The Jerusalem Municipality is working on a plan that would have the army's Civil Administration (CA) provide basic services for Arabs in areas controlled by Israel since the 1967 war.

Yossi Heiman, director-general at the municipality, wants the CA, an army entity that sees to the daily needs of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, to take responsibility for monitoring construction, collecting trash, and supervising water and other infrastructure services to the city's Arab residents who carry Israeli IDs.

Existing agreements with Israel forbid the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from providing such services in the area, but the Israeli authorities often refrain from entering the areas in question due to hostile receptions including stone-throwing and harassment.

Xinhua recently reported that tens of thousands of east Jerusalem residents have been coping with severe water shortages in recent months, due to leaks and illegal tapping into the water piping system.

Municipality officials on Tuesday confirmed to Xinhua that the idea -- first floated last December -- most recently came up at a municipality meeting in June.

"The meeting was a part of several meetings we hold frequently in which we discuss our cooperation with the Civil Administration, " a municipality official said.

"There are problems with providing basic services to the area and we are working in order to strengthen the municipality's sovereignty and improve the services to those residents living east of the separation barrier," he added.

However, the municipality stressed that "there is no intention to change the city's borders or alter its municipal territory."

A statement sent to Xinhua when the idea was first publicized said the plan would limit municipal services to areas west of the security barrier, and leave areas on the eastern side to be dealt with by the CA.

The plan aims to "exchange the responsibility for providing services to the residents between the municipality and the CA, along the seam area between the security barrier and the municipality," the statement said.

The statement noted that the idea "would not require moving borders" and was solely intended to improve the level of municipal services provided to the city's residents.

"There are some Jerusalem municipal areas which lie beyond the barrier where the city struggles to dispense services, and, on the other hand, areas (to the west of) the barrier that the municipality is not responsible for, and which the CA struggles to provide its services," the statement read.

Israel annexed the city's eastern neighborhoods after the 1967 war, along with its current 100,000 Arab residents. The PNA wants much of the disputed area for the capital of a future Palestinian state.

A decade ago, Israel erected a security barrier comprised of walls and fencing that snakes through parts of several villages in the vicinity, but not through the city itself. Israel maintains that the divider is meant to foil terror attacks, although Palestinians say it is a land grab.

The city plans to form a committee that will present a completed plan to the government in coming months.