Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Latest from the U.N.: More on the Gaza sewage crisis

From the recent U.N. report "Impact of Fuel Shortages on Gaza Sanitation – Polluting the Sea":
Gaza’s water authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), is responsible for providing water to the residents of the Gaza Strip as well as managing its sewage. It provides more than 130 million cubic metres of drinking water per year to the residents of Gaza. Around 80 percent of this becomes sewage which consists of household and commercial effluent. The closure on Gaza and the reduction in fuel and electric supply have forced the CMWU to dump 60 million litres of raw and partially treated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea to avoid flooding residential areas.
Read the entire report here >