Market brief
Palestine
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Palestine, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for PalestineOverview
Water investment in Palestine is donor-financed. The tracked plants are grant-financed and built under design-build contracts, often with a donor-financed operating period of about five years, and no build-operate-transfer concession is on record.1 2 Procurement is spread across the Water Authority, municipalities, UN agencies and individual service providers.3 4 The register records US$ 0.7 bn of disclosed value in projects not yet operating,5 almost all of it the Gaza Central Desalination Programme, whose plant is unbuilt and whose associated works have stopped since October 2023. Revenues are thin: in the West Bank in 2023 water sold at an average NIS 5.08 a cubic metre against NIS 5.5 of operating cost.3 In Gaza, according to Gisha, Israel’s dual-use list blocks thousands of products needed for water and sanitation, so the entry of materials, more than procurement, sets the pace.6
Market snapshot
The commercial picture in Palestine: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Political stability; higher is more stable.7
Investment climate
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.7
Key institutions
- Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)Water authority reporting to the Cabinet
- Water Sector Regulatory CouncilRegulator
- West Bank Water DepartmentBulk supplier, being transferred to the National Water Company
- Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (Gaza)Utility
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkNascent
- Tracked projectsUS$ 0.8 bn disclosed value in our projects register, of which US$ 0.7 bn pipeline (not yet operating) and US$ 0.1 bn in built plants now out of service
- Active fundersEU, World Bank, KfW, AFD, Islamic Development Bank
- Climate adaptation planSubmitted to UNFCCC (November 2016)
Opportunities
- 01Gaza desalination programme
- 02Wastewater treatment & reuse
- 03Network rehabilitation
Key challenges
- 01Constrained access to shared aquifers
- 02Gaza coastal aquifer over-abstraction & salinity
- 03High non-revenue water
- 04Fragmented infrastructure
Sources and notes
Sources: Water use by sector and total water withdrawal: FAO AQUASTAT, 2023, FAO AQUASTAT Dissemination System, retrieved 7 October 2026. Supply by source and desalination share: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Selected Indicators for Water Statistics in Palestine, 2023 (excludes East Jerusalem). Reuse share: FAO AQUASTAT, 2023. Population and GDP: World Bank WDI, latest year (shown on each tile). Other figures: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports, latest available, approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2025).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Palestine. In Palestine the Water Authority sets policy and plans projects, the Water Sector Regulatory Council approves prices and licenses and monitors service providers, and municipalities, joint service councils and utilities run the networks.8 9
- Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)Water authority reporting to the Cabinet
- Water Sector Regulatory Council (WSRC)Regulator
- Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU)Utility
- West Bank Water DepartmentBulk supplier, being transferred to the National Water Company
- Joint Water CommitteeIsraeli–Palestinian approval body for West Bank water projects (Oslo II, Article 40), not a procurer
How deals are structured
The framework in Palestine is Nascent, the schemes we track carry US$ 0.8 bn of disclosed value, US$ 0.7 bn of it in projects not yet operating and US$ 0.1 bn in built plants now out of service, and the funders active in the sector include EU, World Bank, KfW, AFD, Islamic Development Bank.
