A warning of a difficult winter without sufficient capacity to confront emergencies, despite the Utility's preparations and distributing mobile pumps to Jabalia, the Central Governorate, and Rafah.
Heading Towards a Hot Winter If the Capabilities Needed by CMWU to Handle Emergency Situations Are Not Available
Gaza – CMWU
Eng. Omar Shatat, CMWU's Deputy Director-General for Technical Affairs, stated that CMWU is exerting every effort to prepare to receive the current rainy season, and in this context, the Emergency Committee formed from the Utility's main headquarters and the municipalities' crews in all governorates of the Gaza Strip has made the prior preparations and arrangements needed, as usual every year before the winter season and its consequences, as a preventive measure before emergency intervention, in terms of cleaning sewage stations and maintaining the pumps located in them, which face a very high load resulting from rainwater flowing towards the sewage stations, to prevent any flooding, and cleaning rainwater drains in the streets, as well as cleaning and clearing the drains of the basins where rainwater accumulates.
Confronting the Depression
Eng. Shatat noted that CMWU intervened significantly during the past two days, in cooperation with the municipalities, to ease any flooding or drowning incidents that might occur as a result of the weather depression that hit the Gaza Strip, and indeed no difficult incidents were recorded and everything was under control according to the Utility's available capabilities, and in this context, the Utility distributed some mobile pumps to various areas across the Strip, including Jabalia, the Central Governorate, and Rafah at the same time.
Eng. Shatat said that Al-Wafiya area in Khan Younis city witnessed a major intervention by the Utility, as that area witnesses continuous flooding every year. About a thousand meters of 8-inch pipes were dispensed and installed by the Utility to speed up the pumping of water and prevent it from accumulating in the streets, which used to cause flooding in low-lying areas and homes. It is worth noting that preparations are underway to implement rainwater projects in various areas of the southern governorates, particularly Al-Wafiya area in Khan Younis, funded by the European Union through UNICEF, in cooperation with CMWU and the Water Authority, which would provide a radical solution to the problem of recurring flooding in these areas.
Eng. Shatat continued that Rafah city was highly prepared to receive the weather depression in terms of mobile pumping stations and providing electrical generators in case of power outages and the prior preparation of the pumping stations' generators, and indeed no significant malfunctions or shutdown incidents were recorded in the city, which witnessed the largest amount of rainfall during the depression.
Preparations for the Coming Winter
CMWU's Deputy Director-General for Technical Affairs concluded his talk by saying that the preparations for the current winter season are very difficult amid the unavailability of sufficient quantities of fuel or spare parts for the generators and a shortage of equipment, and therefore action must be taken quickly towards the events that might occur in the current winter season, appealing to all institutions working and interested in the water and sanitation sector, whether donors, government bodies, or civil organizations, on the necessity of supporting the Utility with all the operation and maintenance requirements, because if the plans set by the Utility and its emergency needs in this regard, which it has submitted to donors and the relevant bodies, are not responded to, we are heading towards a hot winter full of crises, and we will see flooding as a result of rainwater mixing with sewage water, so the stations become loaded with several times their operating capacity, and with the scarcity of electricity, fuel, and spare parts, the stations will stop working.
