A press statement warning of a severe deterioration in water and sanitation services following the power plant shutdown and the rise in outage hours to more than 20 hours daily.
Press Statement Issued by CMWU
The Impact of the Power Plant Shutdown on Water and Sanitation Facilities
CMWU – Gaza – Palestine
Amid the deteriorating economic situation in the Gaza Strip and the continuation of the Israeli siege for more than 14 years, which has led to a decline in bill collection rates, CMWU, despite this, has worked in cooperation with the municipalities and with the help of some UN relief agencies and donor institutions to continue operating and maintaining water and sanitation facilities to ensure the continuation of the minimum level of service, but there remains a large gap in covering the maintenance and operation costs of these facilities, particularly after the operation of recently constructed facilities such as seawater desalination plants and the Central sewage treatment plants.
Amid the continuation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the pressing need to provide water supplies and sanitation services to prevent the pandemic's spread, and despite CMWU's appeals regarding providing a fuel stockpile to ensure the continuation of services, the announcement of the power plant's shutdown came, with outage hours reaching more than 20 hours daily, exacerbating the scale of the crises and challenges facing CMWU and the Gaza Strip's municipalities, with expectations of a severe deterioration in the overall services provided to the residents of the Gaza Strip as a result of the reduction in operating hours for all facilities, despite the fact that the current period requires increasing water production and continuing to provide services to ensure residents' compliance with the guidance and messages recently issued by the World Health Organization and the Palestinian Water Authority to limit the pandemic's spread and protect workers in the water sector.
CMWU affirms that if the fuel crisis continues and there is no stockpile to operate the backup generators, there will be a near-total halt of all water and sanitation facilities, as the connection hours, which do not exceed 4 hours daily, barely provide 25% of residents' water needs, and also the failure to continue operating sewage pumping stations will lead to overflow, flooding, and the discharge of untreated water into the sea, which will cause serious effects on the environment and public health of the Gaza Strip's residents.
From here, CMWU issues an urgent appeal to all government bodies, local and international institutions, and donor bodies for urgent intervention to provide a fuel stockpile to provide the minimum level of services, as well as to pressure the Israeli side to allow the entry of the fuel needed to restart the power plant.
