- 18 juli 2010
Lieberman: Israel planning to improve Gaza's water and electricity infrastructure
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stands with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton before their meeting in Jerusalem on July 18, 2010.
In meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Israel 'is looking for serious partners' to improve economic situation in Gaza.
Israel is working on a plan to build a power station, desalination plants and infrastructure for water purification in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday.
"These projects can resolve a real problem of drinking water and electricity and improve the situation," Lieberman said.
After a meeting with European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, Lieberman said the new Israeli policy of increasing the amount of goods that can enter the Gaza Strip "is not enough" and that his government "is looking for serious partners" to improve the economic situation in the coastal territory.
Lieberman told Ashton he hoped members of the European Union would back the Israeli plan.
Ashton said Israel's recent easing of its Gaza blockade was a "step forward" but called on Israel also to allow exports from the Gaza Strip.
Ashton said she supported the U.S. vision of a two-state solution in which "Gaza should take part."
The EU, she said, is "examining the options" in order to help Palestinians in the control of their borders and Israel in security issues, but rejected the idea of sending "forces" to accomplish these aims.
http://fwd4.me/06R5
Israel dumps waste on Palestinians
(3:12) Israel dumps waste on Palestinians da english.aljazeera.net
Israeli settlements have been dumping untreated waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through the occupied West Bank, affecting Palestinian villages along its banks.
The hazard posed is compounded by the dumping of toxic chemical waste on agricultural land, with villagers reporting a rash of skin diseases and respiratory problems.
The Israeli government has banned plans by the Palestinian Authority to build pipes and pumps to treat and divert wastewater away from the affected villages.
Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stands with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton before their meeting in Jerusalem on July 18, 2010.
In meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Israel 'is looking for serious partners' to improve economic situation in Gaza.
Israel is working on a plan to build a power station, desalination plants and infrastructure for water purification in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday.
"These projects can resolve a real problem of drinking water and electricity and improve the situation," Lieberman said.
After a meeting with European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, Lieberman said the new Israeli policy of increasing the amount of goods that can enter the Gaza Strip "is not enough" and that his government "is looking for serious partners" to improve the economic situation in the coastal territory.
Lieberman told Ashton he hoped members of the European Union would back the Israeli plan.
Ashton said Israel's recent easing of its Gaza blockade was a "step forward" but called on Israel also to allow exports from the Gaza Strip.
Ashton said she supported the U.S. vision of a two-state solution in which "Gaza should take part."
The EU, she said, is "examining the options" in order to help Palestinians in the control of their borders and Israel in security issues, but rejected the idea of sending "forces" to accomplish these aims.
http://fwd4.me/0k2E 27 nov 2010, 02:25 , Respect -
Maria 18 juli 2010
UN Report: Severe water crisis in West Bank
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli control of water supplies in the West Bank has led to a severe water crisis for Palestinian residents. The situation is worst in the Israeli-controlled stretch of land known as Area C, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is technically responsible for water services, but simply unable to deliver.
Cara Flowers, an officer with the Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Group (EWASH), said the health and livelihoods of communities living in Area C - covering 60 percent of land in the West Bank and home to some 60,000 of the West Bank’s 2.3 million people - were hardest hit as they have a severe lack of access to water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Many vulnerable communities are 40km from the nearest filling point,” said Flowers. “This makes drinking water less accessible and more costly during summer months.”
She said EWASH was struggling to implement emergency humanitarian water projects in Area C as it lacked the necessary permits from the Israeli authorities.
The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip (also known as Oslo II) categorized land in the West Bank into areas A, B and C.
According to the agreement, Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Area B under the joint control of Israel and the PA. About 95 percent of the Palestinian population live in these two areas, though they make up only 40 percent of the land area.
In Area C, Israel has retained full control over security and while responsibility for the provision of services falls to the PA, according to EWASH.
But the Palestinian Water Authority says it has very limited control over water resources in the West Bank.
Rights body Amnesty International accuses Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access sufficient water supplies in the West Bank by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and preventing the development of adequate water infrastructure there.
