بيان صحفي مشترك من سلطة المياه ومصلحة المياه يعلن قطاع غزة منطقة منكوبة مائيًا وبيئيًا ويطالب المجتمع الدولي بالتدخل العاجل.
Press Release by
Palestinian Water Authority and Coastal Municipalities Water Utility
PWA and CMWU declare Gaza Strip as a disastrous area in terms of water and environments due to its complete inability to provide water and waste water services to 1.8 million people in the Gaza Strip.
PWA and CMWU appeal the international community with all its institutions, especially: United Nations (UN), UNRWA, International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC), Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and human rights organizations to take immediate actions so as to face the serious crises to avoid the disaster in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli aggression that lasted so far for more than 26 days.
The complete power cut in most areas of Gaza Strip including all water and waste water facilities, in addition to the complete lack of fuel storage at CMWU led to its inability to do its duties. Furthermore, this also greatly hindered the process of securing drinking water to the population, and providing health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, shelters with water services despite the continuous appeals and warnings to the international organizations working in Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression.
CMWU and PWA demand providing their field working teams with the necessary protection in order to be able to secure water and waste water services to the population in spite of the limited available capacities.
It is worth mentioning that six workers of water and waste water sector have been killed during Israeli attacks while they were working in addition to targeting water and waste water facilities and networks which led to serious damages. Moreover, cars of CMWU have been damaged which obstruct the ability of repairing any damages caused by Israeli continuous shelling on the Gaza Strip as well as the siege that limits the CMWU ability to secure the required maintenance spare parts which aggravate humanitarian conditions for the Gazans.
Therefore, both of CMWU and PWA confirm that Gaza Strip is exposed to humanitarian and environmental disaster due to the deterioration of health and water conditions. Thus, they call the international community, especially the international organizations, UN agencies, and OCHA in the occupied Palestinian territory to undertake their responsibilities to immediately interfere in order to secure the needed protection for water and waste water technical staff to be able to maintain damages and keep providing water to the population, moreover providing CMWU with the necessary maintenance spare parts to maintain and operate water and waste water facilities along with the required fuel to operate waste water and pump stations and water wells. They are also requested to duplicate efforts to secure the needed power to operate water and waste water facilities for securing humanitarian services to the affected residents of Gaza Strip to ensure their right to water.
