$7 million agreement signed to treat Gaza’s water sector

Ramallah - Ma'an - The head of the Water Authority, Mazen Ghunaim, signed an agreement with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today, Tuesday, in the city of Ramallah, worth $7 million to treat the water sector in Gaza. Ghoneim explained that the agreement will provide water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 liters to gatherings or shelters that do not receive sufficient attention, unlike centers that are of interest to certain parties, such as UNRWA, for example, where water bottles of up to 10 liters will be provided to enable the individual to obtain it, given its proximity and the lack of need to travel long distances to obtain it. Fuel will also be provided to operate water facilities in general, in addition to providing special packages for health supplies. Ghoneim added that another agreement will be signed with the United Nations Development Program worth two million dollars, which is a completion of some issues not included in today's agreement, whether in the matter of providing some special equipment that will help deliver water from tanks, due to the lack of networks and the failure of other networks to operate, and other equipment related to electricity generators and pumps, so that sewage water can be pumped and kept away from citizens' gatherings, to prevent any disasters in this regard. He added that the Water Authority has other agreements worth 25.5 million euros, which are allocated for the central desalination plant, and were collected during the donors' conference. In a joint statement published by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Water Authority previously, they stated that a single citizen in the Gaza Strip can barely access between 3-15 liters of water per day in light of the Israeli aggression, as the minimum amount of water for survival is estimated at about 15 liters per person per day, while the normal rate of its consumption in the period before the aggression was estimated at about 84.6 liters/person/day during the year 2022. It is noteworthy that about 40% of the w ater networks were destroyed, and the main pumps were damaged due to bombing or fuel shortages. Source: Maan News Agency