Water supplied in Gaza unfit for drinking; Israel prevents entry of materials needed to repair syste

[ConsAreLiars]

Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking. This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Programme, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations. They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza’s underground water system, and any delay in dealing with the problem will lead to additional deterioration in the situation and thus might extend the rehabilitation process for hundreds of years. Since it began its siege on the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and wastewater-treatment systems there. The prohibition has remained despite the recent easing of the siege.
...
Since the beginning of the siege, Israel has prohibited the entry of equipment and materials that can be used to improve water quality and taste, and to develop and rehabilitate the water infrastructure and the wastewater-treatment facilities in Gaza. The prohibition has remained in force even after the recent easing of restrictions, and despite the Cabinet’s decision to allow the entry of building materials for projects that have been approved by the Palestinian Authority and are supervised by international organizations. The equipment needed includes water pumps, pipes, generators, computers, building cement, and chloride. Israel classifies these materials as dual-use items that are liable to be used for military purposes, and therefore prohibits their entry.

The Gazan Coastal Municipalities Water Utility currently requires 1,250 tons of cement just to rebuild water reservoirs. The Sufa Crossing between Gaza and Israel, which is intended, among other things, for the transfer of building materials, has been closed since March 2009. The by-laws of the international organizations prohibit them from purchasing cement smuggled into Gaza through tunnels, for the rehabilitation projects.
...
The Gaza Strip’s power station has been working at partial output since Israel bombed it in June 2006. There is also a shortage of industrial fuel needed to operate the station, following the disputes that arose between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas regarding its funding, which has led to frequent power outages. The outages prevent the wastewater-treatment facilities from completing the 14-day treatment cycle and also impair the frequency of water supply to houses. According to UN figures, water is supplied to houses in Gaza City for four to six hours once every five days, and in the rest of the Gaza Strip for four to six hours once every three days. Due to the low pressure, the water does not reach the top floors in tall buildings.

More at: http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20100823_Gaza_water_crisis.asp

How could any sane human justify these hateful and intentionally punitive acts against an imprisoned civilian population? Anyone able to use a bit more than half a brain would expect the consequence to be intense dislike of those committing such crimes and even on to hate and even extremism feeding blind murderous rage as a response. Of course that reaction is what the IDF and zealot supremacists need and want to provoke. Give them credit, they are good at doing the evil they do.

[EFerrari]

1. It's an ongoing war crime.

I don't even recognize the country my family supported since its inception. And all the blame doesn't fall on Israel. It also falls on the Pentagon and the State Department. Shame on all of them.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Arguably even more blame with the US than the original settlers.

The US wanted it to become a militarized US-allied outpost against the godless commies which had created alliances with "third world" countries (those in the process of throwing off colonialism). It became that, and then went further to become what it's best founders once rejected.

(edit to fix tiny typo)

[EFerrari]

5. The founding of Israel was one of my passions in my 20s.

I read everything I could lay hands on and even starting learning Hebrew during my commutes so I could read primary documents. And today I fully support the boycott. This is not the nation that I knew.

[ConsAreLiars]

37. My first consciousness of Israel, other than a map name, was learning about the kibbutz model.

It just made good sense. We work together, share what we produce, and help one another.

It was maybe my first step toward becoming politicized, thinking about how things work in this world and how things could be better. My first step toward understanding and working for the greater good.

As an atheist since early childhood, I never thought about religious affiliation any more than shoe size. No interest. Probably for the first 50 years. And although I never found affiliation predictive of anything on a person-to-person level, I was a bit naive. True enough, there are remarkably decent and evil people with every affiliation and most in between, but I had missed seeing the manipulative and murderous aspect of these organized hierarchical power systems here and there and everywhere seeking to seize and/or retain state power. When Hindus mass murder Muslims and Buddhists mass murder Tamil Hindus and the notoriously evil Christian nations massacre Aztecs and Native American "heathens" or "abos" and Jews now against Muslims and ad infinitum and all do the same do the same in reverse,

Creating any state based on hate and fear and exclusion and exclusivity may sound appealing at first to those sharing that sense of being different and threatened (there are a lot of both us and them in that category, no matter how one defines us and them) but in doing so it launches itself on the same trajectory as other states founded on a supremacist ideology.

[proteus_lives]

11. Any mention of Hamas?

I'm sure their drinking water is fine but any blame for them? Nope? I see. :eyes:

[EFerrari]

14. My children stopped blame shifting when they were abou ten. n/t

[proteus_lives]

15. Too bad you couldn't learn from them.

Oh wait, I forget. Everything is the fault of evil Israel.

Hamas and the Palestinians have no responsibility in this conflict. They are pure and stainless souls beset by foul Zionists.

[polly7]

16. You reveal more than you realize with your descriptions of Israel.

Something you might want to consider.

