Piles of garbage, seeping sewage pollute Gaza

Stinking mounds of fly-covered garbage liestrewn throughout Gaza amid the rubble from Israel's devastating military campaign, spilling out along roadsides and between the tents where most of the shattered enclave’s people live. Government services such as rubbish collection ceased as soon as the war began and although they are partially returning since the truce last month, the massive extent of destruction means any more thorough cleanup lies far in the future.

- KHAN YOUNIS

"I don't smell any fresh air. I smell a foul odour in my tent. I can’t sleep. My children wake up in the morning coughing," said Mahmoud Abu Reida, gesturing at the dumpster by the tent he shares with his wife and four children in Khan Younis.

Rotting garbage, sewage-filled pools, hazardous waste from bomb sites and noxious smoke from burning cloth and plastic have birthed a fetid environment for Gazans.

"The scale of the waste problem in Gaza is huge," said Alessandro Mrakic, head of the Gaza office of the UN development agency UNDP.

Waste landfill sites were already full before the start of the war and three major dump sites were located along the border with Israel in areas that are now off limits to Palestinians, he said. "We're talking about 2 million tons of waste-untreated-all across Gaza," Mrakic said, adding that the risks to the environment, to the aquifer that much of Gaza’s water comes from, and to the population's health were “immense”.