In Palestine, the tracked plants are grant-financed by donors and built under design-build contracts, often with a donor-financed operating period of about five years (the Hebron and Gaza Central wastewater plants);1 2 there are no build-operate-transfer concessions on record. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
How to bid
Palestine’s regulator publishes provider-by-provider performance data; in Gaza, delivery also depends on the entry of materials.3 6 The Water Sector Regulatory Council, established under Water Law No. 14 of 2014, says its funding relies on service fees paid by service providers. It publishes average selling prices and operating costs: NIS 5.08 a cubic metre sold against NIS 5.5 of operating cost in the West Bank in 2023, so the averages were below cost; among large providers with both figures, the table is evenly split between below-cost and at-or-above-cost providers.3
| Who procures | The Water Authority for national and some donor-financed schemes, with municipalities on some, such as Hebron;1 UN agencies such as UNDP and UNICEF for some donor-funded Gaza plants;10 11 individual providers, including municipalities, joint service councils, water undertakings and cooperatives, for their own networks; the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility in Gaza.3 4 |
|---|---|
| Counterparty scale | More than fifty providers still cannot supply 50 litres per person a day. Policy is to consolidate toward a limited number of regional utilities, with a national water company as bulk supplier.3 4 |
| The binding constraint | Materials, not procurement. According to Gisha, Israel’s dual-use list for Gaza covers construction materials, chemicals, equipment and spare parts, blocks thousands of products needed for water and sanitation, and has expanded since October 2023; water pumps and generators are among the items named.6 The restrictions warrant an approvals allowance in schedules and a delay contingency in bids. |
| Performance baseline | Non-revenue water is 35% against the authority’s 30% maximum; closing that gap alone would raise water sold from 82 to 88 litres per person a day, and the losses are worth more than NIS 250 million a year at an assumed NIS 5 a cubic metre.3 |
The tariff instrument is the unified tariff system for water and wastewater of 2021. The regulator could not compile complete 2023 figures for Gaza, because every aspect of service there changed after October 2023.3
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oslo II, Article 40 + Schedule 10 | In force (interim) | 1995 | Interim arrangements remain in force; the Joint Water Committee resumed meetings in May 2017, and its current activity is not established. |
| Water Law (Decree-Law No. 14 of 2014, amended by Decree-Law No. 18 of 2019) | In force | 2014 | Water Authority for policy, planning and water-resource licensing; Water Sector Regulatory Council as service regulator; National Water Company and regional utilities. |
| Gaza Central Desalination Programme | Plant unbuilt; associated works stopped since October 2023 | 2018 | Plant of 55 million m³ a year with a north-south carrier, leakage reduction and solar power; EUR 562.3 million programme, EUR 456 million pledged in 2018 by donors including the EU and an Islamic Development Bank-led group of Arab Gulf states; the EIB and the World Bank are partners, the World Bank financing the associated works. |
All arrangements contingent on the political and security situation.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Palestine, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Sources and notes
Interactive map: switch views, hover or focus a marker, and use the +/− controls (or double-click, then drag) to zoom and pan. Geometry and data from the MENA Water Review library.
Track record
No awards are on the record for Palestine yet. The awards log grows with each monthly review.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Palestine, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~$1.39 (average price, West Bank) | ~$1.50 (O&M cost) | 2023 | Water Sector Regulatory Council, performance report for 20233 |
The regulator publishes realised averages rather than a single tariff: NIS 5.08/m³ of water sold, all uses, against an operating and maintenance cost of NIS 5.5/m³ in the West Bank. The West Bank average was below cost, while 15 of 30 large providers with both figures were below cost. Non-revenue water is 35% against a 30% maximum, and the tariff instrument is the unified system of 2021. The regulator published no 2023 figure for Gaza. Converted at ILS 3.67 per US$ (World Bank official exchange rate for the shekel, 2023 average).
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Palestine, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- September 2026The Israeli desalination shutdown reduced water for about 1 million people in Gaza; Mekorot lines ran about 40% below contract in late September, the UN humanitarian office said.From the October 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
11 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- World Bank, Hebron Regional Wastewater Management Project (P117449): implementing agencies the Palestinian Water Authority and Hebron Municipality.
- World Bank, Project Appraisal Document: Wastewater Management Sustainability Project (P172578), May 2020.
- Water Sector Regulatory Council (Palestine), performance report of water service providers, 2023, published August 2024.
- Palestinian Water Authority, Financing strategies for the water sector, December 2014.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
- Gisha, on Israel’s dual-use classification and its effect on entry of goods to Gaza, 17 March 2026.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2025 update: political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- Decree-Law No. 14 of 2014 on Water (FAOLEX): the Water Authority a public institution reporting to the Cabinet (Art. 7); the Water Sector Regulatory Council approves water prices and licenses service providers (Art. 24).
- World Bank, Securing Water for Development in West Bank and Gaza, sector note, June 2018.
- UNDP via ReliefWeb, “UNDP to build USD 58 million waste water treatment plant in Gaza”, 25 February 2014.
- United Nations (UNISPAL), EU and UNICEF lay the first stone of a EUR 10 million seawater desalination plant in Gaza, 2013.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.