The Mountain Aquifer is the only source of water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but one of several for Israel, which also has sole access to water available from the Jordan river.
“Israel uses more than 80 percent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 percent,” said Amnesty.
This is no clearer than to the more than 100 Bedouin families living in the water-stressed village of Ras al-Awja near Jericho in Area C. While they are forced to pay inflated prices for tanker water from the nearest filling point some 7km away, nearby unlawful Israeli settlements have irrigated gardens and productive farmland, according to EWASH.
A water filling point that once served the Bedouin community has been welded shut by the Israeli authorities, causing a canal irrigation system to empty and stopping all piped water to Palestinians in the area. Without ample supplies of water, the existence of this livestock and subsistence farming-dependent community is under threat.
Israel says it has responded to the needs of the Palestinians and has increased the quantity of water provided to them far beyond that specified in the Interim Agreement.
Meanwhile, the West Bank’s water crisis is worsening, according to a March 2010 report by EWASH. Only 31 percent of communities in the West Bank are connected to a sewage network, it said.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59145
Thirsting for Justice Righ to Water pdf UN report 2003
UN water report pdf 2007
Israel: UN set to quiz government on violations of right to housing and water 2010
more reports 6 dec 2010, 02:36 , Respect -
Maria 19 juli 2010
(3:41) Israeli Authorities Destroy Cistern and Water Infrastructure in the Baqa'a Valley (Hebron)
For the third time in 12 days, Israeli Border Police carried out demolitions in Al Baqa'a valley, a fertile farming area northeast of Hebron, along route 60. On July 19, the Israeli Border Police, with the assistance of hired laborers using heavy machinery, destroyed a cistern and removed irrigation pipes from 1.5 acres (6 dunams) of vegetable fields.
Israeli Border Police and hired laborers first demolished a rainwater cistern. Border Police and the workers then moved to vegetable fields and removed all of the irrigation pipes. Israeli Border Police used sound grenades to disperse the Palestinian land owners and residents who were gathered around the site of the demolitions. Medical personnel came to give examinations to two women who were suffering adverse affects from the sound grenades, one woman was taken away by ambulance.
Foreign minister meets with EU foreign policy chief, who says she understands Shalits' pain
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman continued to propagate his recently formulated plan for a second disengagement from Gaza on Sunday, after a meeting with the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
Lieberman said many statesmen worldwide were interested in his plan. "I presented it at a convention in Kazakhstan before 20 foreign ministers, and they all expressed interest," he said.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, he said he had also presented the plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but that it had not yet received support from either him or the Cabinet.
"There are pitiable people in Gaza as well as Israel," said the minister, who has encouraged economic projects such as the construction of a power plant, purification plant, and infrastructure in the Strip as part of his plan.
"I believe we will be able to make better progress on these issues than the political issue," Lieberman said, with a wink at the stalled peace process and Netanyahu's attempts at direct talks with the Palestinians.
But despite the gibe, Lieberman called on Ashton to convince the Palestinian Authority to enter into direct talks with Israel as soon as possible.
After visiting Gaza earlier Sunday, Ashton called for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit at the Jerusalem press conference.
She said she had not discussed the matter with Hamas, but that she had presented the European Union's stance while in the Strip. She added that she could understand Aviva and Noam Shalit's pain after four years of their son's captivity. Ashton is scheduled to meet with the soldier's parents on Monday.
The foreign policy chief also voiced support for direct peace talks, but said any solution should include Gaza and deal with core issues including the refugees, borders, and east Jerusalem.
Ashton added that she was concerned about the recent demolition of Palestinian homes in the capital, and said Israel should avoid moves that could harm the peace process.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3921587,00.html 7 dec 2010, 02:29 , Respect -
Maria 21 juli 2010
Water Crisis Raises At The Midst Of Summer
West Bank PNN In the midst of the summer, water shortages are reaching a high point in the West Bank. Both cities as villages are experiencing quit offs from water supply and are forced to buy and stock.
