A water stream running in red in the Qarawat Bani Zeid village north of Ramallah.

Gulf Today Report

Social networking sites in Palestine circulated a video clip, showing a water stream running in red in the Qarawat Bani Zeid village north of Ramallah.

On Sunday, the head of the Environmental Quality Authority Jamil Mutawour, said that the security services had arrested a group of individuals suspected of pouring coloured chemicals into the Qarawat Bani Zeid stream, north of Ramallah.

The photos and videos showed the water of Wadi Al-Nabaa, which extends inside the lands of the village of Qarawat Bani Zaid, and extends to neighbouring villages, has also turned red.

The Palestinian Minister of Health condemned the incident and said on Facebook: “This is an unacceptable behaviour at a time when we need clean water, and yesterday we sent the environment teams of the Ministry of Health to take samples and examine them.” The Qarawat Bani Zeid village council issued an explanation.

The council said: "The pollution that occurred to the environment was due to the pouring of waste paint into the stream, which led to a change in the colour of the water."

The council added: “This act is unacceptable and condemned by all standards. We in the village council call on the official authorities to stand up to their responsibility towards this sabotage act, which led to a state of confusion among the people, and we also ask the concerned parties to create a main dump for all the areas in order to avoid such situation.”