PhotoReport: Press House Concludes #GazaWater Campaign Activities

Gaza, 07/10/2017--- In cooperation with the CMWU, Press House-Palestine concluded the media campaign (#GazaWater) activities, which lasted for a week, aiming at shedding the light on the Catastrophic reality of Gaza water in the Gaza Strip.

The kick-off of the campaign came at a time when the water situation in the Gaza Strip had reached advanced levels of deterioration; due to the 10-year siege, the three aggressions against Gaza. The campaign aims at shedding the light on the Gaza water and mobilizing the international community forward to  consider this issue as well as  contributing to the provision of appropriate solutions.

The activities of the campaign started with a press conference, gathering Mr.Bo Shack, Head of UNRWA operations, Mazen Al-Banna, Deputy of Water Authority, Bahaa Al-Din Al-Agha, General Manager of Health& Environment, Maher Salem, Head of water department in Gaza municipality, the businessman Muneeb Al-Masry, in the presence of tens of media activists.

During the conference, the attendees participated in tweeting in English and Arabic on the Arabic Hashtag (مياه_غزة)  and English Hashtag GazaWater#

Based on the Hashtag analysis, the campaign has internationally reached a high level in tweets, as the impression of the campaign was 62.607.196

Raising the awareness of people

A youth team of the Press House participated in distributing brochures in the public air places,  shops, markets and neighborhoods.

The brochures include so important facts about the water crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Field Visits

The activities of the campaign continued with field visits to sanity stations, rain places and  water refining places in the Gaza Strip.

The team of (60) fresh journalists of both fender visited the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility in Al-Zahra area, Middle of Gaza Strip , where they took a stroll around the building along with Mr.Monther Shoblaq, Head of CMWU.

Mr.Shoblaq talked briefly about the necessity of spreading the awareness of water's importance and its influence on the society, confirming the importance of the journalists' role in achieving this.

The team of journalists continued the trip to Deir Al-Balah sanity station and got briefed with its departments, how it's working and the areas benefited from it.

Then the team also went to KhanYounes city, South of Gaza, for getting briefed with the kind rain sinks work.

During these visits, they also got briefed with the kind of work of sewage stations in Rafah, South of Gaza. Then, they concluded their visits with central Bureij station, which is being worked on as the biggest treatment project in Palestine.  

Awareness Workshop

At the end of the campaign activities,  Press House held four awareness workshops in cooperation with Hope&Life Association in Japalia, United Cultrual&Social Association in Rafah, Environment&Youth Association, Communication Club in Nuseirat, targeted 140 male and female people from the marginalized areas in the five governorates of the Strip.

The workshops, led by Suhair Al-Bayomy, Awareness Programs Officer at CMWU, covered the problems of water in Gaza, challenges and temporary solutions for the crisis.