by Osama Radi, Emad Drimly
GAZA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Gaza citizens can no longer enjoy blue water and clear air once they go to the beach and the most visited destination during the summer, due to high rates of pollution.
Apart from unpleasant odors coming out from many areas off the sea, the wastewater is drained into the seawater before well-filtered by sewage treatment plant due to the short of power.
The Gaza coast on the Mediterranean Sea is about 40 km long, where there're nine major sewage estuaries along the coast of the besieged coastal enclave pumping about 110,000 litters of wastewater a day, according to officials.
As local officials and specialists say, pumping this amount of wastewater before filtered as it must be, threatens to pollute the sea water widely and deprives Gazans of recreation during summer.
Khalid Abu Ghali, Gaza Environmental Information official, told Xinhua that "The entire coast turned into impure, polluted swamps because of untreated wastewater."
Abu Ghali explained that the main reason behind the pollution is the low quality of the wastewater treatment process due to the power crisis.
He pointed out that even some municipalities are forced to drain the wastewater directly to the sea by pumps before reaching the treatment plant.
Abu Ghali said twenty-hour power cuts a day play a major role in causing utter paralysis in vital, health and environmental services in Gaza like water supply and sewage treatment.
The Energy and Natural Resources Authority directed by Hamas in Gaza said earlier in April that the power station in Gaza is totally stopped working after it ran out of fuel until further notice.
They said they can't afford buying more fuel for the plant mostly because of the taxes imposed by the Palestinian consensus government in Ramallah on fuel which increased its cost threefold.
However, the Palestinian consensus government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah blamed Hamas movement, which they described as the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, for the power crisis in Gaza since mid 2014.
The Gaza Strip as a whole actually needs 500 MW, however, the currently available amount is just 210 MW, including 120 MW supplied by Israel and 30 MW by Egypt.
As a result of the power station inability, the station follows and applies an emergency schedule for the electricity since 2006. Gaza runs on an eight-hour cycle for electricity, which means power is supplied for eight hours followed by eight hours cut.
However, if things get worse, it could return to a six-hour cycle or even less during summer and winter when citizens need power the most.
Water and Sewage Corporation Director in Gaza Monzer Shablak told Xinhua that the serious wastewater flow crisis might force us to close the beach and ban swimming during summer season this year.
Shablak explained that the limited hours of electricity have an adverse effect on water supply and sewage treatment services in Gaza since sewage treatment process can never be done by offering only six or four hours a day.
He added "Many areas of Gaza sea are totally unsuitable for swimming because of sewage which threatens elders and children's lives since they are the most vulnerable to disease and viruses."
Gaza sea is considered the only relief for Gazans from the grind of life in an enclave plagued by conflict and hardship in the strip which has been besieged for more than 10 years
Environmental expert, Abed Al Fatah Abed Rabbo, told Xinhua that "Pumping the untreated wastewater in huge amounts daily to the sea threatens people's lives."
He went on explaining that children, in particular, are vulnerable to digestive and respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and ear and eye infections which are caused by bacteria and microbes in the polluted water and beach sand.
Abed Rabbo also warned that Pumping the untreated wastewater to the sea threatens fisheries because of the bacteria and microbes.
