Palestine: Gaza’s water could be undrinkable by 2016

Polluted water in the Gaza Strip is seriously affecting people’s health and the situation looks set to get worse, the UN warns in a new report.

Gaza’s rapidly growing population of about 1.64 million - expected to increase by 500,000 by 2020 - could soon lose its main source of fresh water, the underground coastal aquifer, which could become unusable by 2016, with the damage irreversible by 2020, it says.

Clean water is limited for most Gazans to an average of 70-90 litres per person per day, compared to the minimum global World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 100 litres a day, according to Mahmud Daher, officer-in-charge of the WHO in Gaza.

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See also:

http://www.unicef.org/oPt/FINAL_Summary_Protecting_Children_from_unsafe_Water_in_Gaza_4_March_2011.pdf

http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/48E8D45C0D22529E8525773D0053254F

Contact information	n/a
News type	Inbrief
File link	http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/104094048-Gaza-in-2020-A-livable-place.pdf
File link local	104094048-Gaza-in-2020-A-livable-place.pdf (PDF, 1546 Kb)
Source of information	IRIN News
Keyword(s)	nutrition, health, water, sanitation
Subject(s)	DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION : COMMON PROCESSES OF PURIFICATION AND TREATMENT , HEALTH - HYGIENE - PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISM , SANITATION -STRICT PURIFICATION PROCESSES , WATER QUALITY
Relation	http://www.semide.net/countries/fol749974/country608613
Geographical coverage	Palestine
News date	03/09/2012
Working language(s)	ENGLISH