Sewage crisis threatens Gaza's access to water

[n2doc]

The UN warns that if there is no change, there will be no drinkable water left in the Gaza Strip by 2016
April 18, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Jen Marlowe

GAZA CITY — Until very recently, Salameh Abu Kash earned his living as farmer. Abu Kash, a heavyset man with thick eyebrows and a clipped beard, lives in Wadi Gaza, a valley in the central Gaza Strip. The wetland here was known for its biodiversity, but after construction of a sewage treatment plant was delayed in 2011, excrement from nearby refugee camps and towns began to be diverted through the valley en route to the Mediterranean Sea.

“They brought sewage for us and for our children, and we can’t sleep anymore,” said Abu Kash in Arabic the following year. “Farming is ruined. The plants are diseased. There are flies, worms, and it is spreading.” Animals and birds were soon replaced by swamps of sewage, swarming flies and thriving bacteria. Residents began to suffer from an increase in allergies, inflammation, fevers and weakened immunity, Abu Kash said. Disease-ridden mosquitoes feasted on the community at night. The stench was overpowering.

Wadi Gaza is but one illustration of the full-blown water and sanitation crisis that is facing the Gaza Strip. A severe lack of potable water is exacerbated by inadequate sanitation infrastructure, which in turn is connected to Gaza’s chronic shortage of electricity and fuel, all of which is tied to Israel’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. The United Nations warned that by 2020, Gaza may no longer be livable, in large part because of these interconnected problems.

The interim solution to the sewage problem in Wadi Gaza can be found in the pipe that now protrudes from the area’s beach, one of seven such pipes along Gaza’s 25-mile coastline that spew brown liquid into the waves. Approximately 24 million gallons of raw or partially treated sewage exits those pipes into the Mediterranean Sea each day, according to the Palestinian Water Authority, though desalination expert and engineer Ghassan Qishawi says the number is closer to 32 million. The excrement comes from areas of Gaza, such as the southern town of Khan Younis, where there are no treatment plants, or from areas where treatment plants aren’t yet functional because Israel has delayed or denied the importing of the necessary equipment. Sheikh Ejlin, Gaza’s largest treatment plant, is operational, but it’s crippled by chronic electricity outages and cannot properly treat the wastewater in the four hours a day it has power. Much of the sewage gushing into the sea is coming, only partially treated, from the Sheikh Ejlin plant.

more

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/18/sewage-crisis-threatens-gazas-access-to-water.html

[FLPanhandle]

1. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on the Earth.

It also has an incredibly high growth rate.

Even a prosperous area would struggle with doubling population every 10 or so years.

A good article on this is here... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/gaza-growing-population-challences.html#


Throw in a corrupt government, Israeli sanctions, ongoing war, and it's a recipe for disaster.

Gaza needs money and focus on infrastructure coupled with a serious population control effort.

[Fred Sanders]

2. You forget the fact that Gaza is a huge prison, whose inmates and infrastructure are frequently bombed into the 19th century by Israel.

[Electric Monk]

3. and Israel controls the water supplies, and Israeli settlers use much more per capita (wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Palestinian_territories#Water_use_of_Israelis_versus_Palestinians

(snip)

While many Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water, Israeli settlers who export their products have irrigated farms, lush gardens and swimming pools. The 450,000 settlers use as much or even more water than all 2.3 million Palestinians together.[52] Many Palestinians have to buy water from Israel, of often dubious quality, delivered with tanker trucks at very high prices. Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.[52]