‘There’s no water’
The al-Manasra family lives in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City. The children suffer from diarrhoea and skin maladies.
However, the lack of clean drinking water means they fear far worse to come. “There’s no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications,” said the father, Akram Manasra, 51.
He went to a local water tap with three of his daughters – each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza’s blazing summer heat – but they only managed to fill two, barely enough for the family of 10.
Gaza’s lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of an Israeli blockade is having “devastating impacts on public health”, the UN said.
Displaced Palestinians fetch water at a distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp
‘Lethal lack of water’ as Israel blocks fuel to Gaza
Israel’s blockade of fuel, along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military, is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services, according to the UN.
Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the dwindling water supply.
“If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what’s becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours,” said James Elder, spokesperson for the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF.
“What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?”
Palestinians struggle to find clean water in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City
