The severity of the power outage crisis destroys vital service sectors
"4 hours of electricity" ... the daily life dose for the two million people besieged in Gaza
The Gaza power plant announced its inability to set a regular schedule for the distribution of electricity since mid-August. Emirates today
Kidney patients swallow the bitterness of the electricity crisis in Gaza. Emirates today
A severe water scarcity crisis caused by the worsening power cuts. Emirates today
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The residents of the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, spent 36 continuous hours without electricity, to face the extremely hot day and the dark night, without having alternative means to help them overcome these crises.
After these long, tense hours, the electrical current was connected, so that the homes of Gazans turned into an active beehive, as housewives rushed to complete household duties that depend on electricity, while the children assumed the task of operating water-pumping generators, when the electricity came, the water was cut off directly, and the opposite is quite true.
This caused a crisis of water scarcity inside homes over several days, as well pumps need electrical generators to pump water to the homes of citizens, who do not have an alternative means to transport it inside their homes, if there is a power outage.
This atmosphere remained unchanged without much accomplishment, as the homework and small workshop works in the poor camp did not last for more than four hours, so that electricity was absent again from the refugee homes until further notice, and the crises resulting from the power outages returned to spoil the residents' peace and confuse their day. day and night.
Extreme confusion
"Emirates Today" toured the narrow streets and alleys of the Shati refugee camp, and moved between the homes of the residents, where the features of despair and anger were printed on the faces of many of them, due to the exacerbation of the power outage crisis that intensified in mid-August, and as a result of their inability to cope with the long hours of disconnection, due to their inability To provide and own alternative energy means.
Umm Muhammad Abu Hasirah, a resident of the Shati Refugee Camp, says in a sharp tone of anger, “Friday and Saturday were one of the most difficult days in our lives. The electrical current was disconnected from our camp at ten at night on Friday 21 August, and it was reconnected on Sunday morning at ten in the morning for four hours. Only, to disappear again not from our homes but from our lives for another 20 hours, according to the schedule prepared by the Electricity Distribution Company, even if it is not always adhered to. ”
Abu Hasirah notes that the four hours that electricity is connected are not enough for a woman in a house if she wants to perform the lowest daily duties, including washing clothes, preparing bread on an electric stove, or charging alternative electrical appliances for lighting, which is the only way for Gazans to illuminate their homes.
Paralyzed life
While Umm Muhammad was complaining about the crises caused by the long hours of power cuts, a group of camp children gathered around a truck selling filtered water to buy water and take it to their homes without electricity and water.
The increasing hours of power cuts in Gaza, which amount to more than 20 continuous hours per day, have led to a severe shortage of water inside homes, and the service and vital sectors have been completely paralyzed, particularly the health sector.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health issued a warning call of dangerous and catastrophic repercussions, as a result of the continuing escalation of the electricity crisis, due to its great danger and a direct negative impact on the work of hospitals and medical staff, especially in surgical operations departments, premature babies' nurseries, patients with kidney failure, and intensive care, due to their needs Large and full electric power around the clock.
On the other hand, the International Committee of the Red Cross affirms in the Palestinian territories that the continuing crisis of electricity cuts increases the burden on the health sector and the economy in Gaza, which impedes the work of hospitals and threatens a health disaster in the sector.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says in a report, that the stoppage of the power plant in Gaza, and the decrease in the rate of electricity delivery to citizens from eight hours a day to three or four hours, negatively affect vital sectors.
Faced with these complex crises, which threaten a humanitarian catastrophe facing the dangers of two million Gazans besieged, a state of extreme discontent prevails among the citizens, as a result of their denial of basic services, and the exacerbation of their living crises in their daily lives.
Safwat Al-Hissi points out that the crisis of long hours of electricity cuts has caused a severe, unbearable and unbearable state of confusion, the most severe of which is the scarcity of water inside homes in light of the summer and the dry heat wave.
Al-Hossi complained about the bad situation that afflicted them, “If the electric current lasts only four hours or less during one day, it does not help us to fill the water tanks inside our homes, which causes a severe shortage in its availability for the citizens, in addition to the lack of drinking water reaching all the neighbors’ homes. , Due to the failure of the water well pumps, due to the power cut.
And he continues, saying, "During the past four days, the water did not completely reach the homes of the residents of the Shati refugee camp, so our lives have turned into hell. For me, water is the most important need that cannot be dispensed with for one hour, not one day."
He indicates that the residents are forced to buy water from trucks that roam the streets, pointing out that this exhausts the citizens financially in light of the high rates of unemployed, as a result of the continued tightening of the siege on the Gaza Strip.
Acute exacerbation
The state of confusion experienced by the residents of the Shati refugee camp extends to all areas of the Gaza Strip, complicating the lives of Gazans inside their homes and workplaces, due to the severe exacerbation of the electrical current crisis in the Strip since mid-August, as the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company announced its inability to determine Regular schedule of electricity distribution, which is very confusing.
The reason for the severe confusion - according to the media official at the Gaza Electricity Company, Muhammad Thabet - is due to the occupation stopping the pumping of industrial fuel needed to operate the only power station in the Gaza Strip, through the Karam Abu Salem crossing, in the south of the Strip under Israeli control, as a punitive measure practiced against the people of the Strip, along with The severe deficit in the power of the generating station, which reaches more than 60%, as the distribution company works with one generator due to the bombing of its headquarters during the 2008/2009 war.
As a result, the company announced a reduction in the number of hours of electricity delivery to four hours a day instead of eight hours, but due to the severe deficit it was unable to implement that schedule, so the number of hours of separation increased, and the number of hours the electricity reached most of the homes of citizens increased.
The continuing crisis of electricity cuts increases the burden on the health sector and the economy in Gaza, which hinders the work of hospitals and threatens a health disaster in the sector.
The four hours that electricity reaches is not enough for a woman in a house if she wants to perform her lowest daily duties, including washing clothes, preparing bread on an electric stove, or charging alternative electrical appliances for lighting, which is the only way for Gazans to illuminate their homes.