Gaza, 30/09/2017---- Press House-Palestine launched on Saturday the activities of the media campaign " #GazaWater", in the participation and cooperation of many different organizations and various social media bodies as well as a number of twitters.
The activity was attended by Mr.Belal Jadallah, Head of the organization, Bo Shack, Head of UNRWA operation, Mazen Al-Banna, Deputy of Water Authority, Maher Salem, General Manager of Water Department in Gaza Municipality, and the businessman Moneeb Al-Masry, as well as tens of male and female journalists and social media activists.
The activities started by a speech for Mr.Belal Jadallah, who welcomed all guests and attendees. Then he asked all attendees to tweet with the hash tag #GazaWater.
Jadallah added; #GazaWater or #مياه_غزة Hash tags in Arabic and English about the water crisis will be tweeted on by the beginning of the conference.
He called on the importance of paying attention to this crisis of the Gaza Strip, clarifying that all local and international reports focus on the expected dangers of this crisis and its influences on the Strip by 2020.
Jadallah noted that the campaign includes many field activities such as distributing brochures to shed the light on this crisis. Moreover, awareness workshop will be held in the vulnerable areas of the strip, which they are not able to access water.
Jadallah called the national consensus government to give this issue a priority, to avoid a catastrophe coming soon to the strip. He also called the international community to take its responsibility and consider this issue.
He stressed on the importance of finding solutions and best plans for this issue as it deserves a to-be-given priority, asking the local and national media outlets and the social media activists to focus on this problem and contribute to making it a popular crisis.
He also asked all local and international organizations, representatives, bodies, civil society organization, NGos, and the private sector to shed the light on the water crisis of the strip.
At the end of Jadallah's speech, he praised all parties contributed to the success of the campaign, aiming at helping the marginalized groups to overcome this crisis.
In his turn, Bo Shack, Head of UNRWA operation, thanked the Press House for implementing this campaign, which sheds the light on a miserable situation of water sector in the strip.
During his speech, he stated; " we have passed through many problems including electricity which has affected all walks of life in the strip."
He added; " UN has created a report for a few couple of years about Gaza 2020 which sheds the light on many problems the strip will face by 2020."
He noted that some prosecutions can be taken to reflect what it may happen in the coming years, confirming that electricity and energy projects have to be launched in order to develop the infrastructure of the strip and solving unemployment problem."
He explained that UNRWA created some water wells to solve this problem, and still working with related organizations to face these problems as much as it can."
Regarding the water situation, Mazen AL-Banna, Deputy of Water Authority, confirmed that the available water resources in the Gaza Strip are so limited."
Al-Banna mentioned that the underground water in the strip which take its water from rain, is no more than 50 M.C per year, noting that the needs of populations are no less than 250 M.C per year.
Al-Banna noted that the water authority set a plan 20 years ago to manage the water resources and coastal underground water, where it depended on a fund of almost 1 billion USD within water sanitation projects and sewage recycle.
He followed; " the political horizon that has been hindered during the last ten years, and the donors' failure and cessation in implementing the projects that they guarantee. Thus, the underground water the population access is not enough upon the standards of WHO.
He noted that the return of such projects was verified again, explaining that there are some small sanity stations have been established. However, the energy problems affect the work of these stations.
He added; " we have a great deficit with negative repercussions including the intrusion of seawater, that's why we find salinity of the water in the Gaza Strip,"
He cautioned that wells near the sea reached 1,000 mg of "chlorination", pointing out that the maximum water salinity should be 250 mg per litre, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
About the causes of the deterioration of the underground reservoir, he clarified that the reservoir was affected, because of its proximity to the surface of the Earth, along with the high-permeability sandy soils, as well as sewage leaking into the reservoir
In his turn, Maher Salem, Head of Water Department in Gaza Municipality, confirmed that Gaza has more than 80 wells; some of them are working, producing more than 100,000 CM of water.
He followed; " we are sorry that there is none can be used for the human use."
" Though there are a number of plans and projects of Gaza Municipality to solve the current problems of Gaza water, there are lots of obstacles we face when implementing them." According to Salem
He mentioned that there's an alternative with which we can overcome the problem which is about importing " Micorot" water from the other side. This provides Gaza with 5 M.C annually.
He added that Gaza needs exceed 30 M.C, noting that the underground water is totally damaged due to the ongoing use and the lack of rainwater.
Regarding the sewage water, he confirmed that that there's an environmental catastrophe coming since it's dumped in Gazasea every day. He called all parties to pay attention to this problem urgently.
In his turn, Baha Al-Din Al-Agha, General Manager of Environment Protection in the environmental Quality Authority, asserted that his authority is seriously considering the water crisis in the Gaza strip.
Al-Agha mentioned that the underground pollution reaches 98%, noting that there's a deficit in providing the needs of population.
He explained that by leaking one litre of seawater within the aquifer would contaminate a full cubic metre.
The Agha also cautioned against the negative impacts of the worsening electricity crisis on water, indicating that the power deficit was 70 percent, leading to a lack of access to the homes of citizens for several days.
Al-Agha carried the responsibility on the Israeli for the water shortage, asking to help people peacefully and safely live without siege and restrictions.
In his turn, Moneeb Al-Masry, businessman, thanked the Press House for shedding the light on water reality in the Gaza Strip.
He recommended that a follow-up- committee must be set to follow up the recommendations of the conference. " I'll be happy if I am one of this committee as this issue is so dangerous." He added
He confirmed that the situation is unbearable, especially the water sector, explaining his readiness to support any project that includes a plan and a specific duration to be funded by donors.
During his speech, he talked about the internal situation, and hoped that the reconciliation work and the division ends as soon as possible. He also praised the efforts of Cairo devoted in the reconciliation.
