21 September, 2014, Gaza City
Over 60 young Palestinians in Gaza took to the beach on Sunday, to collect trash as part of the International Coastal Clean-Up day in an event organised by EWASH, a group of NGOs working in the water and sanitation sector in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The volunteers from universities and youth initiatives together with Gaza municipality workers cleaned a stretch of the coast in front of Gaza city, to highlight the pollution of Gaza’s beaches. The 41km long coast of the Gaza Strip is heavily polluted with waste and wastewater, which impacts human health and safety, endangers wildlife and aquatic habitats.
Montaser Shehada, chief of the relevant district at the Gaza municipality highlighted that “The main reason for the pollution of the coastal stretch is the Israeli occupation and blockade of the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli imposed blockade since 2007 hinders the entry of water infrastructure materials to the Gaza Strip. Electricity and fuel shortages prevent the operation of treatment facilities. Consequently, over 90 million liters of sewage flow into the Mediterranean Sea each day. This amount is likely to have increased during the recent war, which damaged the main power plant, wastewater facilities and networks. The entire sewage from the Gaza Strip now enters the environment without treatment. In addition, garbage has been piling up on beaches, with some 75 percent of sanitation trucks unable to work because of shortage of fuel. Despite the difficulties, the Gaza municipality makes every effort to keep Gaza City and the coast clean.
“The beach can’t take any more; the trash everywhere along the beach can have devastating effects on our health and environment. The Coastal Clean-Up Day motivates us to keep the beach clean and safe” says Mohannad, one of the participants of the event.
Already in June 2014 Gaza’s environmental authority warned that pollution along Gaza’s seashore had reached the highest levels in years and that beaches will be closed for swimming due to health risks. In addition, since Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza in 2007, fishermen have only been allowed to fish six nautical miles off shore. With the raw sewage released into the sea every day, the fish stocks have been depleted close to the shore increasing the difficulties for the fishers to make a living.
The event raised awareness of the importance of a clean and safe environment as well as the impacts of the Israeli blockade on Gaza that deprives the coastal enclave's inhabitants of their right to a healthy living.
The event was part of the International Coastal Clean Up-Day 2014, a worldwide volunteer event and was organized by Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (EWASH), a group of 28 international and national NGOs as well as UN agencies seeking to improve water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in the occupied Palestinian Territory.
For more information, please contact: Johanna von Toggenburg, EWASH ATF Coordinator, johanna@ewash.org, +972595878715
2014/10/20 04:10:17 am