Terrible thirst hits Gaza, with aquifers tainted, pipelines broken

Queueing for water and carrying it home take up hours each day for many Gazans

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GAZA/CAIRO - Weakened by hunger, many Gazans trek across a ruined landscape each day to haul all their drinking and washing water — a painful load that is still far below the levels needed to keep people healthy.

Even as global attention has turned to starvation in Gaza where, after 22 months of a devastating Israeli military campaign a global hunger monitor says a famine scenario is unfolding, the water crisis is just as severe, according to aid groups.

Though some water comes from small desalination units run by aid agencies, most is drawn from wells in a brackish aquifer that has been further polluted by sewage and chemicals seeping through the rubble, spreading diarrhoea and hepatitis.

Israeli pipelines that once supplied Gaza with much of its clean water are now dry.

Israel stopped all water and electricity supply to Gaza early in the war. Although it resumed some supply later, pipelines were damaged and Gaza water officials say no water has entered recently.

Cogat, the Israeli military agency that is coordinating aid in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, says it operates two water pipelines into the Gaza Strip providing millions of litres of water a day.

Palestinian water officials say these have not been working recently.

Most water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed and pumps from the aquifer often rely on electricity from small generators — for which fuel is rarely available.