Water Fact: December 12, 2022
The Gaza Strip: drowning in injustice
You might think that water falling from the sky would bring welcome relief in the Gaza Strip where 98% of the water is not potable and up to 120,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage still flow into the sea despite the construction of a new German-built wastewater plant for Central Gaza.
But now when it rains the horrors associated with Israel’s collective punishment pour forth. The military offenses of 2008-9, 2012, 2014, 2021 and August 2022 have damaged and destroyed wells, reservoirs, pumping stations and in May 2021 alone, some 250,000 meters of sewage and water pipes.
After each of these assaults, Israel’s blockade has delayed rebuilding by months and even years. The supposedly temporary ‘Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism’ (GRM) set up by the Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the UN in 2014 to supervise the entry of construction materials has done little to speed up repairs, as ‘dual-use’ items including cement, pipes and electromechanical equipment that Israel says threaten its security can be banned altogether. In 2017 there were 8,500 items on the ‘dual-use’ list.
Today, the collapsing infrastructure cannot handle even an hour of rain, causing streets and houses to flood. When the cold winter rains began in early November 2022, Gaza City “turned into an ocean” as depicted in this short video. Children wade to school through waist-high water as water pipes stop working, cars get submerged and sink holes are created in the streets. And as this December 3, 2022 article describes, the floods are getting worse each year, exacerbated by climate change.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has denounced Israel’s 15-year-long blockade as a form of collective punishment that violates international law. The photographs in its report ‘Floods and cold hit the most vulnerable in the Gaza Strip’ provide a heart-wrenching illustration of this injustice.
Banner design by Paul Normandia of Red Sun Press