Gaza - Mohammad Habib
This may lead to an environmental crisis
Power is cut for long hours, up to ten hours a day, in Gaza. This may lead to an environmental crisis since, “the sanitation project in Gaza depends mainly on electricity,” sources explained. Khan Younis now floats
on a large pool of sewage, and most of the major projects implemented by international donor institutions, like the World Bank depends on energy. “The continued lack of electricity could stop these service projects,” sources said.
The Director General of the Coastal Municipalities Water authority, Munther Shiblak attributed the electricity breakdown in the Gaza Strip to the “lack of professional management that led the problem to have a political nature, although it is an essential humanitarian issue.”
“We had to get rid of the sewage in the sea,” he said. “This procedure polluted the sea and caused the loss of fisheries, which also affected the tourism sector, an essential economic resource for Gaza.”
Kanaan Obeid, an Energy Authority official in Gaza said that the breakdown is due to the limited sources of electricity, and that the recently increasing crisis stems from the growing consumption by citizens under the cold weather.