Water supply conflicts in Gaza

Louis Moullec                                                                                                                             2nd

Essay: Water supply conflicts in Gaza

Mabye we do not realize that water is precious and that we should save it. For example in Gaza water supply is a big probleme. I will first talk about Gaza then I will explain the impact of Israel on Gaza's water reserve and also about the Israelin restriction on Gaza popoulation. Finally I will show you the impact of this war on the population health.

Gaza is a small Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Medtirranean sea. Gaza is surrounded by Israeli territories. The Gaza Strip has an arid climate with dry and hot summers. Gaza natural ressources include arable land about a third of the strip is irrigated they mostly grow crops, dates, citrus. About 45 % of Gaza's land is used for agriculture. Gaza is roughly 40km by 10 km so if 45 % is used for agriculture there is only 22 km by 5km left, futhermore Gaza is densely populated around 4000 people per square km. As Gaza is highly populated they need lot of water. The probleme is that there is around 115sq/km of Arable land under irrigation. This intensive farming brought envorinmental issues sush as dasertification, salination of fresh water.

The conflict between Israel and Gaza did not only bring materiel probleme but also water issues.In 1967 Israel occupied Gaza and fully utilised the sustainable yield of Gaza.In 2012, the losses of water in the network were estimated some 28% in the West Bank and even half of the supplied amount in Gaza. In the West Bank, construction and maintenance of water and sewage infrastructure are problematic. The Palestinian areas are enclaves in the Israeli-controlled. Therefore, all projects are subject to approval of the Joint Water Committee and the Israeli army. In Gaza, the infrastructure is subject to periodic large-scale destruction by Israeli attacks, such as in the 2004 Raid on Beit Hanoun,[56] or the 2008/2009 Operation Cast Lead.The groundwater in Gaza is highly contaminated by leaked sewage. Israel decided that Isrealin people should have more water than Palestinan people.The restrictions set by the Israel obliged Gaza habitants have only access to 91 litres of water. In comparaison Israelin people have access to 280 litres. Moreover Israelin only pay 0,10$ per cube of water compared to the 1,20$ payed by the Palestinan,  Palestinan pay 12 times more than Isralien. The Conflict between Gaza and Israel killed lot of people but also brang water problems.Israel destroyed 30km of water infrastructure. As a result the water given to Gaza habitantsis undrinkable and carries lot of desease. Israel decided to create a blockade to stop food, materiel in destination of Gaza. This blockade disturbed Gaza because they could not reconstruced the water infrastructure. People health keep decreasing because the water is still unsafe.

The only hope Gaza could have to improve the quality of living and water is the NGO's. Amnesty International declared that Israel should stop his restriction and let Palestinian have access to clean water easily. The Israelin government countered what Amnesty said.

To conclude Israel blocked supplies coming to Gaza to make pressure on Gaza governement. This Conflict brought several health problems due to poor water sanity. If Israel stoped his blockade Gaza could reconstruced his water infrastructure syteme.

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