The Gaza Strip may soon become an uninhabitable area due to water shortages caused by climate change and the collapse of infrastructure, the Independent newspaper warned.
The newspaper said in a lengthy report to British journalist Bill Tru that 97% of Gaza's groundwater is currently not drinkable due to excessive pumping from the only source of water in the sector of the aquifer on the coast of the sea.
If this layer can not be replenished, it is expected to collapse completely next year to become Gaza without any natural water sources, the report said.
| Bathing in polluted sea water causes infection (Anatolia) |
Infection and death
In her report, Troue began the story of a Palestinian family whose youngest son was killed by an infection he sustained while traveling with his brothers and mother on the Mediterranean coast and bathing in his contaminated water.
The mother of the child says the doctors told her that the source of the infection was a germ that settled in his body from the contaminated sewage, but they could not know exactly.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Gaza Strip lacks half of its essential medicines and its hospitals have only primitive equipment, making medical personnel unable to deal with complex situations such as the one that the child suffered before he died.
The Independent report indicates that more than 130,000 cubic meters of sewage are pumped into the sea every day, because Gaza does not have enough capacity to address them.
| Gaza's groundwater is currently unfit for drinking (Anatolia) |
Disruption and penalties
The ongoing interruptions in electricity, which Tro described as part of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority, have completely stopped the sewage treatment plants.
Pollution slowly leaks into the aquifers, land, sea and three-quarters of the coastline.
The newspaper attributed to officials of the World Health Organization confirmed that only one cholera epidemic could lead to the outbreak in the sector can not contain it, and that the pollution of the creep and the length of groundwater in Israel itself, which led to the closure of the Ashkelon water desalination plant sporadically.
The Gaza Strip is free from any natural source of clean water, and the only solution for the two million residents of the Gaza Strip is to leave. Global human rights groups fear that this will trigger an unprecedented security crisis in Gaza and Israel at a time when both sides are on the verge of Another war.
Nada Majdalani, director of the Palestinian branch of Ecopis, a group of environmental activists from Jordan, Palestine and Israel, says the situation in Gaza is completely improbable and people will explode, posing a greater security risk from Israel's point of view.
"If Israel's first concern is to preserve the security and safety of its citizens, they will not be in a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The damage has already reached Israeli shores."
| The Gaza Strip is devoid of any natural source of clean water (Anatolia) |
Water Security
This situation is not confined to the Gaza Strip alone. There is a man-made water crisis of a different and separate nature that also prevails in the West Bank. In some areas, the Palestinians do not have access to less than one-sixth of the 100- in a day.
According to human rights groups, the 25-year-old water agreements with Israel are an obstacle to the construction of a Palestinian water infrastructure, while the state is draining water resources for the benefit of its citizens. Residents of West Bank settlements enjoy water supplies of more than four times What the Palestinians get.
To make matters worse, the Independent emphasizes that the infrastructure for the Palestinians must be repaired, while climate change and a five-year drought increase pressure on already depleted water resources.
Palestinians argue that the immediate threat to their national security is not limited to the water crises in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but also has a long-term impact on the future of the region.
"Water is the basis of national security. If we do not have water security and we do not have control over our water resources, we will have no hope for the future," said Mazen Ghoneim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority.
In this regard, he stresses that "we can not continue efforts to establish our institutions and our State in general, the future of the State depends directly on water security."