Fresh Water in Gaza... Agony!

In the pre-dawn darkness, Bassem Al-Halou leaves her tent on the Gaza coast to begin her daily journey in search of fresh water. Although she lives just a few steps from the Mediterranean Sea, the water she needs for cooking, drinking, and bathing requires her to travel a long distance across the city of Gaza.

Bassem, 40, a mother of three, sets out before the midday heat reaches 33 degrees Celsius, navigating through destroyed neighborhoods where rumors circulate about water availability.

Speaking with Reuters, she said, “If I reach Mina, I’ll reach Al-Amadi, then Abu Mazen (areas in Gaza City), and we’ll search for water, because water doesn’t come here at all. Water only comes once every three days.”

Relief agencies, United Nations officials, and Palestinian health authorities warn that the Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented collapse of its water and sanitation systems, leaving many residents trapped between chronic thirst and an environmental crisis.

Families line up for hours next to dilapidated water trucks to obtain a few liters of water before returning to overcrowded, disease-ridden tent camps.

Before the war, Bassem’s children—who live with her along with six other children she cares for—used to bathe in fresh water three times a day during Gaza’s summer heat. Now, they bathe only once a week, if they are lucky. Many children in the Strip resort to swimming in the sea to escape the heat, but Bassem says this may come with a later cost.

She said, “One day, when my sons swim in the sea, I’ll need 50 shekels ($17) for treatment for each of them, because my children have developed skin irritation from the sea—rashes and allergies have appeared on them.”

Health officials warn that untreated sewage from hundreds of thousands of septic tanks is leaking into Gaza’s coastal aquifer, the strip’s only natural source of fresh water.