Under the leadership of France, the European Union and European Member States have joined forces to establish a strong partnership with the Palestinian Authority to promote sustainable water resource management. This Team Europe Initiative aims to improve water management sustainably through comprehensive and equitable wastewater treatment, high-quality water reuse (for agriculture and aquifer recharge), and the strengthening of the sector's institutional framework. The initiative seeks to contribute substantially to environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation in Palestine.

The Team Europe Initiative takes a comprehensive and transformative approach that addresses both Palestinian aspirations and needs, as well as the broader global policy priorities on Climate and Biodiversity. Access to clean water is a basic human right that enables the realization of all other human rights, including the right to a healthy environment and the right to development.

This initiative will build on past efforts, leverage private and public investments through European financial instruments, and increase policy dialogue to support the Palestinian Authority. Addressing the multiple and transboundary challenges in the water resources management sector requires mutual trust, cooperation, and boldness. The EU and Member States aim to provide essential benefits through joint political, technical, and financial engagement, following the "stronger together" approach.

In the last ten years, the EU and the European Development Partners have been the primary contributors to the water sector in Palestine, investing over 400 million Euros. European-Palestinian flagship projects include the Hebron, Tubas, and Nablus Wastewater Treatment Plants in the West Bank, as well as the North Gaza Sewage Treatment Plant and the Central wastewater treatment plant in Gaza.

Over the next three years, Team Europe plans to invest up to 200 million Euros and significant political capital in the sector to bring about transformative change, provided there is a solid and structured reform framework. This change will have a far-reaching impact on the agricultural production cycles and the food system as a whole and contribute to the implementation of the Palestinian Authority developmental plans. The possibility of engaging with European financial instruments would allow for further scaling up of investments.

"The Team Europe Initiative is a unified and clear message of European support to our Palestinian partners.  At the core of this initiative, there is a strong action plan that aims to protect the Palestinian right to water and sanitation while working with the Palestinian Authority towards a green transition to combat the consequences of climate change and protect the environment and biodiversity. We are joining forces to support the Palestinians in preserving their natural resources and developing vital alternative water sources. As we do so, we are aware that water in the occupied Palestinian territory has a political dimension. Water is one of the final status issues of the two-state solution. As we continue to work towards that political goal, Israel as occupying power has the responsibility to ensure that access to water for every Palestinian is possible and allow the Palestinian and international partners to work towards that end," said the European Union Representative, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.

““Stronger together” is the moto of the Team Europe, we, as Team Europe want to renew our partnership in the Water Management sector and support the Palestinian authority’s efforts to ensure that Palestinian have access to their right to Water as well as increase Palestinian resilience to Climate Change by providing alternative sources of water. This important initiative is first and foremost about the Palestinian people and the quality of their daily life. Those resources will be invested for the well-being of the Palestinian population, its economic development, and sustain future growth and job creation in key fields such as agriculture and environment.” said the Consul General of France, René Troccaz.

Background

The Team Europe Initiatives are joint initiatives of the EU, European Member States and as well as the European Development Banks. Team Europe is about pulling resources together and better coordinating, to ensure that collectively we achieve the greatest sustainable impact and transformational change. It aims to provide a strategic European response to the multiple challenges faced by our partner countries. Drawing on the wealth of Team Europe’s collective experience, expertise and resources, the Team Europe approach provides an opportunity to combine the most appropriate mix of implementing modalities to obtain maximum results.

The Team Europe Initiative (TEI) Water Resources Management – Wastewater and Reuse is the second TEI for Palestine. It consists in an ambitious collective roadmap that aims to increase wastewater treatment and reuse, significant reduction of the transboundary flow of effluents, and improvement of the institutional setup of the sector. For the first time, the proposed TEI translates the sectorial joint analysis developed by the Palestinian Authorities and European Development Partners into a consolidated set of interventions. The objective is to sustainably improve water resources management in Palestine (West bank and Gaza) through extensive wastewater treatment, adequate reuse of treated water (irrigation, recharge) and strengthening of the institutional and legal framework in the sector. Jointly designed and supported by a community of European Partners including the European Union, Austria (ADA), France (AFD), Germany (BMZ/KfW), the Netherlands (NRO) and Spain (AECID) and European Development Banks, the TEI will allow strong political, institutional and financial leverage. It builds on a set of key principles including:

• A twin-track approach linking investments in infrastructure and governance, so to allow the sustainability of the investments through institution building and capacity reinforcement;
• A cross sector and comprehensive approach linking the water, agriculture, energy and local governance sectors;
• An incentive based approach, based on a “more for more” principle, and linking access to finance to sectorial governance improvement. The TEI members and the Palestinian authorities agreed on key undertakings and conditions of success. These embody commitments from the PA; their achievement will condition the appraisal of a second tranche of funding.

The TEI aims as well to revive the trilateral dialogue between Palestine, Israel and donors in the sector of water management. This dialogue notably aims to bring more transparency to the Israeli imposed deduction mechanisms and rationalize them.