In a message read at the World Water Forum in Istanbul, the Palestinian Authority president said Israel's unilateral control over rivers and aquifers meant scarce water resources were not being shared equitably "as required by international law."

Palestinians had four times less water per capita than Israelis living in Israel, a consumption level that fell far below the World Health Organization's guidelines for minimum daily access to water, Abbas said.

"The reason for this disparity has nothing to do with lifestyle between Palestinians and Israelis -- for when it comes to water all human beings have the same needs -- but due to Israel's control and inequitable distribution to the Palestinians," Abbas said.

"It is with dismay that I see 9,000 Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley utilise one-quarter of the water that the entire Palestinian population in the West Bank utilises," he said.

"It is also with dismany that we witnessed Israel's systematic de-development and destruction of Gaza's water infrastructure, where today only 10-20 percent of the water there is drinkable."

Abbas said the situation "is not only unjust, but unnecessary."

"Palestinians should not be forced to wait until a peace agreement is reached before (they are) allowed (their) rightful share of the transboundary water resources. Water is an essential human necessity that should not be subject to the dictates of a single party or used as a tool of control."

The statement was read at a press conference by Shaddad Attili, head of the Palestinian Water Authority.

Attili said Israel uses 90 percent of transboundary water resources, and Israelis have per-capita water consumption of 348 litres (76 gallons) per day; the Palestinians are alloted the remaining 10 percent, and have daily consumption of 78 litres (17.6 gallons) per day, compared to WHO recommendations of at least 100 litres (22 gallons) a day.

Abbas also said the Palestinian Authority, upon gaining statehood, would become party to a 1997 UN pact on water supplies that cross international boundaries.

This document -- the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses -- requires a country that controls an aquifer or watershed that straddles an international boundary to ensure other parties have equitable use of the water.

Only 16 countries have ratified the convention so far; 35 are needed before it becomes international law. France this month announced its intention to ratify.

In the Palestinian-Israeli case, the struggle over water supplies pertains to the basin of the Jordan River and a coastal aquifer that stretches underneath Gaza.

The World Water Forum has gathered more than 27,000 policymakers, corporate executives, water specialists and activists in a broad conference focused on the globe's worsening problems of freshwater. The seven-day event winds up on Sunday.

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