Gaza ‘dying of thirst’: Palestinian Water Authority warns about water, sanitation collapse

RAMALLAH, Palestine /ISTANBUL

The Palestinian Water Authority PWA) warned Saturday about the imminent humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip because of the collapse of water and sanitation services amid Israel's offensive.

It said the enclave has become a region "dying of thirst."

The PWA accused Israel of “committing a grave and systematic war crime by using thirst and starvation as tools of genocide.”

It said that “water extraction in Gaza has declined by 70–80% since the beginning of the ongoing genocide.”

“Current water consumption has dropped to an alarming 3–5 liters per person per day—far below the World Health Organization’s emergency minimum of 15 liters,” it added.

The Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) said 85% of water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have sustained severe damage.

“Power cuts, fuel shortages, and military restrictions have also paralyzed efforts to repair and restore essential services,” said PWA.

It highlighted that “wastewater systems are non-functional, resulting in the discharge of untreated sewage into residential areas and stormwater basins now overflowing with contaminated water—posing grave public health threats.”

“Without clean water, many Gazans have resorted to using brackish agricultural wells, leading to widespread exposure to waterborne diseases,” it said.

The PWA urged the international community to take urgent and decisive action to stop “a deliberate and systematic campaign to exterminate the civilian population of Gaza through thirst, hunger, and disease.”

Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, told Anadolu on Tuesday that “cutting off drinking water to the population is equivalent to dropping a terrible silent bomb on them ... silent but lethal.”

Citing UNICEF data, Arrojo-Agudo said diarrhea in children under the age of 5 jumped from 40,000 cases to more than 70,000 in one week in early December.

The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

More than 52,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.