Jerusalem - An Israeli human rights organization warned Tuesday of a "grave water shortage" affecting large areas of the West Bank this summer, and accused Israel of discrimination in its distribution of water between Jewish settlers and Palestinians.

According to B'Tselem, the average Palestinian in the West Bank currently consumes some 66 litres of water per day, while Israelis - both in West Bank settlements and in Israel proper - commonly use up some 200 litres per person a day.

Palestinians in the West Bank rely for about half their water on Mekorot, the Israeli water company, obtaining the remainder from their own wells and sources, B'Tselem said.

But they have already used up all the water stored from rainfall this year because of a severe drought. Rainfall this year in the West Bank was 64 per cent of average, the organization said.

It said it had received the figures from the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), which had appealed to it for help and said it feared it would be at least 40 million cubic metres of water short to meet total Palestinian needs for 2008.

The PWA had asked Mekorot for an immediate extra emergency supply of water of eight million cubic metres.

According to B'Tselem, at least 17 per cent of the 2.4 million Palestinians living in the West Bank are either not connected at all, or only partially connected to a water network. They are therefore forced to buy water at higher prices on the private market from tankers, which fill tanks on rooftops. Other Palestinians who are connected to water networks report that they are cut off for several hours a day because supply is not meeting demand.

B'Tselem to a large degree blamed Israel's "discriminatory policy in distributing the joint water resources in the West Bank," as well as the limits it places on the Palestinian Authority's ability to drill new wells, for the chronic water shortage in the Palestinian areas.

But it said that this summer's shortage was worse because of the accumulated effect of several years of drought.

Mekorot said in response that it supplied some 49 million cubic metres of water to the West Bank in 2007, which it said was some 18 million cubic metres more than required under the 1993 Oslo interim peace agreement.

The Israeli government company said it was continuing to supply the same amount of water to the West Bank also in 2008, even when it significantly reduced supplies to the agricultural sector in Israel proper because of the past years of drought.

A spokeswoman, Hila Yitzhak, also said that both Israelis and Palestinians pay the same price for the water it supplies to them.

Both B'Tselem and Mekorot also pointed out that many Palestinian farmers illegally hook up to the company's pipe networks and "steal" water, especially in those areas of the West Bank which do not have autonomy and are still administered by Israel (known as "area C" under the Oslo accords.)

Mekorot said that in the area of the southern West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, some 50 per cent of the water it supplied there was being stolen.

B'Tselem also accused the Israeli government of failing to cope with the water theft.

A statement issued by the human rights group called on the Israeli government to ensure adequate water supply to all residents of the West Bank "without discrimination," and to allow the Palestinians to develop new water sources. (dpa)