Twice a week, Madalain Al Najjar, a citizen of Gaza, goes to retrieve the government-provided water. She lives with her mother, six children, and husband Khamis, who lost his right leg in a construction accident and cannot work. The water is unsanitary and often results in her children experiencing diarrhea and vomiting. They survive mostly on welfare, and the polluted drinking water costs almost a third of their monthly check. The great tragedy of the Al Najjar family is that they are just one example of the millions of people in the Gaza Strip today who are forced to choose between being poisoned or dehydrated to death. 

Two million people currently inhabit the Gaza Strip, and every single one of them is being systematically poisoned by their water supply. It is estimated that 97 percent of the water in Gaza is not fit for public consumption. According to a report released by the United Nations in 2012, Gaza’s water pollution problem was anticipated to become irreparable and its land uninhabitable by 2020. The United Nations also calculated that only ten percent of Gaza’s population have access to safe, clean water. According to tests conducted by the World Health Organization, levels of nitrate and salinity in Gaza register higher than what they consider safe for drinking water. Moreover, half of Gaza’s children suffer from water-borne diseases. The Euro Med-Monitor’s Chief of Communication, Muhammad Shehada, told the Human Rights Council that roughly a quarter of these diseases and twelve percent of infant deaths in Gaza can be attributed to its water pollution problem. Though many have resorted to buying from private suppliers, access to municipal water is only available three times a week and is often contaminated with raw sewage. Water from an independent vendor is priced at around thirty shekels, or 7 USD, per thousand liters of water. This fact is even more jarring when considering that in 2019, the average daily wage in Gaza was forty-three shekels.

Gaza’s water crisis stems from a few interconnected causes, with the most severe of these being the 2007 Israeli Blockade. The blockade has primarily affected the water shortage crisis in three ways: border control, missile attacks, and electricity. Israel controls two of Gaza’s three borders, the third of which is administered by Egypt. Thus, general supplies and international aid delivery to Gaza is severely limited. But in addition to the resources required to manage the water crisis, Israel Water Authority’s Uri Shor says that basic materials like cement are also being redirected. 

Rocket strikes have also inflicted significant damage upon Gaza’s infrastructure, destroying underground pipelines and contributing to the contamination of its drinking water with sewage.  Finally, Gaza is simultaneously suffering from an electricity shortage. Access to water without electricity is a major hindrance.  Powering Gaza’s entire population calls for 600 megawatts of electricity per day. However, they are only receiving 180 megawatts. Out of these 180 megawatts, the Gaza Strip is only able to use 60 megawatts, as the other 120 go to Israeli powerlines. This shortage is accredited to a 2006 Israeli Air Force attack on the Gaza Strip’s sole power plant, which has not yet been brought back to its full capacity. In 2013, a desalination plant was established in Gaza, with the help of European aid, to produce clean water, but because Israel controls most of the electricity supply, the plant only runs for four hours every day.

There are also serious economic factors at play when considering Gaza’s water shortage. Over half the population in Gaza is unemployed, and almost a quarter of the people live below the poverty line. Because so much sewage enters the Mediterranean Sea and other bodies of water are ripe for fishing, Gaza’s fishing industry has also been demolished. What used to be fifteen nautical miles reserved for fishermen was cut down to merely eight in 2020. Approximately 10,000 people worked as fishermen in Gaza, but since the blockade, the industry is down to around 4,000. Even then, according to Abdul Rahim Abu of the Gaza Water Authority, 80 to 85 percent of the population cannot afford to pay their water bill, and the government cannot afford to keep the water pumps on. 

Since the Gaza Strip has been largely stonewalled by Israel and its dire financial circumstances, inhabitants have relied on outside aid in order to access fresh water again. One group that has had a significant, positive impact on the water crisis is OXFAM (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief). OXFAM offers freshwater, food, and even money to those most in need around the world. As of 2019, OXFAM opened a desalination plant with the intent of revitalizing 45 others already established in Gaza. They offer 6,000 people 130 gallons of fresh water twice a week and are hoping to reach half a million people in the near future. 

It has been two years since the UN estimated that Gaza would become an unlivable place. it is inexcusable that two million people have been forced to toil in such squander, saved only by gallons of water at a time. While the wonderful work of OXFAM should not go unrecognized and unappreciated, they can only do so much, and what they are able to do is treat the symptom of a much larger, systemic issue. Gaza should not have to rely on international establishments to supplement them with the bare minimum. The people of Gaza are not just entitled to regular water access, they are entitled to not have to choose between being dehydrated or poisoned to death. 

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