Even before Covid-19 and its ongoing and devastating toll, the everyday health conditions in the Gaza Strip were [undermined] by Israel.
Israel’s assaults and bombardments of the Gaza Strip’s wells and water infrastructure have forced 97% of its two million residents (991,400 are children) to live without clean drinking water. More than 98% of the water is unfit for drinking. (The high levels of contamination in the water sources also affect products and food produced with that water.)
The deterioration of the sanitation system, the prevalence of contaminated water and sewage, and the lack of clean drinking water has led to
• a 41.5% rate of life-threatening diarrhea among young children
• undernutrition, which contributes to diseases and impedes growth (causing 7.1% of children to be stunted in height)
• anemia in 59.7% of schoolchildren
• spikes in salmonella and typhoid fever caused by fecal contamination (every day, 43 Olympic swimming pools worth of raw and poorly treated sewage spill into the Mediterranean off the coast of Gaza)
• sharp rises in gastroenteritis, kidney disease, anemia, pediatric cancer, marasmus (a disease of severe malnutrition), and "blue baby” syndrome
• dehydration and fever
Families in the Gaza Strip are forced to buy expensive drinking water, with little or no quality control, from private vendors. 53% of the population lives below the poverty line. Approximately 34% (656,000 people) lives on less than $3.60 per day. The shortage of potable water and inability to buy bottled water causes repeated urinary tract infections and dehydration.
Israel’s blockade of Gaza bans entry of more than 70% of the materials necessary for water and wastewater projects, calling them “dual-use items,” considered to have military and civilian applications. ("Dual-use items" include cement, wood, solar panels, construction materials, water pumps, spare parts, generators, clothing, blankets, mattresses, mobile pumps to dewater flooded areas, water-testing and disinfection material, essential electromechanical equipment.)
The devastating water crisis has forced hospitals to reduce the cleaning and sterilizing of medical facilities.
For sources, see various facts on Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine fact sheet.