ImageHowever the water is expensive. In the meantime, settlers receive a preferential treatment in water access. They have drinking water and agricultural possibilities, something the Palestinian population in the West Bank can only remember, or hope for.
Amnesty International is clear in its 2010 report on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Two main conclusions came out. First, Palestinians are denied fair access to adequate and safe water supplies by Israel.
This is hindering the social and economic development in the West Bank and Gaza and results in heavy threats to the health of the Palestinian people. By doing so, Israel is violating its international obligations as an occupying power once again. Also the consumption pattern is clear. While the WHO recommends an average of 100 liters a day per person, Palestinians barely reach 70. Their Israeli neighbors' daily consumption was four times higher.
And indeed when looking at the landscape, one cannot but notice the gigantic difference between settlements on annexed Palestinian land and surrounding land. While the latter shows barren heats with olive trees (they do not need much water) and occasionally some greenery fighting for survival, the settlements show an oasis of plants and trees. Their prioritized access to water makes this possible. Besides that, it is a specific strategy by the Israeli government to increase the willingness of Israelis to settle on occupied land.
As an example of disparity in access to water in cities in the Holy Land, Hebron can be mentioned, standing on the rooftop of a building looking at the exclusive neighborhood of the settlers. While there was a large presence of trees and nature in the settlers' district, the toilet of the building we were standing on had a sign on its door saying: There are water shortages here. Please do not flush the toilet, only if necessary. Throw papers in the bin.
Sabri Arrar lives in one out of five villages near Badi Salah which have 15000 inhabitants who are experiencing water shortages because of a nearby settlement. He explained PNN that ten years ago both agriculture and somewhat 'greening' the land (it is still dessert or semi-arid) were possible. Now, however, there is not enough water to stimulate either one of them. The higher the houses are located, the more difficult access to water they have.
While houses lower on the hill might have some low pressure tab water, higher located houses do not have running water anymore at all. There, Palestinians have to buy water and stock it in their houses. Because they mostly live with entire families in one house, they often have to stock water on the roof, making it warm and unhealthy because of rising temperatures due to exposure to the sun. This phenomenon is now wide spread over villages and cities in the West Bank. Having running tab water from the water system has become more the exception than the rule.
Because access to water is so limited, Palestinians have to buy water. Unfortunately, water is pricy. One of the players on the water market are the settlers themselves. Because of their easy access to water, they can offer this at competitive prices. Sabri explains that they are trying to boycott settlement products, even though some families are having severe difficulties in accessing drinking water. Because it so expensive, buyers also loose money to boost their own consumption or investments.
However, Palestinians do not just accept their disadvantaged position. Sabri explains that the five villages, with international support, are digging wells. They started last month with 25 wells, and are planning another 25 for next month. The sustainability of such an approach is highly uncertain at the moment and demands more research. Each well costs 2000 EUR, which is a gigantic amount for Palestinian families.
This is where international support comes in. While this might be a short term emergency solution, it does not offer many prospects for Palestinians living in cities like Hebron. From another side Palestinians are constructing rainwater harvesting cisterns. By doing so they can use rainwater on the little crops they have in their fields or gardens. However, the Israeli occupation force which the Israeli army is under international law repeatedly destroyed such cisterns. They argue that these cisterns have been built without permission. The consequence is that Palestinians are even denied of using rain water as a water source.
Related to water access, is infrastructure. UNRWA expresses explicit concern about the conditions in seven refugee camps that are frequently involved in military operations. All of them have experienced an influx of refugees because of the wall construction around Jerusalem. This overuse in combination with conflict related damages have increased the pressure on the existing networks, leading to the risk of contamination of the water supplied with subsequent environmental and health risks. Most dangerous are the transmission of Hepatitis A, skin and eye infections, pneumonia and diarrhea.
Finally in Gaza, the situation has already reached inhuman conditions for a long time. The water authorities there are not allowed to import materials to restore the water and sanitation systems. Even not UNRWA can import these necessary materials to increase efficiency.
