WSERU Photos

	Palestine
	Surface flow in the Wadi Qilt near Ein Qilt. The plaque fixed on the rock to the left says in Arabic "In the name of Allah, the merciful, hundreds of years have passed and this wadi's waters have been lost, until the inspiration came from GOD for the working man and genius, Sir M'chaii a Din Mustafa Hilili el Husseini in 1297 to the Hejera (1919). He built the dam and established the mill and restored the gardens in 1332 to the Hejera, he built the aqueduct that carries water to the fields of Akabat Jabar that is south of the city of Jericho".
	Ein Fashkha discharging into the Dead Sea. This highly saline water emerges east of the major fault line of the Dead Sea rift, in the steep cliffs shown in the picture. In the middle ground are salt -tolerant plants. Rainfall on the Hebron Moutains 22km to the west takes about 40 years, flowing through the upper aquifer, to emerge from these springs.
	Surface flow to the Dead Sea in the Wadi David below David's Spring . The blue green clay above the water line is the stratum that usually forms the impermeable seal separating ground water flow between the upper and lower subaquifers to the west. This water is high quality sweet water unlike the highly saline water discharged from the Feshkha springs into the Dead Sea further north
	Ein Arab discharges near the center of the city of Hebron becoming part of the drainage systems to the Mediterranian Sea. This arched structure rarely has spring water flowing from it. There is a piped outlet in the grocery shop 10m from this road-side . The springs of Hebron attracted an urban population from Canaanite times. The spring no longer produces potable water.
	Battir is located high on the banks of the Wadi Rafaim close to the boundary with Israeli Jerusalem to the north west of Bethlehem. Ein Al-Balad supplied the townspeople of Battir with all their requirements until 1972 when the Israeli Mekorot network was linked to the town to provide domestic water. There has been a structure built around the spring since Roman times. The spring is now an important source of irrigation water.
	The Sewage Stream flowing south from Hebron towards the southern boundary of the West Bank has presented a serious health hazard and a threat to the environment. The surface and subsurface geology is of karstic limestone and therefore pollution from the surface may quickly reach the saturated zone, thus endangering the aquifer. Part of the West Bank Integrated Water Resources Program III funded by USAID for the PWA includes the construction of a large waste water treatment plant which will transform an environmental and health hazard into a valuable resource.
	The Wadi El Nar or Kidron River, flows from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. It becomes a sewage stream and thus poses a threat to the surface and subsurface environment and is a health hazard. This photogragh was taken from the bridge which carries the road from Theodosius Monastery to Abu Dis. Solid wastes are dumped along the river banks of the stream.
	The first deep well into the southern part of the Eastern basin of the mountain aquifer was at Beit Fajjar between Bethlehem and Hebron. It was drilled in 1962-1963 when the West Bank was under Jordanian jurisdiction. A supply network was set up delivering water to East Jerusalem and the Bethlehem district. In 1988 the Israeli Company, Mekorot, deepened this well to increase production.