.

The Prime Minister expressed his thanks to the donor countries and the World Bank for the continuous support for the development of the water and sanitation sector in Palestine, especially the major water desalination projects in the Gaza Strip, and the rest of the projects in the West Bank.

He pointed out that the water sector in Palestine has three dimensions: political, technical, and commercial.

He added, "Despite the importance of technical solutions to solve water issues in Palestine and providing them to citizens, water here does not only need technical solutions, but rather it is a political issue and an issue of water rights, and we want to restore it."

Shtayyeh pointed out that "Israel steals 600 million cubic meters of Palestinian groundwater, amounting to about 800 million cubic meters, annually, and transfers it to its cities and settlements, and sells our water at a double price, which makes the government subsidize the sold water at one shekel per cubic meter."

He added, "One-third of the West Bank's water is used inside Israel, and while the Israeli consumes 430 liters of water per day, the Palestinian per capita consumes only 80 liters, which is less than the global average."

Shtayyeh stressed that the projects whose financing agreements were signed today "intersect with our national plan to enhance the steadfastness of citizens and provide them with distinguished services to enhance their steadfastness on their land, towards ending the occupation and establishing a sovereign and viable State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, which is the ultimate goal that our partners support and share with us." internationals".

"This support from Germany is important in order to improve the infrastructure, services and reform of the water sector in more than 150 Palestinian communities and municipalities, in cooperation with international donors to support our partners in Palestine," said Beckedorff.

For his part, Emblad said, "Work on these projects is carried out in coordination with the Palestinian government and in partnership with donors, in order to provide and increase a more stable supply of water and sustainable municipal services for the Palestinian people."

He added: This new funding aims to improve the performance of Palestinian institutions, expand the range of services provided to citizens, and mitigate the risks associated with climate change and natural disasters.