As a result much of the water in Gaza is polluted. John Ging, chief operations officer for UNRWA in Gaza, explained to PNN that 90% of the water is not drinkable. UNRWA has an emergency food and water program, but the situation as it is now has been unsustainable for years. Not only the health of the Gaza population is affected, also environmental consequences are grave. The biodiversity, once very rich at the Mediterranean, is dying out rapidly. After all, because the infrastructure is in such a horrible state, Gaza has no other option than dumping most waste water in the sea.
http://fwd4.me/0k2G 7 jan 2011, 08:44 , Respect -
Maria 15 jan 2011, 17:05 , Respect -
Maria 26 juli 2010
Pollution fears at river Jordan pilgrimage spot
PIlgrims immersing themselves in the river Jordan at a baptism ceremony at Qasar al-Yahud.
Israeli officials to test water after samples reveal high levels of sewage
Christian pilgrims should be banned from entering the river Jordan at the site where Jesus is believed to have been baptised because of dangerous levels of pollutants, Israel's ministry of health has said.
The site was closed to the public today to allow the river's water to be tested following preliminary results from recent samples which showed high levels of raw sewage and agricultural chemicals.
But the demand to close or limit access to the site is controversial because of an uncompleted $2m (£1.3m) refurbishment project aimed at attracting more pilgrims to what is the third most important Christian site in the Holy Land, after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Around 100,000 people visit the site at Qasar al-Yahud, near Jericho, each year to be baptised in what they regard as holy water or to take away samples for baptisms at home.
Access to the site is only permitted with consent from the civil administration, the Israeli body set up by military decree to govern most of the West Bank.
The baptism site straddles the border with Jordan, and the Israeli side is within a closed military zone.
Signs posted at the gated entrance to the site warn of pollution as well as land mines.
Visitors are accompanied by an armed escort along a road bordered by barbed wire through a desert landscape to the river.
Red and white tape was today barring access to the water, although visitors on the Jordanian side, a few metres across the river, were free to immerse themselves.
"We invested a lot of money in this site it is going to be open, clean and convenient for all pilgrims," said Rafi Ben-Hur, of the tourism ministry. "I don't know with what authority the site was closed. I was very upset at this initiative. We will do everything to keep the site open. We believe it's safe to be baptised in this water."
The pollution of the river is largely a result of raw sewage coming from Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian sources, plus agricultural run-off largely pesticides and fertilisers and hormone-enriched effluent from fish farms, according to Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).
"It's a very unholy mix," said FoEME's Israel director, Gidon Bromberg. "In the short term, the site should close to baptisms the water is a risk to public health."
In the longer term, Bromberg said, the river's water needs to be rehabilitated. Currently, 98% of the water is diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan, mainly for agricultural use, which means the pollutants are highly concentrated.
FoEME is concerned that Israel's fear of losing tourists and pilgrims to the Jordanian side of the site could lead to pressure to keep it open despite the risks. "If the ministry of health caves in, we will take them to court," said Bromberg.
A health ministry statement said: "This is a complicated issue which requires discussions at the highest levels. Until a final decision is made, there will be no change in the directives of the ministry."
At the near-deserted site today, Torhild Tollefsen, 36, from Stavanger in Norway, persuaded officials to allow entry to her and her fiancé to collect some of the green stagnant water to baptise their future children.
"It's much smaller than I imagined," she said. "We came to see the place where Jesus was baptised. It's a special place, but the colour of the river is a bit strange.
"It's sad. This is a sacred place for me and for Christians all over the world. It's important that the river is healthy."
The refurbishment of the site includes landscaping the area down to the river with stone and decking, wheelchair access and shaded areas to provide shelter from the blistering sun.
Among the items on sale in the newly-opened gift shop are T-shirts saying: "I was baptised in the Jordan river."
http://fwd4.me/0k2H 20 jan 2011, 20:09 , Respect -
Maria 28 juli 2010
UN declares clean water a 'fundamental human right'
Many people around the world have little or no access to clean drinking water
The UN has declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right.
About 1.5m children under five die each year from water and sanitation-related diseases.
