UN: Water Shortages in Palestine Pose Growing Public Health Threat
UN said the vast majority of the population across the occupied Palestinian territories lacks adequate access to water.
The United Nations humanitarian workers have warned that water shortages in the occupied Palestinian territories pose a growing public health threat. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over half of the population lacks access to an adequate amount of water for drinking and cooking, with the minimum requirement set at 15 liters per person per day.
An additional 700,000 people have access to less than 9 liters of water per person per day, which hampers their ability to maintain personal hygiene, clean their homes, and care for their children.
Most Palestinians rely on water supplies delivered by tanker trucks, with humanitarian partners distributing water to over 2,500 collection points daily and more than 100 displacement sites in Gaza. However, people often face overcrowding and lack sufficient containers to transport water back home, a responsibility that frequently falls on children.
Only half of all households in the region have access to basic sanitation facilities, with the other half using inadequate or unsafe shared facilities that increase health risks. OCHA reported that humanitarian partners collect around 80 percent of all solid waste in the Gaza Strip, yet more than 900,000 people continue to be exposed to waste accumulated in residential areas.
OCHA emphasized that consistent funding, additional permits for importing spare parts, and restored access to landfills in restricted areas are crucial for addressing the water scarcity issue in Palestine.
Written by urgent.news from Tempo.co English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
