The water crisis in the Gaza Strip has been getting worse for years, but the latest Israeli war made things even worse, pushing the residents to the brink of a health and humanitarian disaster. Clean water has become so scarce that it’s almost nonexistent. Making the humanitarian conditions even harsher is the fact that locals struggling to access clean and usable water say the water crisis has reached unprecedented levels, calling for urgent water supply to ease their daily suffering. Displaced people’s testimonies describe this hell, with women having to fetch water in buckets from far away, while displaced people shout that “most people wish for death,” unable to bear the thirst war that has wiped out any alternative for life in Gaza. In the refugee camps, water truck arrivals have become a weekly event that dictates the schedule of household chores like cooking, washing, bathing, and medicine. With summer arriving and water demand rising, the limited water supply turns into a daily ration inside every tent.
According to UN reports, 82% of Gaza’s displaced people have been deprived of water security, and more than 70% of them now rely entirely on water delivered by trucks. Additionally, 90% of water and wastewater facilities are out of service, leaving 200,000 people in a single location in Gaza City completely without service.
Environmental and water expert Mazen Al-Banna told Al Jazeera that the occupation destroyed more than 85% of water networks, tanks, wells, and desalination plants, as well as sewage networks and treatment plants for transmission lines.
This destruction has caused the daily water share per person to drop to just 5–10 liters at the start of the war, compared to 85 liters before, noting that the World Health Organization’s standard is 100 liters.
Despite efforts by municipal crews and the water authority to boost production to 150,000 cubic meters daily for around 2.2 million people, Al-Banna said running the facilities faces the constant threat of stopping completely due to full dependence on generators and fuel shortages, following the destruction of the power station and transmission lines.