[proteus_lives]

17. And the AIB reveals everything with this simple fact:

You can hardly bring yourself to mention Palestinian responsibility, Hamas or the simple fact that there two sides in this conflict.

I've always wondered why you guys don't treat the Palestinians like equals. "Shrug" I guess your pamphlet-sized POV is enough for you.

[polly7]

18. My POV includes conclusions I've come to by reading

hundreds of different articles from all sides for years. Not once have I used the derogatory names for Israel you seem to use so often. Of course there are two sides to every conflict where one has been invaded, occupied and to this day condemned (children included) to mass suffering for the actions of those few who have fought back. I don't condone violence on neither side, but is all this REALLY so abnormal to you? Iraq, Afghanistan, NA Natives ...... any population deemed worthy of atrocities and in Palestine's case, that ethnic cleansing thing spoken of so often by past leaders of Israel for say ...... a few dozen decades, why would you believe any native population would give it all up willingly?

[proteus_lives]

29. "for the actions of those few who have fought back."

What is Hamas fighting back at? Israel withdrew from the Strip. Hamas fighting back against Israelis who dare to live in Israel?

"that ethnic cleansing thing spoken of so often by past leaders of Israel for say"

Question, is the destruction of the Palestinians in the charter of Israel, like the say how the destruction of Israel is the stated goal in Hamas' charter?

"a few dozen decades"

A mask drop, Has Israel existed for a lot longer then the rest of the world realized? Or did the Jewish people have plot to destroy the Palestinians since the 1700s? :tinfoilhat: How you reveal yourself.

My, my. Exactly what articles have you been reading?

[Shaktimaan]

51. Yes, there certainly are two sides.

Even when one side has been discriminated against, oppressed, ethnically cleansed, attacked without cause, boycotted and constantly threatened with genocide. The issue is not "those few who have fought back." It is that a terrorist group was elected as their government and used that opportunity to continue attacking Israel without just cause. Firing rockets at civilians isn't "fighting back." It accomplishes nothing aside from the breakdown of the mutual trust necessary for peace.

any population deemed worthy of atrocities and in Palestine's case, that ethnic cleansing thing spoken of so often by past leaders of Israel for say ...... a few dozen decades

You've mentioned this before. What ethnic cleansing thing are you talking about that you think has been such a mainstay of Israeli stump speeches? 20% of Israeli citizens are non-Jews. It's the only country in the area that hasn't ethnically cleansed the people it's been fighting for the past 100 years.

why would you believe any native population would give it all up willingly?

Give WHAT up willingly? Israel had pulled out of Gaza before Hamas began firing rockets again. Israel accepted the UN Partition Plan whereas Palestinians started a civil war. Arabs in pre-WWII Palestine started ethnically cleansing native Jews... not vice versa. And finally, NO Jews still live in the Arab world at all. They were the ones forced to give it all up. So what are you even talking about?

[azurnoir]

19. Once again Prot who is the AIB you keep bringing up?

you seem unable to answer

[proteus_lives]

30. Who are the Hasbara that you you've brought up?

[azurnoir]

36. Hasbara is Israel's public "diplomacy" or as some feel propaganda policy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_diplomacy_%28Israel%29

[proteus_lives]

41. You seem unable to answer.

[azurnoir]

42. Why are you dithering? I gave a concise definition of Hasbara

and when I have used the word it is in that context, AIB on the other hand is acronym

[proteus_lives]

48. You seem unable to remember.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=327002&mesg_id=327328

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=323828&mesg_id=324252

[azurnoir]

49. as do you

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=330278#330887

[proteus_lives]

50. Make sure you send that to polly7.

[aquart]

3. Uh huh.

To whom would you give the building materials? The operating expenses? I'm assuming you believe this is an Israeli expense. Who's in charge? Hamas? You'd give money and cement to Hamas?

Tell me, could the materials, donated by wealthy Arab states, come through the Egyptian gate? Why haven't they?

[ConsAreLiars]

4. That's just mindless wheedling. I really wish the one thing we had in common,

to attend Antioch and experience the view of the world that the work-study program afforded even a small-town-rube-seeking-escape like me. Even a supremacist bigot as you now present yourself as being would have become more caring about "the other" and more likely to see other humans as human.

From http://www.ysnews.com/stories/2009/07/070909_antioch.html “I came out of Antioch transformed,” he said. “Antiochians know how to navigate the world with comfort. We feel comfortable in our own skins and with finding our way.”

Some background. I graduated from Antioch and I think those three sentences describe exactly what it meant for me and what should be the highest possible goal for anything that gets called education. Yes, also a high degree of expertise in some things, and deeper understandings of many things, but those words really hit home in describing what was for me the very, very most valuable, the essence of what 'learning' means. Learning that we are all human, that we, in general tend to be helpful but that there are exceptions.

