Opening a desalination plant in Al-Fukhari, Khan Younis, with a capacity of 50 m3 daily, funded by UNICEF.
Funded by UNICEF....
CMWU Opens a Water Desalination Plant in the Al-Fukhari Area, Khan Younis Governorate, South of the Gaza Strip..
CMWU, in cooperation with Al-Fukhari Municipality, organized the opening ceremony of the Al-Fukhari desalination plant with a production capacity of 50 cubic meters of drinking water daily, funded by UNICEF, in the presence of Eng. Monther Issa Shoblaq, CMWU's Director-General, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, Mayor of Al-Fukhari, and Mr. Sebastian, representing the donor organization UNICEF.
Eng. Monther Issa Shoblaq, CMWU's Director-General, affirmed that this project comes to increase the quantity of water and improve its quality in the Al-Fukhari area, and expressed his hope of opening a similar project soon in the Al-Shawka area. He also noted that this project is a prelude to future projects in cooperation with donors including UNICEF and the European Union to develop the seawater desalination plant south of the Gaza Strip, to increase its production from 6,000 cubic meters daily to reach 20,000 cubic meters for the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
On another note, CMWU's Director-General affirmed that an agreement had been signed with Water Authority Minister Eng. Mazen Ghanem regarding the signing of a funding agreement for the central desalination plant, the project that will secure the water needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip with high quality, about 150,000 cubic meters of water daily, by 2025, with its implementation activities expected to begin during 2017.
He affirmed that by 2020, the value of water sector projects in the Gaza Strip will reach half a billion dollars, including the construction of desalination plants and sewage treatment plants.
Through the efforts made to solve the sewage problem in the southern governorates, Eng. Monther Shoblaq pointed to the actual existence of a sewage treatment project in the eastern areas of Khan Younis governorate, which will continue to cover all parts of Khan Younis governorate by 2025.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, Mayor of Al-Fukhari, praised the serious direction taken by CMWU to work on implementing the drinking water desalination plant, which is considered the first and only one in the Al-Fukhari area, noting that water kiosks had also been built outside the plant, operating 6 days a week, and affirmed that during the coming period, in cooperation with CMWU, a tanker truck would be provided to enable the Municipality to deliver water to residents in remote and border areas at cost price only.
The Mayor of Al-Fukhari thanked CMWU for its efforts to improve the water service for the residents of Al-Fukhari city, as well as UNICEF for its generous support in building the Al-Fukhari desalination plant.
