Terrible thirst hits Gaza with polluted aquifers and broken pipelines
'How long will we have to stay like this?' he asked, pulling two larger canisters of brackish water to use for cleaning and two smaller ones of cleaner water to drink.
His mother Umm Moaz, 53, said the water he collects is needed for the extended family of 20 people living in their small group of tents in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
'The children keep coming and going and it is hot. They keep wanting to drink. Who knows if tomorrow we will be able to fill up again,' she said.
Their struggle for water is replicated across the tiny, crowded territory where nearly everybody is living in temporary shelters or tents without sewage or hygiene facilities and not enough water to drink, cook and wash as disease spreads.
The UN says the minimum emergency level of water consumption per person is 15 l a day for drinking, cooking, cleaning and washing. Average daily consumption in Israel is about 247 l a day according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald
4 days ago
- The Herald
Terrible thirst hits Gaza with polluted aquifers and broken pipelines
Moaz Mukhaimar, 23, and a university student before the war, said he has to walk about a kilometre, queuing for two hours, to fetch water. He often goes three times a day, dragging it back to the family tent over bumpy ground on a small metal handcart. 'How long will we have to stay like this?' he asked, pulling two larger canisters of brackish water to use for cleaning and two smaller ones of cleaner water to drink. His mother Umm Moaz, 53, said the water he collects is needed for the extended family of 20 people living in their small group of tents in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. 'The children keep coming and going and it is hot. They keep wanting to drink. Who knows if tomorrow we will be able to fill up again,' she said. Their struggle for water is replicated across the tiny, crowded territory where nearly everybody is living in temporary shelters or tents without sewage or hygiene facilities and not enough water to drink, cook and wash as disease spreads. The UN says the minimum emergency level of water consumption per person is 15 l a day for drinking, cooking, cleaning and washing. Average daily consumption in Israel is about 247 l a day according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem.
TimesLIVE
5 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Funding for refugees in Uganda will run out next month, UN warns
Emergency funding to help hundreds of thousands of refugees in Uganda will run out next month unless more support comes in, a UN agency said on Monday. A funding crisis is threatening programmes for people fleeing there from strife-torn countries in the region including Sudan and Uganda's neighbours South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said. 'Emergency funding runs out in September,' Dominique Hyde, the agency's director for external relations, said. 'More children will die of malnutrition, more girls will fall victim to sexual violence and families will be left without shelter or protection unless the world steps up.' UNHCR and other UN agencies face one of the worst funding crises in decades, compounded by US and other donor states' decisions to slash foreign aid funding. Uganda is home to 1.93-million refugees, more than a million of them under 18, according to UNHCR figures. An average of 600 people are still coming in every day and the overall figure, already the largest in Africa, is due to rise to two-million by the end of the year, the agency said. It would only be able to meet a third of the costs associated with supporting Sudanese refugees in Uganda and would have to cut its monthly funding to $5 (R90.19) per refugee from $16 (R288.61) unless more money is found. Malnutrition rates are rising as food, water and medicine supplies shrink, while the risk of suicide is increasing among young refugees due to a reduction in mental health staff, the agency added.
IOL News
7 days ago
- IOL News
At least 68 dead after migrant boat sinks off Yemen
A shipwreck off Yemen has killed at least 68 people, the UN's migration agency said Monday, with dozens still missing after the boat carrying mostly Ethiopians sank. Picture: Pixabay A shipwreck off Yemen has killed at least 68 people, the UN's migration agency said Monday, with dozens still missing after the boat carrying mostly Ethiopians sank. The International Organization for Migration's country chief of mission, Abdusattor Esoev, told AFP that "as of last night, 68 people aboard the boat were killed, but only 12 out of 157 have been rescued so far. The fate of the missing is still unknown." On Sunday, two security sources in southern Yemen's Abyan province -- a frequent destination for migrant smuggling boats -- gave a preliminary toll of 27 killed in the shipwreck. Despite the war that has ravaged Yemen since 2014, the impoverished country has remained a key transit point for irregular migration, in particular from Ethiopia, which itself has been roiled by ethnic conflict. Each year, thousands brave the so-called "Eastern Route" from Djibouti to Yemen across the Red Sea, in the hope of eventually reaching oil-rich Gulf countries.
