Sewage leakage and disease spread threaten Gazans
Published on August 9, 2024
Ansarullah website – Gaza
The color of the waters of part of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast has turned brown, while health experts warn of the leakage and spread of sewage and diseases throughout the Strip.
Satellite images show what appears to be a large sewage leak off the coast near Deir al-Balah.
The area of the sewage leak is more than two thousand square meters, and satellite images show that the leak was first visible in June and has continued to increase since then.
A United Nations environmental report concluded in June that intensive Israeli bombing led to the collapse of Gaza’s sewage infrastructure.
Health experts are now sounding the alarm about the spread of waterborne diseases, as the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the spread of a polio epidemic in the Strip.
UN officials said that plans are underway to launch a polio vaccination campaign, and that more than a million doses will be shipped to Gaza.
But observers say these efforts are likely to run into the same problems that affect the flow of other humanitarian aid, making distribution extremely slow and difficult.
The collapse of Gaza’s health care system will also pose a huge challenge.
A quarter of Gaza’s population is already sick from waterborne diseases according to the aid agency Oxfam.
At the same time, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has reported 40,000 cases of hepatitis in Gaza. Public health experts warn of a potential cholera epidemic.
Satellite images also show that Sheikh Radwan pond in northern Gaza, which was previously used to collect clean rainwater, is now overflowing with contaminated water.
Many Palestinians living near the pond have also reported suffering from sewage, stench and rodents crawling out of the pond.
The UN estimates that the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been internally displaced since last October.
Many people are living in shelters with one toilet used by 600 people, a WHO official told reporters in July.
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