(edit small typo)

[Tripmann]

6. Sickening. Even by your standards aquart.

[Jim Sagle]

43. Her standards are infinitely better than yours.

[Tripmann]

44. Another drive-by waste of time from the master. Pointless RAWXXXX.

[Jim Sagle]

45. Project much?

[Tripmann]

46. Correction, infantile bullshit RAWXXXXXX. Thanks jim

If you're going to interrupt the grown ups try bring more than than 'i know you are but what am i' to the table.

[Jim Sagle]

47. You started the insults, genius.

[Violet_Crumble]

9. You really should try reading articles before commenting on them...

Sayign whatever pops into yr mind might work upstairs where yr busy trying to equate US Muslims with terrorists and opposing the NYC Islamic cultural centre, but when you reply to an article with a bunch of 'questions' that have been covered in the article, it just looks lame...

As Israel has done the damage to the infrastructure, why the hell shouldn't it be expected to pay?

[Shining Jack]

7. K& (virtual) R

I'm against the oppression of human beings from any ethnic origin, religion, etc.This is purely and simply disgusting. :(

[ladjf]

8. Out of control thugs. nt

[hayu_lol]

10. Couldn't possibly be a shortage of cement...

the aid ships/boats were stuffed with the stuff.

Maybe it was HAMAS who just bulldozed 180 squatter's shacks in order to build a huge new mosque.

[polly7]

12. No sane person could justify pumping polluted water anywhere for

human consumption ..... especially to where half are children. This is the ugliest of the ugly, but .......... look over there! Hamas! Hamas! Hamas!!!

[Tripmann]

13. Seeing the denial of basic human necessities excused on a liberal board is disgusting.

[shira]

20. I'm at a loss as to how Hamas can bring almost anything through the tunnels into Gaza...

...build fancy hotels, shopping malls, villas, resorts, bring in cars and weapons - but can't seem to fix the water situation there.

:shrug:

Here's an article from October 2006 showing the same problem existed before an Israeli siege...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/04/18317794.php

I wonder what the excuse was at that time for not fixing the problem. :eyes:

[polly7]

21. I was at a loss too that Hussein, with all those millions siphoned off

from the illegal oil to western ally, Jordan, couldn't save 4,000 children a month ......... for decades, because water purification parts needed after the decimation of Iraq's infrastructure during the Gulf War couldn't get in. But, apparently, it was 'worth it'. That's collective punishment for ya ........... the neediest go without. A fact well known, but ignored by anyone trying to deflect from the originator of the atrocity.

[shira]

22. So what was the excuse for Gaza's nasty water prior to Israel's siege?

And how is it Hamas can bring in practically anything it wants through the tunnels, except the means by which to fix the water problem?

Inquiring minds would like to know...

[polly7]

24. How did Hussein build his mansions?

See the similarity? Your mind isn't very inquiring if you can't. Gaza has been denied many of the items needed to fix the problem, which may prove deadly for nearly half its children. What's your obsession with Hamas over this? Did they imprison these children? Deny the necessary equipment? Every nation has nasty water problems .......... most have the means to treat it. My own water here is 'nasty' unless treated. How about yours, pure and completely safe without treatment?

"23 August 2010: Water supplied in Gaza unfit for drinking; Israel prevents entry of materials needed to repair system

Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking. This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Programme, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations. They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza’s underground water system, and any delay in dealing with the problem will lead to additional deterioration in the situation and thus might extend the rehabilitation process for hundreds of years. Since it began its siege on the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and wastewater-treatment systems there. The prohibition has remained despite the recent easing of the siege."

Effects of 'Operation Cast Lead':

The Gazan Coastal Municipalities Water Utility currently requires 1,250 tons of cement just to rebuild water reservoirs. The Sufa Crossing between Gaza and Israel, which is intended, among other things, for the transfer of building materials, has been closed since March 2009. The by-laws of the international organizations prohibit them from purchasing cement smuggled into Gaza through tunnels, for the rehabilitation projects.

The lack of construction materials and replacement parts has also led to greater loss of water from the supply network in Gaza. Prior to the siege, the loss had been 30 percent of the amount of water supplied to consumers, generally resulting from leaks in the pipes. In 2009, the loss reached 47 percent, according to figures of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20100823_Gaza_water_crisis.asp

'20 years to rehabilitate'.

[hayu_lol]

23. If you will look closely at the middle eastern countries...

you will find that most villages and small towns have no water systems and no sewage treatment plants. In primitive and not so primitive Iran for example, they use streams for their drinking water, latrines, and laundromats...all at the same time. They have ditches alongside roads(dirt)that contain sewage, food remains including the animal remnants from slaughtered livestock and just general trash. They never get beyond this point. When one says "if allah wills", one usually relies on allah.

