Note the date... Clean water is essential for the Gazan refugees. http://www.timesofisrael.com/europe-funded-desalination-plant-to-supply-water-to-gaza/ By AFP March 20, 2014, GAZA CITY The European Union and UNICEF launched a project Thursday to build a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip to provide 75,000 Palestinians with drinking water. Read more: Europe-funded desalination plant to supply water to Gaza | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/europe-funded-desalination-plant-to-supply-water-to-gaza/#ixzz393UUXN6t A joint statement said the project will be implemented by UNICEF thanks to a 10-million-euro ($13.7-million) EU grant. Just 5.8 percent of Gaza households have good quality water because of increased salinity caused by sewage infiltration of groundwater, according to a statement released Thursday by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of World Water Day on Saturday. Access to clean water is a fundamental human right for all. And yet many Gazans face acute water shortages on a day-to-day basis, EU representative John Gatt-Rutter said as the first stone was laid for the project. Others can only access water of very poor quality, he added, saying the new plant offers the prospect of access to clean water for many thousands of families. The plant at Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory is expected to become operational in 2015, and will supply fresh water to 75,000 people in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south. Because up to 95 percent of water in the water table is unfit for consumption, more than four out of five Palestinians in Gaza buy their drinking water from unregulated, private vendors, a heavy burden on impoverished families, the EU-UNICEF statement said. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics says that 28 percent of the water supplied to households in the West Bank and Gaza is bought from Israeli company Mekorot, and that 85 percent of groundwater supplies are extracted by Israel.
I know I am being cynical but it will only be another target for Israel the next time they need to "mow the grass".
Actually.. you aren't at all cynical.. Israel blows up the infrastructure all the time over the past 40 years.
Because up to 95 percent of water in the water table is unfit for consumption, “more than four out of five Palestinians in Gaza buy their drinking water from unregulated, private vendors, a heavy burden on impoverished families”, the EU-UNICEF statement said. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics says that 28 percent of the water supplied to households in the West Bank and Gaza is bought from Israeli company Mekorot, and that 85 percent of groundwater supplies are extracted by Israel.
That's good to hear that people are going to get water. I wonder how the project has been doing since this situation started.
Good question.. I don't know. This desal plant will on serve 75,000 households. Makes me wonder about all the yapping about religion and Christianity on this board with not a clue about the water crisis in the Jordan Basin and the deprivation the Gazans suffer.
I know. When people say that Palestinians are horrible people, they forget that water from a tap isn't a universal right. That being said I always seem to have a problem figuring out trustworthy sources for Israel and Palestine. Do you have any suggestions?
In terms of water studies?? Yes.. Several American universities did studies in the 1950s predicting the current crisis and destruction of the water table. There are several ICE studies.. and the studies of the Dead Sea retreat and the effect of that on the water table.
I don't know one that addresses the whole region, but I do follow Saudi Arabia.. They have been building desal plants since the early 1960s and now have over 300 recharge Dams that collect groundwater.
I read the Arab news several times a week.. Sometimes I read KAUST.. which is a university web site for science and technology in Arabia.
