The EMPOWERS project in Meithaloun, the West Bank. © Morton Hvaal / CARE

Mona and Raaed Mahmoud Abourob turn the tap on to get water for tea. When Mona wants to do some cleaning, she fills a bucket.

A few flowers grow in the dry red earth of their garden and they can cut their own mint for their tea.

Until recently Mona had to go to her father-in-law’s house to carry water back to her own family house in Jalboun, a village in the hills about 12 km east of Jenin city in the West Bank.

Now she has a well in her garden, dug as part of the EMPOWERS water project that is transforming lives across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Egypt.

"Before the EMPOWERS project helped us dig our well, it was very hard for me to provide my house with water. I had to carry water from my father-in-law’s house to our family house.

This took a lot of time and work and I couldn’t use the water as I wanted to, to clean the house or wash clothes, because I had to save as much water as I could," said Mona.

"Before the project we had no water in the tap, like we do now. Now we own our own washing machine, and I can plant some mint and flowers as I have a source of water to irrigate them."

CARE is a partner in EMPOWERS, a major European Commission-funded programme that aims to improve long-term access to water and management of water supplies, particularly for marginalised groups.

Before the 1948 war, the people in Jalboun relied on water carried from the Mujada'a spring which was then located within the boundaries of the village area, and whose water they preserved in cisterns.

However after the Israeli occupation, the lack of groundwater wells or springs in the village forced the inhabitants to collect and store water during the rainy months in individual cisterns used by each family or public ones used by several families.

Now the water situation remains the same, with the main source being individual cisterns. In dry months and after the preserved rainwater runs out, villagers have to buy water that is brought in tankers from private, agricultural wells in nearby villages.

However thanks to EMPOWERS, Mona's family, and others like them, will be able to make use of their wells all year round and will not have to pay for water.

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