DURA, OCCUPIED WEST BANK — As recently as Christmas, this small community near Hebron thought it had a deal with the United States to tackle one of its most pressing issues: water supply.

In December, Dura joined the municipalities of Halhul and Hebron to sign a memorandum with the U.S. Agency for International Development to fund a $46 million program shoring up their local water systems.

It was a project of tremendous local import. The three neighboring communities are among the most water-deprived in the West Bank. They rely on irregular water supplies from Israel. When water does arrive, some 30-40 percent is lost in distribution, chiefly due to leaks and theft.

It’s this 30-40 percent that the project meant to fix. But in late February, a month after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, it was terminated.

A State Department spokesperson said by email that it was “determined to not fit within the standards laid out by Sec. [Marco] Rubio for U.S. foreign assistance, which must make the United States stronger, safer, or more prosperous.”

Since taking office, Trump, with the help of Elon Musk, has eviscerated the U.S. foreign aid budget. In March, Rubio terminated 80 percent of USAID programs after a review by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The administration also said foreign aid would be shrunk and reconstituted under the State Department. On July 1, USAID formally dissolved.

The consequences of this retrenchment will land on Palestinian communities like Dura, which for decades have counted on the U.S. as the preeminent funder of water infrastructure in the Occupied Territories.

The water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank is already tight.

While Israelis consume an average 200-300 liters per day, comparable to Americans, the West Bank average is 86 liters — an average that masks gigantic differences between the haves, in well-supplied areas, and the have-nots.

A number of critical water projects in Palestinian population centers have been abandoned because of USAID’s collapse.

In Jericho, USAID was funding work to connect thousands of homes to sewer lines for the first time. Not only is the work unfinished, but the municipality has also had to reach into its own pocket to repave the roads that American taxpayers paid to dig up.

In Tulkarem, where USAID was improving wastewater services for a........

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