Everything In Life, From Water

Water in Palestine is rarely just that. Often, it’s salty. Sometimes it’s polluted with waste. When people need it most, it may not be there at all.

“We are living in a hot area. This summer the situation became critical,” says Ali Odeh, executive director of the Union of Palestinian Water Service Providers. “We have supply systems, but we don’t have water. The pipes are empty.”

In his role, Odeh oversees nearly 300 water service providers operating across Palestine, from Gaza to the West Bank, where he lives. Since the latest war began in Palestine, water has become potently infused with politics.

Some Palestinian service providers draw on groundwater and desalination plants, but to get by, nearly every provider has to buy additional supply from an Israeli company. It’s a fraught dependency, and according to Odeh, a frequent topic of discussion in service provider meetings.

“There’s lots of strong opinions,” says Odeh, who serves as the mediator for the group. “You have to understand the politics, the technical, the financial, all in one.”

Odeh has been at the center of this complex operation since 2017. He’s earned international funding for local infrastructure improvements and conducted capacity-building programs for service providers, all amid ongoing geopolitical turmoil.

Critical resource in crisis

Last year, Odeh was selected to participate in Rausser College’s Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). For more than 20 years, the summer certificate program has drawn environmental and climate professionals from all over the world to the UC Berkeley campus, immersing them in a community of academics leading in their fields. Over the three-week program, participants exercise problem-solving skills with case studies, role-playing, and presentations—all through a lens of ecological stewardship. A scholarship from the ELP through the Malcolm H. Kerr Endowment Fund, which offers support for ELP participants coming from the Middle East and North Africa, made it possible for Odeh to attend. 

With water systems shattered by bombings and supplies held up at checkpoints, the lessons Odeh learned have been urgently needed back home. Many Palestinians are living on a fraction of the daily water intake recommended by the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, climate change is increasing temperatures and further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region. “You can feel it here,” Odeh says of the significant increase in temperatures. “It becomes very hard to live without air conditioning.”

The faculty Odeh heard from at Berkeley are helping him approach the urgent resource crisis in Palestine from a common global perspective, governed by the same environmental forces and basic human needs. 

“In our Quran, there is a verse: ‘We make everything in life from water.’ This program made me better understand the meaning of that,” Odeh says.

Odeh was especially appreciative of UC Berkeley alum and longtime ELP advocate John Gage, BS ’75 Conservation of Natural Resources, who gave him a copy of Professor David Sedlak’s book, Water for All, which tackles the issue of worldwide water rights and emerging solutions for increasing access.

“I consider it so important that all of the world should read it,” Odeh says. “This book caused me to think deeply about natural resources. Not just what’s going on now, but preventive action.”

While living in Berkeley, Odeh took a special interest in coursework about risk mitigation and found opportunities to apply those lessons to support water service providers in Palestine. Because water service providers have suffered disruptions, some Palestinian subscribers have stopped paying their bills. As a result, service providers have been unable to afford enough water to continue reliable service. ELP participants learned to identify the influence of each stakeholder in conflicts like these. Odeh took the lesson literally. Over the summer, he launched a social media campaign, using local influencers to explain the ripple effects of leaving water bills unpaid. According to Odeh, some service provider incomes have improved since conducting this exercise, bringing them closer to financial stability.

Decentralizing natural resources

Besides new skills, connections made at UC Berkeley have followed Odeh back home. He’s currently collaborating on a research paper with UC Berkeley hydrology professor Paolo D’Odorico and environmental justice professor Michael Mascarenhas about water rights in Palestine. Odeh is offering firsthand expertise to complement an academic analysis and summary of the situation. 

In addition to his work with water, Odeh has spent the last several years managing his own business. As an environmental and civil engineer, he develops and sells sustainable services, like biodigesters that turn organic waste into energy, hydroponic systems, and solar panels. The goal, he says, is to share tools that will empower Palestinians on their land despite the political challenges they face. “All of the solutions that I invest in are decentralized—at the household level, at the village level, and at the city level,” Odeh says. “In case problems happen, you have your own sources of water, energy, and food. You can take them and survive.”

Since participating in the ELP, Odeh says he’s learned the difference between acting as a manager and serving as a true leader. It’s about having the confidence to take initiative as an individual. “ It starts with a lot of small behaviors. For example, when leaving a room, I turn off the light,” Odeh says. “If I do that, and you do that, and one million people do that, we will make global change.”