The resolution was passed with 122 nations in favour, none against and 41 abstentions.
Abstaining countries said the resolution could undermine a process in the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva to build a consensus on water rights.
The text of the resolution said that 884m people have no access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6bn lack access to basic sanitation.
It "declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life".
It urges the international community to "scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all".
Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and Botswana were among the countries which abstained from voting.
China, Russia, Germany, France, Spain and Brazil were among those supporting the resolution.
Portuguese lawyer Catarina de Albuquerque is due to report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next year on countries' obligations related to water and sanitation.
US delegate John Sammis said the resolution "falls far short of enjoying the unanimous support of member states and may even undermine the work underway in Geneva".
Some countries said the resolution did not clearly define the scope of the new human right and the obligations it entailed, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN in New York.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10797988 23 jan 2011, 02:20 , Respect -
Maria 31 juli 2010
Wadi Qana farmland being polluted by settlement sewage
Sewage from Yaqir settlement contaminates arable land and may soon affect water sources.
Wadi Qana is a valley south west of Nablus where numerous springs supply water to the surrounding Palestinian villages. Approximately 60 people live in the valley itself, and many more own land in the area in which they farm animals and cultivate both citrus and olive trees.
The valley and its springs have been suffering from the effects of raw sewage, which has been leaking into the valley from the illegally built Yaqir settlement since 1994. In 2005, the Israeli Authorities finally built underground sewage pipes after numerous attempts by Palestinians to make them deal with the sewage problems created by Yaqir and other surrounding settlements.
However, the pipes have now broken and so sewage flows out of them and into the nearby springs.
The Mayor of Deir Istiya has notified the Israeli Authorities about the leakage – through the Palestinian District Coordination Liaison Office – several times since the beginning of July. Despite this, Israeli Authorities deny any knowledge of the problem and continue to ignore requests to address the issue.
On July 24th, the Mayor accompanied villagers and volunteers from ISM and IWPS to the site in order to see if the problem had been dealt with.
One volunteer from ISM stated: “As we neared the leakage site, we could smell the sewage. The Israeli Authorities have done nothing to stop the problem so the sewage was still overflowing.” The Mayor added that “There is a high risk of sewage contaminating the potable water source if the leakage is not stopped soon.”
In response to the Israeli Authorities’ inaction to this recurring problem, farmers have been forced to build aqueducts on their (privately owned) land in order to obtain clean water for irrigation. Some of these were built with assistance from the Palestinian Authority. Farmers have also built fences around their land in order to protect their products from wild pigs and other animals, which have been released from the settlements and threaten to destroy the farmers’ crops.
Surveying the damage caused by leakages from sewage pipes which the authorities have failed to address
Israel’s confiscation of the land was followed by its assertion of Wadi Qana’s status as a nature reserve, with reference to a law created under the British Mandate. No evidence has been presented to Palestinians regarding the existence of this law and the subsequent status of the land. Despite this, on July 21st, the Mayor of Deir Istiya received an official visit from Israeli nature reserve officers. They informed the Mayor once again that the area is classified as a nature reserve, and that it is therefore illegal to build any structures within the area. As a consequence, the aforementioned farmers have been threatened with the demolition of the aqueducts and fences which they now depend upon for their livelihood.
Regardless of the demolition orders’ roots apparently being in Wadi Qana’s status as a nature reserve, Israeli Authorities continue to refuse to take action in order to render such structures unnecessary, or indeed to avoid a potential environmental disaster in the valley.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/07/13417/ 8 feb 2011, 04:27 , Respect -
Maria 1 aug. 2010
Israel says it will link Hebron village with Israeli water
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Israeli government says it will be holding a ceremony to mark the linking of the West Bank village of At-Tawani's water line to Mekorot, Israel's national water company.
A statement issued by Israel's Civil Administration last Sunday said a water supply facility will be inaugurated a few dozen meters from the village, allowing - in the first stage - village water containers to be filled without the need for transport.
