A Palestinian minister has charged that Israel is pumping waste water and sewage into Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip, according to BBC.online on Tuesday.
The Palestinian environment minister, Youssef Abu-Safia, was quoted as telling correspondents in Gaza that over the past two weeks, Israel had discharged half a million cubic meters of waste water into a dried-up river bed that crosses Gaza on its way to the Mediterranean.
The minister warned of an environmental disaster, with possible contamination of Gaza's ground water system on which one-and-a-quarter million people depend, and pollution of beaches and fish stocks.
Israel has not commented on the Palestinian accusation, according to the news service.
Gaza already suffers from water-related environmental problems.
According to a report by MIT news in January, a lack of fresh drinking water poses a serious problem for the one million residents of the Gaza Strip. They draw water for drinking and agricultural irrigation from aquifers on the Mediterranean that are becoming saltier each year.
The United Nations Development Program and US Agency for International Development currently recommend that Gaza can maintain its freshwater supply by using only an amount less than or equal to that of its usable annual rainfall. But a study presented by MIT researchers at the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union shows that even if the residents stay within those quantity guidelines, the quality of the water will continue to deteriorate rapidly.
Because of saltwater intrusion from the sea into the aquifer, and recirculation and evaporation losses of pumped groundwater, the quality of the water is deteriorating faster than fresh rainwater can desalinate it, said the report – Albawaba.com
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