Israel doubling water supply for Gaza

[Melech 9,900]

Israel plans to double the amount of water it sells to the Gaza Strip to help relieve the water crisis there and ease the burden on the overtaxed coastal aquifer. It is the latest in a series of gestures Israel has made recently to the Palestinians there and in the West Bank.

In an interview to the Jerusalem- based daily Al-Qudson Wednesday, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai announced that Gaza would receive 10 million cubic meters of water a year instead of the current 5 million. The additional quantity is expected to begin flowing within the next week, a COGAT spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post.

Most of Gaza’s water now comes from the coastal aquifer. However, the 1.8 million Palestinians there are drawing it out faster than it can be replenished. As a result, seawater from the Mediterranean is seeping in, creating a saline level beyond World Health Organization guidelines for safe drinking water, according to a report last year by the NGO EcoPeace: Friends of the Earth Middle East.

A second report by B’Tselem last year found that 90 percent of the water in the Gaza Strip was “unfit for drinking.†The European Union estimates that as much as 95% cannot be consumed by humans.

“The needs in Gaza for fresh water are huge. Nearly 95% of water in Gaza is considered unfit for human consumption. Enormous efforts are needed to ensure that Gazans can access fresh water. This is both a fundamental human right and an urgent humanitarian need for Gaza’s population,†EU representative John Gatt-Rutter said last week.

The military conflict between Israel and Hamas last summer made the problem even more acute.

The issue was foreseen decades ago, and Israel pledged to increase its water sales to Gaza in the 1990s under the Oslo Accords. New infrastructure was needed, and the construction of larger water pipes was not completed until just a few years ago. Still, it needed the approval of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee, which stopped meeting in 2010.

Recently, Mordechai circumvented the committee and approved a number of projects, including water for the new Palestinian city of Rawabi in the West Bank. He made a similar move with the Gaza project, and approved it out of concern for the well-being of the people in Gaza, as well as the environmental impact on the aquifer, security sources said.

Mordechai told Al-Quds he hoped Hamas “does not steal water from civilians as it steals construction material for rebuilding homes in the Strip.â€

As far as the roles of the Water Authority and Mekorot national water company as conveyors of the water, a Water Authority spokesman told the Post that the additional infrastructure necessary to carry the increased amount of water has been ready for quite some time.

“We are a professional body, and what is requested of us we do,†the spokesman said. “From the Water Authority’s point of view, all of the infrastructure demanded and supposed to be [in place] was done already.â€

Separately, work is under way with the help of the EU and UNICEF to build a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip to provide drinking water for as many as 75,000 people.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-helps-relieve-water-crisis-in-Gaza-Strip-by-doubling-supply-392976

 

well done 

[Dolev 867]

See? not everything is black & white. 

[lego 44,165]

So they can drown faster?

"It SELLS", while same time it freezes their money, destoys their sources of income by shooting at fishermen and breaking thousands of olive trees, not letting building material and donations in with UN/International community to supervise etc.

Such a cool occupying force.

 I wish they occupy my coyntry like that, I would love them so much.

 Bomb everything I own, let me watch my babies freeze to death, then SELL me some water. Go #JSIL

[Dolev 867]

So they can drown faster?

"It SELLS", while same time it freezes their money, destoys their sources of income by shooting at fishermen and breaking thousands of olive trees, not letting building material and donations in with UN/International community to supervise etc.

Such a cool occupying force.

 I wish they occupy my coyntry like that, I would love them so much.

 Bomb everything I own, let me watch my babies freeze to death, then SELL me some water. Go #JSIL

Hamas uses building materials to make rockets and to dig tunnels into Israel, which has every right to take any measure needed to secure its citizens from terror. Typical "peace" activists... 

[lego 44,165]

Hamas uses building materials to make rockets and to dig tunnels into Israel, which has every right to take any measure needed to secure its citizens from terror. Typical "peace" activists... 

 

[Dolev 867]

 

That's it?

[ByeBye49 161]

See? not everything is black & white. 

​

[Woolfsmck 2,763]

Dispite some obvious emotional views.  Israel is trying to make peacefull gestures to the 'civilians'

of Palestine.   Its the militants who hide amongst the general populus that are cause most of the casualties, imo

[lego 44,165]

Dispite some obvious emotional views.  Israel is trying to make peacefull gestures to the 'civilians'

of Palestine.   Its the militants who hide amongst the general populus that are cause most of the casualties, imo

I'm sorry but do you even follow what is going on in Palestine? Are you still stuck in July 2014? 

Gaza is the biggest open air prison camp. Israel destroyed their whole infrastructure, the only powerplant they had and they have no plans to pay for the damage they caused or to rebuild it. Babies were literally freezing to death because of the winter and broken homes, living in tents. They have no electricity. They had huge floods, children trying to get to schools through mud and water. 95% of water unhealthy to drink. And that bs excuse that hamas uses building material is so weak and overused, if that is the case then open the borders and bring UN troops to supervise the donations and rebuilding. Israel SELLS something to people whose land they occupy, bomb and keep them in cage to rotten.