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Gaza -

The two brothers, Anas and Osama Al-Ghoul, walk about 700 meters every day to reach the only well in their residential square in the Beach refugee camp, west of Gaza City, in order to fill plastic gallons of water needed for household uses.

Obtaining water has become a difficult daily task for the majority of Gazans, and this task seems more complicated for them in the northern Gaza Strip, as a result of the massive destruction caused by Israeli air strikes to infrastructure, including water wells and desalination plants.

Anas (18 years old) is responsible for providing salt water for hygiene and household uses, while his younger brother Osama (14 years old) is responsible for providing fresh water for drinking, but their father Yousri decides the matter and says, “We try to convince ourselves of salt water and sweet water, and the truth is that all the water that We use it in the Gaza Strip, it is not suitable for animal use.”

The situation has reached the point where the displaced person and his family in a house in the Beach camp, close to the sea, have resorted to dry ablution in order to perform prayers, in light of a severe water crisis facing the residents of the city and its north, due to the destruction of most of the wells, and the lack of fuel necessary to operate the few remaining wells.

Yousri, who supports a family of five, said - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - “We are suffering from a severe and deadly water crisis, and I see men and women risking themselves to reach the sea to bring water to their homes.”

The well from which Yusri's family and the neighbors receive water runs on solar energy, and they get their water needs for free, unless the weather condition requires operating the well with a fuel-powered generator, in which case the operating cost is shared among the residents, due to the scarcity of fuel and its high price.

According to Yousry, “such personal wells have become the only source of water for the majority of the city’s residents, for use in personal hygiene and other household uses.” As for fresh water, obtaining it is a more complex task, according to Yousry’s description, and he explains that a few commercial stations have returned to work. However, the water is not good and needs to be re-refined, and the fuel crisis is an obstacle to this.

Yousry Al-Ghoul: The water we obtain is not suitable for animal use (Al-Jazeera)

Systematic destruction

From the first hours of the war on the Gaza Strip, Israel showed that it would not be a war like its predecessors. It introduced water as a weapon to kill Gazans, cut off supplies from the Israeli water company “Mekorot,” and systematically destroyed local water sources, including wells and desalination plants, especially in Gaza City, the largest city in the world. Sector cities.

Within the scope of the Gaza municipality, according to what its spokesman Hosni Muhanna told Al Jazeera Net, the destruction included 40 wells out of approximately 76 wells, 9 total and partial water tanks, 42 thousand linear meters of water networks, and 500 valves.

The per capita share of water decreased to only two liters per day, after it had reached 90 liters before the outbreak of the war, and this, according to Muhanna, caused “the destruction and great damage to water facilities and networks.” He said that the municipality is currently operating a few wells for limited hours whenever available. Fuel.

A Palestinian girl waits her turn to fill plastic bottles with water in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip (Al Jazeera)

Gaza water sources

Before the outbreak of the war, the Gaza municipality provided its services to about 700,000 people, and the number rose to one million people during the day, while a little less than half a million currently reside there - according to Muhanna’s estimate - representing its population and families displaced to it from other areas.

Muhanna explains that water in the city is available from three main sources: the Israeli water company “Mekorot” line, which supplies the city with about 25% of its drinking water needs, and the occupation stopped it at the beginning of the war, and the second source is the underground wells that supply the city with about 65% of its water. Its needs, but the occupation destroyed about 40 wells, which were producing about 60% of the city’s total water, and the rest of the quantity is difficult to produce in light of the exhaustion of the fuel needed to operate the wells.

The third source is the desalination plant in northern Gaza, which supplies the city with about 10% of its daily needs. The occupation targeted it and its surroundings, which led to it being out of service.

Long queues of displaced people in the city of Rafah to obtain a small amount of water (Al Jazeera)

Dark picture

In the city of Rafah, the smallest city in the Strip, which houses about 1.3 million residents and those displaced there, the picture appears bleak, and its municipality is struggling to deliver water to homes, according to a weekly distribution program, so that water reaches each area once a week for limited hours.

Hamza Abu Mustafa - a displaced person from the city of Khan Yunis who lives with his relative in Al-Shaboura camp - says that weak water arrives once a week, and they cannot fill the tanks. It is very salty water and its use is limited to domestic uses.

As for fresh water, Hamza brings it from a free desalination station. He tells Al Jazeera Net that he carries a few gallons a day on a wheelbarrow and takes it to the station, which is about 400 meters away, in order to fill it for drinking and cooking.

Rafah mainly depends on groundwater, and the mayor, Ahmed Al-Sufi, told Al Jazeera Net that there is a permanent deficit in the groundwater reservoir estimated at 40%, and currently the city suffers from a deficit of more than 70% in water supplies to homes.

The reason for this deficit - according to Al-Sufi - is that many wells were out of service due to extreme salinity, as a result of the city’s aquifer being below the sea water level, in addition to the large shortage of fresh water. The mayor describes the current water situation as catastrophic, as it does not exceed the per capita share. One person is 10 liters per day, which is 10% less than the recognized international rate.

The situation in the cities of Rafah and Gaza applies to the rest of the Strip, where the water crisis has been raging for many years as a result of the restrictions of the siege, repeated wars, and the deterioration of infrastructure.

The Gazans (about 2.2 million people) need 3 million liters of water per day, and they have 3 main sources, which are, according to what was specified to Al Jazeera Net by Engineer Zuhdi Al-Ghariz, Assistant Chairman of the Central Emergency Committee: Ground wells, about 97 to 99% of which are absolutely unfit for human use due to... Due to its high salinity, the lines of the Israeli Water Company (Mekorot), which pump 18 million cubic meters of fresh water per year, and the three desalination plants in the north and center of the Strip, which together produce from 4 to 5 million cubic meters of fresh water per year.

Al-Ghariz said that the 22 million cubic meters produced by the three sources does not meet the needs of the population, who meet the shortage by using unsafe water from underground wells, whether municipal or personal, and with the outbreak of war, the crisis deepened with the occupation cutting off water supplies and targeting wells and desalination plants.

Source: Al Jazeera