AMMAN, December 19, 2023 – Recently displaced children in the southern Gaza Strip only have access to 1.5 to 2 liters of water per day, according to UNICEF calculations, well below the recommended survival requirements.
According to humanitarian standards, the minimum amount of water needed in an emergency situation is 15 liters, including water for drinking, washing and cooking. Just for survival, the estimated minimum is 3 liters per day.
Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, an estimated half of them children, have arrived in Rafah since early December in urgent need of food, water, shelter, medicine and protection.. As demand continues to rise, the city's water and sanitation systems are in extremely critical condition. The resumption of hostilities coupled with lack of electricity, fuel shortages, limited access and damage to infrastructure means this At least 50 percent of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities are damaged or destroyed.
The impact on children is particularly dramatic, as boys and girls are also more vulnerable to dehydration, diarrhea, illness and malnutrition., which can make things worse and pose a threat to his survival. Due to the lack of clean water, especially after this week's rains and floods, concerns about water-borne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhea are particularly high. Authorities have already recorded nearly twenty times the monthly average number of cases of diarrhea in children under 5 years oldin addition to an increase in cases of scabies, lice, chickenpox, skin rashes and more than 160,000 cases of acute respiratory infections.
“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death, and children in Gaza barely have a drop to drink,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.. “Children and their families must use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinized or contaminated. Without clean water, many more children will die from lack and disease in the coming days.“.
At shelters across the Strip, long lines of exhausted women and children wait to use one toilet for every 700 people, pushing people to resort to other survival strategies, such as using buckets or relieving themselves outdoors. Showers are even rarer, so hygiene options are almost non-existent, which particularly affects women and girls. This could increase the spread of disease.
UNICEF, together with its partners, provides fuel for wells, desalination plants, tankers and waste and wastewater management systems, as well as bottled water and water containers, which have provided drinking water to more than 1.3 million people. Since the start of the crisis, UNICEF has distributed more than 45,000 canisters, more than 130,000 family hygiene kits, including health and menstrual hygiene products, and hundreds of thousands of bars of soap. UNICEF and its partners have also provided hygiene products to more than 189,000 people and hygiene and sanitation services to more than 400,000 people. During the humanitarian pause, UNICEF was able to reach the northern Gaza Strip and distribute 260,000 liters of water and 10,000 hygiene kits, despite extremely difficult access conditions.
The Rafah border crossing contains generators to operate essential water and sanitation facilities, plastic pipes for short-term repairs, and construction materials to implement quick sanitation solutions, but these cannot be transported to Gaza due to the access restrictions imposed on this supply, which is necessary to restore a To ensure minimum levels of water and sanitation services essential for the survival of the population and children.
““We are doing everything we can to meet the needs of the people of Gaza, but the equipment and supplies we have been able to provide are far from enough,” Russell said.. “The constant bombing raids and material and fuel limitations in the area prevent decisive progress. “We urgently need these supplies to repair damaged water systems.”
UNICEF also continues to call for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all children and families in need, wherever they are., Among other things, water and sanitation needs in the Gaza Strip must be met through the restoration and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and that all parties fulfill their international legal responsibilities to protect water and sanitation facilities and the workforce responsible for the maintenance and repair of these facilities.
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