The Civil Administration said it was linking the Palestinian village with the Israeli water services after residents appealed for the service, and added that under the Palestinian Authority was responsible for providing the village's water under previous agreements.
Several Hebron municipal staff were taken for questioning by PA forces in July over allegations of water theft and the construction of illegal piping, diverting water from the Water Authority's infrastructure.
The scandal prompted the PA to propose a new law criminalizing water theft in the West Bank, which Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said would be ratified by President Mahmoud Abbas in the coming weeks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303922 10 feb 2011, 12:39 , Respect -
Maria 29 mar 2011, 16:33 , Respect -
Maria 7 aug 2010
Gaza medics warn residents of heat stroke
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Medical officials in Gaza warned residents on Friday to limit sun exposure, particularly for children, as temperatures climb to nearly 10 degrees above average and a power outage looms.
Head of Ambulance and Emergency Services in Gaza, Muawiya Hassanein, issued a public advisory to residents recommending increased consumption of liquids and hours in the shade rather than sun.
Gaza residents have flocked to the seashore seeking respite from the heat in the waves, but Hassanein cautioned swimmers to keep hydrated and avoid being outdoors between noon and three in the afternoon.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=305964 12 may 2011, 09:48 , Respect -
Maria 7 aug 2010
Occupying Israelis with cruel and injust treatment persecute local inhabitants over stealing water.
(0:55) Young Boy begs Israeli soldiers not to take his Daddy after stealing him fresh water 25 jun 2011, 11:13 , Respect -
Maria 8 aug 2010
Official: Israel lowers water supply to Nablus villages
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- A Nablus village's local council has accused Israeli authorities of cutting several villages' water supply by 50 percent, as the global heatwave continues.
Rujeib council head Ahmad Dweikat said the water pumped to his village had been lowered from 5,000 cubic meters to 2,500 cubic meters without prior notice three weeks ago.
The nearby villages of Azmut, Salim, and Deir Al-Hatab have undergone the same reduction, he said.
The four villages have a combined population of 16,000, and several homes on hilltops have not had a supply of water for three weeks. As a result, residents are purchasing water from delivery tanks that cost up to 300 shekels ($95) for 10 cubic meters.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said the same amount of water was being pumped to the Rujeib
Residents filed a complaint three weeks ago and again on Wednesday that the water supply was not reaching them, he said.
A representative from Israel's Mekorot water company was sent out and determined the water was being illegally diverted, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=306248 12 jul 2011, 22:17 , Respect -
Maria 11 aug 2010
Poisoning of Gaza water puts population at risk
Report, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Thousands of Palestinians flock to the beaches in Gaza despite knowing it is heavily polluted.
The signs which dot the beach along the Gaza City waterfront are clear: "THIS BEACH IS POLLUTED," they read, and yet they seem to serve only as obstacles for children running to the sea rather than warnings to be heeded of the serious health risks associated with swimming here.
For those who care to doubt the sign's veracity, one need only to stroll north along the beach for a couple hundred meters to see raw sewage being pumped directly into the Mediterranean Sea from one of the 16 discharge sites along the coast. Yet thousands fill Gaza's beaches and waters in spite of the clear dangers.
For the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, deprived of their freedom of movement, worn down daily by the all-pervasive effects of the Israeli-imposed closure, the sea is one of the few sources of respite available in their lives, and for a people that have been denied their economic livelihood, it is the only such activity that is affordable and available.
The sea plays an integral part in the lives of this coastal community: it is a place to fish, to play and to gather with family. The importance of the sea to the people of Gaza cannot be understated: "without the sea there is no Gaza," explains Abdel Haleem Abu Samra, public relations officer of the Palestinian Center for Human Right's Khan Younis Branch.
The intimate relationship Palestinians in Gaza share with the sea thus makes the current state of Gaza's beaches and sea all the more disheartening and disconcerting.
