Three liters of water per inhabitant per day. This is the worrying humanitarian observation in Gaza made by the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 15, which recalls that a “vital minimum of 20 liters of water per day and per person is recommended to respond to the basic needs of hydration and personal hygiene.
The difficulty of accessing water was already a daily concern in Gaza. Indeed, even before the resurgence of the conflict, more than 90% of water was already deemed unfit for consumption by the UN. The territory’s main fresh water resource came from an aquifer, an overexploited and already heavily polluted groundwater source, which was not enough to meet the needs of Gazans. To compensate for this lack of drinking water, a large water desalination plant was built in the south of Gaza.
Estimated average water consumption per capita in the Gaza Strip in 2021 and as of October 15, 2023
© / AFP
But due to a lack of electricity and fuel due to the blockade led by Israel, this station as well as the few others present in the territory had to be shut down. Without forgetting the colossal damage to hydraulic infrastructure caused by intensive bombing. Finally, to this we must also add drinking water coming directly from Israel, which represented nearly 10% of Gaza’s annual water consumption, and whose supply has been cut off since the Hamas terrorist attack. last October 7.
Significant health consequences
The consequences of this water shortage are multiple. There is obviously dehydration, which is very worrying when we know that half of Gaza’s nearly 2.1 million inhabitants are under 18 years old. Without clean water, hospitals and health services also cannot function even at their bare minimum.
The solutions Gazans are seeking could prove even more dire. The latter no longer hesitate to turn as a last resort to brackish water from agricultural wells, unfit for consumption, which “raises serious concerns about the spread of water-borne diseases” such as cholera or dysentery, developed the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). This Sunday, October 22, five UN organizations judged that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was now “catastrophic”, ensuring that hospitals are “overwhelmed” with wounded and that children “are dying at an alarming rate”.
Faced with this looming health crisis, hope lies partly in humanitarian aid, which was able to begin entering Gaza this Saturday, October 21, from the south of the territory. 20 trucks were able to cross the border between Egypt and Gaza on Saturday, followed by 17 others this Sunday, bringing water and food. But while Israel intensifies its bombings on the Gaza Strip, and announces that it is preparing for a ground invasion to fight Hamas, access to vital resources for civilian populations does not appear to be improving.