HAMAS has had control, pretty much at gunpoint, for at least 3 years now. What, if anything have they done? Water purification? Nah. Sewage treatment plants? Nah. Why haven't they done something?

Fuel oil for the electric plants? HAMAS has not paid the bills that have accrued so the power was turned off and no oil flows to Gaza.

HAMAS has done nothing to change the condition of water, electricity or sewage treatment. Isn't it their primary responsibility to do something?

[shira]

25. Correct, failed states don't give a rip and that's the case with Hamas. n/t

[polly7]

26. In your opinion, of course. n/t.

[shira]

27. The problem existed in Gaza before Israel could "prevent" the Palestinian gov't from fixing it.

How was Israel to blame back before the siege when there was a problem and it wasn't being addressed by the Palestinian government?

:shrug:

The point is that this isn't and has never been a high priority for the Palestinian government, other than to use it for propaganda purposes.

[polly7]

28. That's what I just said, every nation has problems with unsafe water.

They were able to address it before, as any other country. You don't read articles from the WHO or any other who don't agree with your look over there talking-point, do you? It's much, much worse since the blockade. Over half of Gaza's population are children.

"A UN study published in 2009 estimates that diarrhea is the cause of 12 percent of children’s deaths in Gaza. The lack of potable drinking water is liable to cause malnutrition in children and affect their physical and cognitive development."

http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20100823_Gaza_water_crisis.asp

So much empathy! :puke:

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[polly7]

32. Don't tell me what I'm assuming, you're no better at mind reading than

my cat Hobo is.

What makes me believe is that people are not stupid and would not allow Hamas, the Flying spaghetti monster or the Easter bunny to deny them available repairs that would give them clean water while sitting idly by watching their children die, or suffer from deadly water-borne disease. You must think the 1.5 million trapped there are a very stupid people. (I'm just tuning into your mind-reading capability here)

[shira]

34. LOL...those who say they care about the Palestinian water problem and wouldn't allow Hamas...

...to perpetuate the problem are the same assholes who turn the other way while Hamas is denying Gazans their basic civil rights and using them as human shields.

I know, I know....the Palestinians in Gaza prefer to have no civil rights under the Hamas regime and don't mind having their homes, schools, and mosques used for weapons storage, etc.

:eyes:

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[polly7]

33. Oh, you forgot to tell me about your water. Is it treated?

You have an aversion to answers. The point being ........... every human is entitled to clean water. Denying it as mass punishment is a despicable, ugly crime. The Palestinian gov't has been denied essential parts because of the blockade, just as Hussein was during sanctions. Is it your opinion that this is 'worth it' too?

And ,. about your water. Do you really drink from a pristine mountain stream???

[hayu_lol]

38. Kids have a problem with unsafe water?

You mean that their mothers don't know how to boil water? Waiting for Allah to do something is like waiting for Godot.

[polly7]

39. Just a slight one.

"A UN study published in 2009 estimates that diarrhea is the cause of 12 percent of children’s deaths in Gaza. The lack of potable drinking water is liable to cause malnutrition in children and affect their physical and cognitive development."

http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20100823_Gaza...

You obviously haven't read reports by the WHO, Do you read anything at all?

[shira]

52. Gaza sewage nightmare

The following excerpt was taken from a classified report by Israel's Water Commission on the "Impact of the disengagement, summer 2005."

"...if the Palestinians go ahead with their plans to lay a sewage pipe that drains into the sea in the northern Gaza Strip, it will paralyze the largest desalination plant in Ashkelon and pollute the nearby beaches. Crippling the operation of the desalination plant by piping sewage into the sea from northern Gaza is intolerable for the national water system. Any attempt to lay a pipe that drains sewage into the sea and pollutes our coastline must be physically stopped."

The recent tragic incident in which the Bedouin settlement of Umm Naser in the Northern Gaza Strip was flooded by sewage when the wall of a nearby wastewater storage facility collapsed serves to underscore the myopic folly of the "disengagement" concept, and the impossible - but not impossible to predict -situations in which it places Israel, and will continue to do so in the future.

Some kind of "sewage debacle" was virtually predestined to occur after Israel's hasty and ill-considered evacuation of Gaza. Immediately after the withdrawal, veteran military commentator Zeev Schiff published an article entitled "From wastewater to war" (the Hebrew version bore the title "Worse than Qassam rockets") where he spelled out the dire hydro-strategic dangers that would confront Israel if the question of Gaza's sewage was not adequately addressed.

In the article, he referred to the Israel Water Commission's Report cited above, and detailed the warnings from official experts regarding the threats to the new desalination plant near Ashkelon - and to the national water system as a whole - that are liable to arise as a result of channeling the sewage to the sea from precisely the areas where the recent tragedy took place.

more...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3383665,00.html