Due to the effects of the total closure imposed by Israel in 2007 -- principle among them a complete lack of construction materials to build new wastewater treatment facilities or spare parts to repair existing ones, as well as an acute lack of fuel and electricity to run necessary waste treatment cycles -- an average of 20,000 cubic meters of raw sewage is dumped directly into the Mediterranean Sea every day, estimates Monther Shoblak, director general of the Coastal Municipality Water Utility, although in some areas this figure reaches 70,000-80,000 cubic meters per day.
Beyond tarnishing Gaza's once pristine shores, the noxious consequences of the deterioration of the wastewater treatment operation in Gaza resulting from the closure hold much more grave implications: the Gaza Strip is, quite literally, being poisoned. Ninety percent of the water available in Gaza from its only source -- the coastal aquifer -- is undrinkable, and nitrate and chloride levels reach six and seven times the international safety standards put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO).
As the director of the operation to keep the water in Gaza clean, it is Monther's job to cure this poisoning, but, like a doctor without medicine, there is little he can do while the tools he needs are denied to him and his operation under the policy of closure, which has been practiced on Gaza by Israel in various forms since 1991.
Like all Palestinians in Gaza, Monther and his staff at the Coastal Municipalities Water Utilities are forced to improvise, to make do with very little; few others, perhaps, must do so much with so little. Monther is tasked not only with disposing of the wastewater created by the 1.5 million people in this tiny strip of land but also with ensuring that they have access to safe, clean drinking water.
That approximately 80 percent of Gaza's population lives in refugee camps, some of the most densely populated areas on earth where adequate infrastructure is rare and the conditions for waterborne disease are rife, is the least of Monther's concerns: for more than three years now, Monther has been forced to conduct his efforts while being deprived of the resources needed to do so, with perseverance in place of concrete and ingenuity instead of a supply of clean water.
Monther analogizes the plight of Gaza's wastewater treatment facilities with an old car that is forced into continual use despite being denied the spare parts needed for upkeep: eventually the car falls into disrepair and begins to spit plumes of jet black, highly polluted smoke -- a highly relevant image in Gaza, where adulterated gasoline is the normal input into cars due to sharp restrictions on fuel under the Israeli closure.
Compounding the challenge facing Monther and his staff is the fact that they must also adapt Gaza's deteriorating wastewater treatment facilities for a rapidly increasing population which, accordingly, produces a rapidly increasing volume of waste. Gaza's current wastewater treatment facilities were constructed with an operational capacity of 32,000 cubic meters of waste a day. With a growth rate that is one of the world's highest -- an estimated 3.6 percent annually -- Gaza's surging population has overwhelmed the capacity of the waste treatment facilities, and Monther estimates that the facilities are now receiving at least 65,000 cubic meters of waste daily.
Unable to handle more than half of its intake, much of the sewage is directly transported to the sea, where it is dumped completely untreated. Much of this sewage washes back onto Gaza's shores, polluting the beaches and creating toxic swimming conditions for the countless children and adults seeking escape from the intense summer heat.
Nowhere is the deteriorating condition of Gaza's wastewater operation more evident than in Beit Lahiya, in the northern region of the Strip. One of the Gaza Strip's three wastewater treatment facilities, the Beit Lahiya station receives more than 25,000 cubic meters per day, almost twice its operational capacity. Exacerbating this problem, the facility is cutoff from access to the sea, and thus the untreated wastewater flows directly into the surrounding area, creating a cesspool -- literally a lake of sewage -- that now comprises approximately 450 dunam (a dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters).
The Beit Lahiya station stands as one of the most extreme examples of the environmental and health disasters that the Israeli policy of closure has realized in the Gaza Strip. The consequences of the sewage lake have been fatal and not only because, in March 2007, the lake's embankment broke and the subsequent flooding killed five people: the contamination of the groundwater in the northern Gaza Strip caused by the pollution has resulted in nitrate levels that are in some places seven times higher than WHO's international safety standards.
"Nitrate is a silent killer," says Monther: it is colorless, odorless and tasteless, but when consumed at levels even much lower than those present in Gaza, continued nitrate intake results in a reduced oxygen supply to vital tissues such as the brain. Nitrate intake is particularly dangerous for infants, for whom it can result in brain damage and possibly death.
