Clean Water Crisis Threatens Gaza Residents
2 November 2021
The polluted water sources in the Gaza Strip has threatens the people in the surrounding area to get threatened with clean water crisis. They cannot drink water as it is too salty. Moreover, they will have impact if they continuously consume the water in the long term. Eventually some Gazans have to buy bottled water from private suppliers.
“It tastes like sea water, very salty. We can’t even use the water for cooking, bathing and drinking,” said Falesteen Abdelkarim (36 years old). Furthermore, he explained that he could not use the water in his area for his daily drinking needs. Residents’ access to tap water is only limited to 3×1 week.
In fact, the water is also frequently polluted by waste because the infrastructure is not very good in some refugee camps. “Life in the refugee camps is sad. We usually buy drinking water from street vendors,” said Abdelkarim, a mother of five children.
Private water traders in Gaza mostly sell drinking water by removing the salt content in it and then selling it to people in the area. They can enjoy drinking water for 30 shekels or about US$ 7 for 1,000 liters of water.
Plants Also Die From Polluted Water
Meanwhile, Muhammad Saleem (40 years) from North Gaza, in Al-Sheikh Redwan, stated that he had failed to prevent the contamination of clean water for his garden at home. In the end, all the plants in his garden died because of the drought.
“All the plants in my garden are drought and eventually die due to poor water sanitation and high chloride levels,” said Saleem. Furthermore, he revealed that it was possible for him to use tap water from the city for daily needs, such as cooking, drinking, and so on.
“Plants can die from consuming this water, so what will happen to our bodies if we drink this kind of water?” he said. Initiator Friends, with Human Initiative, let’s together help the Gazans to be able to consume clean water. You can visit the official website for Solusi Peduli. We are waiting for your best contribution for Gaza.
