A moment before the lights go out

Amira Hass, Haaretz, 8.11.07. Alan Johnston, the BBC corresponded kidnapped in Gaza, related in an interview that at a relatively early stage, he started suffering from all kinds of aches because of the water he drank. This was the same water that the kidnappers drank, but Johnston's unaccustomed body sent warning signals: This is not water that is fit for drinking. And this is the water that reaches most of the taps in the Gaza Strip. Salty, in a few places brackish to contaminated, with an oily consistency. That is clearly felt when bathing.

The reason is an ancient one: overpumping because Gaza must make do with the waters from its aquifer alone. It is as if we were to say to the residents of Be'er Sheva: make do with the water that flows nearby. The water sources in the rest of the country are not for you.

Over the last few years, there have been some improvised private and public solutions. Private water purification plants in homes and commercial companies that sell purified water.

The municipalities, for their part, set up large brackish water desalination facilities and several central taps. Thousands of people go there daily to fill up jerry-cans with water that will not taste like it came from a puddle and will not cause diarrhea, infections, kidney problems and who knows what else.

The electricity and fuel supply to Gaza has already been reduced to below the level of basic human needs. An additional reduction will affect the above solutions to the water problem, and beyond. "To darken Gaza," as some of the security experts among us have recently proposed, does not end merely with darkened homes at night. You don't have to be an expert in public health to realize that it would create an endless chain reaction of public health problems and environmental blights.

Today, around a year and a half after Israel bombed the transformer station in Gaza, only 193 megawatts out of the 240 or so it needs is supplied to the Strip.

The water network is the biggest energy consumer in the Gaza Strip: it requires approximately 25 megawatts of the 240 megawatts the Gaza Strip needs.

The 135 wells across the Gaza Strip that supply water, poor quality as it may be, cannot function if the electricity and diesel fuel supply is cut further. The same is true of sewage treatment plants.

Already now, each day, no water is supplied to around 15 percent of the Strip's residents. Each area receives water only every other day. The water is pumped electrically and stored in home reservoirs on every rooftop. Power outages are frequent.

When a power outage in a given area occurs on a day when the municipalities channel water to it, the houses are denied water for three, and sometimes even four, days.

The water network also needs around 150,000 liters of diesel fuel per month. The sewage system needs around 100,000 liters.

The Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, the supplier of sewage and water services in the Gaza Strip obtained only 60,000 liters of diesel fuel in October, because the quantity of fuels sold from Israel to the Gaza Strip was reduced. And this is before "the darkening" proposed by Ehud Barak and Matan Vilnai.

The water company must choose to favor the sewage system over the water system. As the deputy CEO of the company, Maher Najjar, explains: The collapse of the sewage system entails a bigger humanitarian threat.

Just imagine a huge flood of sewage. Hence, for example, the seven wells in the northern Gaza Strip that are diesel operated were allocated only 2,000 liters of diesel in early November, instead of the 10,500 liters needed to operate them.

Even before the lights go out, Israel is prohibiting the entry of raw materials into the Gaza Strip.

No one is talking any more about dozens of development projects that have consequently been frozen, such as the one to desalinate well water that serves the residents of the El Bureij refugee camp. Let them continue drinking the water that endangers their health.

Raw material is not the only thing Israel is barring entry of: Vital spare parts are also being barred entry. In the Gaza City sewage treatment facility there are several minor malfunctions.

However, Israel is barring the entry of the spare parts needed to repair them. Sewage undergoes only minimal treatment before it flows into the sea. And the sea, of course, doesn't stop at the Erez or Rafiah checkpoints.

29 October 2007: Gazan cancer patient dies after being delayed entry into Israel for 10 days

B'Tselem, 29.10.07. In August 2007, Mahmoud Abu Taha, 21, was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine. He underwent surgery at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, but the operation failed. After receiving chemotherapy at the European Hospital in Gaza , physicians found that his intestines were blocked and that he required emergency surgery in Israel . While at the hospital, Abu Taha was intravenously fed a vitamin solution. The hospital had a shortage of the solution because of the siege on Gaza and was forced to drop Abu Taha's feeding from four to two portions of the solution a day. As a result, he lost an appreciable amount of weight.

On 18 October, Abu Taha's family managed to get him a permit to enter Israel so that he could undergo surgery at Tel Hashomer Hospital . That same day, he was taken by ambulance to Erez Checkpoint, his father accompanying him. When the father went to arrange the crossing, Shabak agents detained him and ordered the ambulance to return to the hospital in Gaza . The father remained in detention for 11 days.

Only yesterday, 10 days later, was Abu Taha's entry to Israel arranged. The Palestinian ambulance carrying him waited at the checkpoint for five hours before being allowed to cross. Today, the family was informed that Abu Taha died a few hours after he crossed into Israel , although they have not yet received any specific details on his death. The father was released from detention following his son's death.

The health system in the Gaza Strip is able to supply only limited services and due to Israel 's siege policy, the quality of treatment provided is steadily declining. As of June 2007, Israel has forbidden Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip to go abroad, even to receive medical treatment. The only possibility remaining to sick people who need treatment that is unavailable in the Gaza Strip is to seek treatment in Israel . However, only a small number of entry permits are given and only following a lengthy process.