Gaza Water Crisis Deepens as Infrastructure Collapses

Gaza’s water and environmental crisis is worsening significantly as more than eighty percent of the territory’s water and sewage networks have been damaged or destroyed. This extensive destruction raises growing concerns over severe water shortages, groundwater contamination, and serious public health risks for the population living in the strip.

Saeed Al-Aklouk, who oversees water and wastewater monitoring in the Gaza Strip, warned that the widespread destruction of vital infrastructure has dramatically reduced water production. He stated that daily water production has fallen from approximately three hundred thousand cubic meters before the destruction to just one hundred twenty-three thousand cubic meters currently.

As a result of this sharp decline, the amount of water available per person has dropped to between twenty-one and twenty-two liters per day. The situation reflects extensive damage to infrastructure, while local authorities face major obstacles in operating and repairing damaged networks amid limited resources and ongoing restrictions on their work.

Al-Aklouk warned that the destruction of sewage networks has created another serious environmental danger through the leakage of untreated wastewater into the ground. This contamination threatens vulnerable groundwater aquifers, while disinfectant shortages and limited testing capacity make it increasingly difficult to monitor water sources and determine if they are safe.