Gaza forced to pump more raw sewage into sea

[subsuelo]

JERUSALEM/GAZA, 10 March 2008 (IRIN) - As temperatures rise after the winter, more people in Israel and the Gaza Strip will head for the seaside but they should beware: Gaza is being forced to dump much more raw sewage into the Mediterranean than before, environmentalists told IRIN.

According to Monther Shoblak, head of the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, before the Israeli-imposed restrictions on fuel imports, the utility was dumping about 20,000 cubic metres of raw sewage into the sea daily. This was due to the outdated treatment plants in the enclave being too small to handle the amount of waste produced by the growing population.

Since Israeli-imposed fuel restrictions began last year, limiting the Gaza power plant's ability to produce electricity, on average another 40,000 cubic metres of untreated or partially treated waste water has been pumped into the sea daily.

"If I have fuel and or electricity, I can treat. If not, I am obliged to send it to the sea without treatment, but I try to at least partially treat some waste water," Shoblak told IRIN.

"I am optimising the limited fuel I have. I need to use it to pump drinking water and to pump waste water away from the homes," he said.

Environmentalists warned that this was having an adverse affect on Gaza's coastline, and in Israel they were quick to point out that the sea does not recognise political borders.

[kirby]

1. Disgusting city seige... n/t

[Vegasaurus]

2. So you expect that they can blow up their humanitarian aid

their fuel trucks, the plants that supply THEIR electricity, and then cry fowl?

If the militants didn't commit acts of terrorism all the time, the citizens wouldn't suffer.

So easy a child could understand.

[subsuelo]

10. Both sides are to blame

Israel needs to stop the acts of terrorism too.

[hifalutin]

3. What happened to the World Bank project?

snip........

At the end of the project, the World Bank maintained its support to the WSS sector in Gaza, and adapted to the economic and political changes as they developed. A US$6 million supplemental trust fund credit to the Water and Sanitation Services Project was provided in 2001. In 2003, US$12.5 million was provided to support the Emergency Water Project to address urgent water supply problems in the southern area of the West Bank. In 2004, US$7.8 million was provided to support the Northern Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Project to reduce critical sewage treatment and disposal problems in northern Gaza.

In 2005, a US$20 million grant supporting the second Gaza Water and Sanitation Project was approved. The project supports the development of a sustainable institutional structure of the water and wastewater sector in the Gaza Strip. It supports the establishment of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, which is owned by the local governments. At the same time it enhances the involvement of the private sector and strengthens the regulatory and institutional capacity of the Palestinian Water Authority. In addition, the project supports continued rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion of the existing systems and facilities to improve WSS services.

Water and Sanitation Services Project
Country: West Bank, Gaza
Project ID: PO40505
Project Cost: US$25 million
Type: Special financing
Timeframe: 1996-2003
Status: Closed

Emergency Water Project
Country: West Bank, Gaza
Project ID: P065921
Project Cost: US$13.4 million
Type: Special financing (grant)
Timeframe: 2003-2006
Status: Active

Northern Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment
Country: West Bank, Gaza
Project ID: PO74595
Project Cost: US$7.8 million
Type: Special financing (grant)
Timeframe: 2004-2010
Status: Active

GazaWater and Sanitation Project (02)
Country: West Bank, Gaza
Project ID: PO65920
Project Cost: US$20 million
Type: Special financing (grant)
Timeframe: 2005-2009
Status: Active

Implementation Completion Report, Gaza-Water and Sanitation Services Project, World Bank, June 2003.
Technical Annex, Gaza Water and Sanitation Project (02), World Bank, May 2005.
Management Contracts in Water and Sanitation-Gaza’s Experience, Jamal Saghir, Elizabeth Sherwood and Andrew Macoun, Public Policy for the Private sector notes, Note No. 177, 1998.
Non-Revenue Water in Gaza, Power Point presentation by Suhail Jme’An and Khairy Al-Jamal, June 2004.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Water Supply and Sanitation Feature Stories are published by the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Board of the World Bank. They are available online at http://www.worldbank.org/watsan and in hard copy from [e-mail]

[Violet_Crumble]

5. That was from 2003. There's been a lot happen since then...

Things like the US and Israeli led freeze on funds going into Gaza, the blockade of Gaza, and of course as is stated in the OP, a severe shortage of electricity and fuel. If there's no electricity or fuel to run a sewerage plant, the results are going to be predictable...

Personally I think what people who care about Palestinians in Gaza should be concerned about is firstly that there is major environmental damage being done that is putting any Palestinian who goes for a dip in the sea at risk. As the article said 'Internal Palestinian politics also have a role here. While in the past the Environmental Quality Authority, a PA agency, would work to inform the public about possible dangers from pollution, currently, with the schism between the Fatah and Hamas factions, the agency's activities in Gaza have been more or less suspended.'

Here's another article about the sewerage problem:

'The World Bank and UNICEF have reported that despite repeated requests Israel has forbidden the importation by any means -- sea, air, or by land across the Egyptian border -- of consignments of pumps, metal pipes, air and oil filters, and other goods that need to be obtained from outside Gaza; while allowing only a few basics to be trucked through the Erez crossing with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip.


"We are worried about how we will cope with a flood from sewage pump stations, water shortages, and other problems, because we know that we don't have the materials to respond to urgent needs. We are unable to make the necessary repairs or carry out preventative maintenance, Monther Shoblak, CMWU's general manager told the Middle East Times.'

http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/01/02/gaza_sewage_water_disaster_looms/5312/

[Looking4Light]

8. "metal pipes"

Can't imagine why Israel would object to those getting into Gaza.
/sarcasm

[Violet_Crumble]

9. Don't forget the pumps, the electricity and the petrol n/t

[Violet_Crumble]

4. You forgot to put the link to the article in...

Here it is

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77205

I did find it amusing that one or two folk still managed to comment on the article without even reading it :)

[henank]

6. If they've got money for missiles

for Katyushas, for Grads and for Kassams, if they have enough electricity to operate the machine shops that make these rockets and enough fuel to launch them, they obviously have enough to build sewage treatment plants.

But wait! That would mean them taking responsibility for themselves, and we couldn't possibly have a situation like that! :sarcasm:

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Do you know how much it costs to build a treatment plant?

Or how much electricity it takes to run one? Did you even bother reading the article before the knee-jerking started?

[azurnoir]

11. So now the claim is that the

Grads and Katyushs are produced in Gaza? Thought they were from Iran via Rafah while the wall down and the Egyptians "looked the other way" and that they were most likely a "gift".

[Vegasaurus]

12. Who said they were "produced in Gaza"?

But the fact is, they were "purchased" (or the Iranians gave them, instead of food, humanitarian aid, or any of the other things the Palestinians need).

The rocket launchers, fuel, etc. for the Qassams, are produced in Gaza, obstensibly with Gazan money (spent on weapons, not spent on food, fuel, etc).

And then of course, there are those motorcycles and big screen tvs, purchased for top dollar in Egypt.

[azurnoir]

13. Read the post I was replying

"If they've got money for missiles
for Katyushas, for Grads and for Kassams, if they have enough electricity to operate the machine shops that make these rockets and enough fuel to launch them, they obviously have enough to build sewage treatment plants".

Seemed straight forward to me.

And with the motorcycles and big screen TV's again, didn't you forget cigarettes