Damascus - Farmers of the occupied Syrian Golan are bearing huge financial losses of up to USD 25 millions as Israeli occupation forces are stealing water from Ram Pool near Majdal Shams village and pumping it into the Israeli settlements.
Al-Jazeera Satellite channel said in a report on Friday that the Israeli Mekorot Water Company started early last September pumping large quantities of water from the 8 million cubic meter pool into Tabarayia Lake and water storage tanks in the settlements.
The continued water shortage caused the trees and crops to dry. Farmers are afraid the whole production would be damaged if the Israeli practices continue.
Agronomist Shehada Nasrallah said drawing water out of the pool and denying it the Golan farmers have caused an environmental catastrophe in the region, with tons of fish are perishing and orchards, trees and crops are drying out.
He explained that each dunum of agricultural land needs about 800 cubic meters of water annually, while the Israeli occupation gives farmers only 200 cubic meters for irrigation, which causes damage to crops, noting that the average production per dunum reaches 17 tons annually, whereas in the settlers' farms, it reaches 35 tons.
For his part, Salman Fakhreddin, an activist at the Observatory on Human Rights, said 20 years ago, the Israeli occupation seized all water resources in the occupied Syrian Golan and since then it has been allocating each settlement four times the amount of water it gives the farmers of Golan.
He noted that the quantity of water given to 20, 000 farmers cultivating approximately 30, 000 dunums equals that allotted to a settlement of 100 settlers cultivating 10, 000 dunums only.
Ram Pool is a volcanic basin where rain and fountain waters are naturally gathered. People of the occupied Syrian Golan used this pool before the Israeli occupation took hold of it and turned it into a profitable project and is now selling its water to the Golan people at very high prices.
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2010
