Gaza desalination plant may run out of clean water after Israel cuts off power
Palestinians in Gaza may be dehydrated in clean drinking water, which cuts dramatically at water desalination plants after Israel cuts off its power supply to the territory.
Palestinians in central and southern Gaza rely on Deir El-Balah’s desalination plant to clean water, said Omar Shatat, deputy director of the coastal municipality.
“There will be a huge struggle in water supply,” Shatat told CBC News in Gaza on Monday. “We need solutions. Drinking water is the foundation of life.”
Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen announced on Sunday that he had ordered Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) not to sell electricity to Gaza. Cohen said it was a means of putting pressure on the Palestinian militant group Hamas to release its remaining hostages in a ceasefire standoff between Israel and Hamas.
According to Shatat, about 400,000 people in the affected areas will no longer be able to rely on the water from the plant, which can now run with benzene – which could be exhausted within a few days. He said about 50% of the water provided by the plant is drinking water for drinking water.
The plant provides about 18,000 cubic meters of water a day before power is cut off on Sunday. Now, it can only provide 3,000 cubic meters of water per day while benzene continues to run.
After Israel suspended power to Gaza after an attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Gaza relied primarily on backup generators and solar power to generate electricity, leaving most of the war-affected enclaves in the dark.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said the desalination plant, the only desalination plant that provides wires to Israel, provided some electricity to it before it was cut off on Sunday.
“This decision shows career [Israel] “No attention is paid to any humanitarian or international law,” Qassem told CBC News on Monday.
Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as an occupation, must ensure that the basic needs of Gandhi, including food and water, must be met.
The decision was “disastrous”
During the 17-month war, water infrastructure was destroyed on the territory, which hindered the use of clean water and fuel in the Gaza land to water treatment plants.
Gaza Electric Power Distribution Company spokesman Mohammad Thabet told Reuters Israel’s latest decision would put Gaza people at “environmental and health risks.”
“This decision was catastrophic. There will now be an obligation to let sewage flow into the sea, which could lead to environmental and health risks beyond Gaza’s borders,” Thabet said.
He noted that there was not enough fuel to operate standby generators in desalination and sewage plants, adding that existing generators were outdated and almost useless.
One week after Israel blocked goods into the territory, Israel cut off its power to Gaza, part of a standoff that has worsened in the armistice that has ceased to fight in the past seven weeks.
Aid, Food Blockade Forces Closed Bakery
The suspension of goods entering Gaza caused losses to the Palestinian enclave.
Aiming to put pressure on Hamas during ceasefire negotiations, the suspension is suitable for food, drug and fuel imports. Hamas described the measure as a “collective punishment” and insisted that concessions would not be pushed in the discussion.
UNWA said the decision to stop humanitarian aid threatened the lives of civilians in the 17-month “brutal” war, adding that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people rely on aid.
Israel said it will continue to block all humanitarian aid entering Gaza unless Hamas agrees to extend the first phase of the ceasefire agreement to expire on Saturday. Hamas hopes to go directly to the second phase of the original agreement, which includes all Israeli forces evacuation from Gaza.
Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the Gaza Bakers Alliance, told Reuters that six of the 22 bakeries could still run on the enclaves in the enclaves and had already turned off the cooking gas.
“The remaining bakeries may be closed for about a week and unless they reopen to allow the cargo to flow, they should use up diesel or flour,” he said.
He added: “Twenty-two bakeries are not enough to meet people’s needs. Now, six bakeries are closed, which will increase demand for bread and aggravate the condition.”
The move also led to higher prices for basic food and fuel, forcing many to evaluate their meals.
Ghada al-Rakab, 40, was displaced from her destroyed house and lived in a tent in Khan Younis, who was struggling to find basic needs. The mother of six baked goods for her family and neighbors, sometimes renting out temporary clay ovens for nominal prices.
“What kind of life do we live? No electricity, no water, no life. We don’t even have a proper life. What else in life? God can take us to rest.”