Information regarding the long term consequences for the people of Gaza in this regard is still unknown, however, for, as one donor has said: "Nowhere else in the world has such a large number of people been exposed to such high levels of nitrates for such a long period of time. There is no precedent, and no studies to help us understand what happens to people over the course of years of nitrate poisoning."
The implications of Gaza's growing population thus also present serious concerns for the other aspect of Monther's task, which is to provide safe and clean drinking water to the people of Gaza Strip. The coastal aquifer, which runs underground along much of the Strip, is Gaza's only source of potable water and its most important natural resource.
Historically, this aquifer has served as the lifeblood for the people of Gaza and has given rise to the agriculture, particularly citrus farms, for which the Gaza Strip is famous. Once, before the imposition of the closure policy by Israel in the early 1990s, one could dig a hole within 100 meters from the beach and find drinkable water, says Monther.
Now, he explains, the CMWU has been forced to issue a warning against the drilling of wells within two kilometers of the beach, which, taken in combination with the "buffer zone" unilaterally imposed by Israeli military on Gaza's border with Israel -- tacitly acknowledged at 300 meters but practiced sometimes at distances much further -- leaves little space for water extraction.
As inconvenient as it may seem, the reason behind the ruling is even more worrying: the aquifer is polluted, poisoned by sewage and depleted by the rising population which it can no longer support. Only 10 percent of the aquifer's water now meets international standards for consumption, and, if no changes are made, Monther fears that this figure may soon reach 0 percent.
A UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) report published in September 2009 stated that water extraction is roughly double the capacity of the aquifer. Accordingly, Monther explains, people in Gaza are drilling more and deeper wells, further polluting the aquifer with water from the saline aquifer to the east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and from the sea.
Confronted with this rapidly deteriorating situation and denied by Israel the resources with which to address it, Monther and his staff have been forced to adopt unconventional means of tackling Gaza's wastewater issues. In the southern Gaza cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, Monther explains, the wastewater situation had reached a crisis level: like Beit Hanoun, waste was being dumped directly into the land area surrounding the cities, as the area lacked both an adequate waste treatment facility and the materials needed to construct it.
In response to the crisis, which threatened to deny access to safe drinking water for the combined population of 350,000, Monther and his staff turned to a practice employed by many Palestinians in Gaza surrounded by rubble left by Israel's latest offensive: they begin to collect aggregate from the nearby remains of the Philadelphi Route, the border between Gaza and Egypt which was partially destroyed in 2008 when thousands of Palestinians flowed into Egypt seeking food and supplies.
With these secondhand supplies, the CMWU was able to construct what Monther refers to as a "near state-of-the-art facility." Although chloride levels -- the counterpart to the pollution problem poisoning Gaza's water -- are still as high as six times the international standard in this southern area, Monther believes that they "are saving the city of Khan Younis by addressing the increasing levels of nitrates and removing the raw sewage from the densely populated urban areas."
In such ways, Monther and his staff at CMWU continue their efforts to keep the water of Gaza clean, but, as he admits, "we know its not enough: the water in Gaza is deteriorating quickly. Until we find another source of water, the population in Gaza remains at great risk."
For now, the poisoning of the Gaza Strip continues, and, for all Gaza's efforts and ingenuity, there is little that can be done to stop it as long as the closure continues. The treatment of Gaza's wastewater cannot progress as long as Israel restricts basic building materials and adequate levels of fuel and electricity, and, with a rising population over-burdening the capacity of the current facilities, Gaza's wastewater treatment operation only deteriorates.
As Desmond Travers, a member of the UN Fact-finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, concluded in the Mission's Report: "If these issues are not addressed Gaza may not even be habitable by WHO standards," and the September UNEP report has warned that the damage being incurred now "could take centuries to reverse.
As long as the closure persists, however, the people of Gaza remain helpless to combat these problems; they have little choice but to wait, spending their time at the beach trying to ignore the pollution that piles up around them.
This report is part of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' Narratives Under Siege series.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11455.shtml