ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA, 28 Sept. - (ANA) - For families in Gaza, finding drinking water has become a daily struggle, and even paying for a container does not guarantee that what they bring home is safe.

 

In al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, 45-year-old Omar Abu Salah lives with his four children in a worn-out tent, in a camp with other displaced residents, surrounded by pools of wastewater.

 

His family buys water from trucks supplied by desalination plants, but Abu Salah told The New Arab that there is no reliable way to verify its quality or how it was stored and transported.

 

"We have to buy water because we have no other choice," he said, explaining that the cost has become a heavy burden on a family already struggling to afford basic necessities.

 

"We need it for drinking, cooking and washing. We cannot simply stop buying it," he added.

 

In al-Zawaida in central Gaza, 36-year-old Saniya Abu Steita faces a similar struggle with her three children.

 

She told TNA that her children frequently suffer from gastrointestinal problems, forcing her to seek treatment at mobile clinics.

 

Regularly buying bottled water is beyond the family's means, while other available sources may pose contamination risks.

 

"Before the war, my children did not suffer like this so often," she said.

 

Their experiences reflect a much wider crisis that has developed during nearly three years of genocidal Israeli war. Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure has suffered extensive destruction, while mass displacement has placed unprecedented pressure on systems that were already severely strained before October 2023.

 

The result is a cycle in which residents struggle to obtain clean water while untreated sewage accumulates around homes and displacement sites, contaminating land, groundwater and the sea.

 

 

 

 

Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, wells, desalination plants, water networks, sewage systems and pumping stations have sustained extensive damage.

 

According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Israeli bombardment has destroyed or damaged around 90 percent of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure.

 

Even before the war, Gaza's water system was under severe strain. Around 80 percent of its water supply came from the coastal aquifer, but decades of over-extraction, combined with seawater intrusion and sewage contamination, had already rendered much of the groundwater unsuitable for human consumption, MSF said.

 

"More than 210 of Gaza's 320 wells have been destroyed, while around 80 percent of desalination plants have been damaged, leaving only one central desalination plant operating," environmental expert Saeed Al-Aklouk told TNA.

 

The widespread use of cesspits has further intensified the problem. Al-Aklouk estimates that around 320,000 cesspits are discharging untreated wastewater into the ground, threatening further contamination of the aquifer.

 

UNICEF reported in May 2026 that 82 percent of Gaza households faced water insecurity, while up to 70 percent could not access the minimum six litres per person daily minimum for drinking and cooking. Desalination output also fell from 20,000 to 16,000 cubic metres per day due to shortages of essential supplies.

 

"Overall daily water production fell from approximately 300,000 cubic metres before the war to less than 120,000 cubic metres in February 2026," Munzer Salem, director general of the Gaza Water Authority, told TNA.

 

The sanitation system has also largely collapsed. OCHA reported in September that all six wastewater treatment plants were out of service and around 70 percent of sewage pumping stations had stopped operating, resulting in more than 150,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage being discharged into the environment daily.

 

The 2026 Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment estimated damage to Gaza's water, sanitation and hygiene sector at around US$1.7 billion, with 88 percent of above-ground assets and 76 percent of underground networks damaged.

 

Gaza municipal spokesperson Hosni Muhanna told TNA that around 220,000 meters of sewage networks were destroyed during the war, along with eight pumping stations.

 

Municipal crews have managed to temporarily restart some facilities, he says, but operations remain constrained by shortages of electricity, fuel, batteries and maintenance materials.

 

 

 

 

The destruction of Gaza's sewage system has created another problem: even where wastewater can be pumped away, there is often nowhere to treat it.

 

Omer Shtayyeh, deputy executive director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), told TNA that Gaza's pre-war sewage system consisted of around 74 pumping stations connected to nearly 2,000 kilometers of sewage networks, lines and manholes, as well as five central treatment plants.

 

"Around 80 percent of the system has sustained partial or total damage," he said.

 

All five treatment plants are currently out of service, according to Shtayyeh, while emergency rehabilitation work is underway at the Sheik Ajlin plant. Under current conditions, restoring the facility could take six to seven months.

 

"Out of 28 pumping stations, 18 are currently operating in accessible areas, while crews are working to repair another ten," he explained.

 

But restoring pumping capacity alone cannot solve the problem because wastewater still needs to be treated before discharge.

 

Shtayyeh noted that untreated sewage is currently discharged through around ten main outlets along Gaza's coastline, with daily volumes estimated at between 40,000 and 45,000 cubic meters.

 

The consequences can extend beyond the areas where the sewage is discharged. Marine currents move along the coastline, carrying pollutants away from their original source and potentially towards Israel.

 

A September 2026 report by The Guardian said several Israeli Mediterranean desalination plants experienced disruptions after an unusual microalgae bloom clogged filters at five of the country's six major desalination facilities.

 

Scientists cited by the newspaper said the destruction of wastewater infrastructure in Gaza and the resulting discharge of untreated sewage into the sea could be among the factors contributing to conditions that fuel such blooms.

 

Israeli environmental organisation Zalul has warned that "pollutants do not recognise political borders", pointing to nitrogen and phosphorus in untreated sewage as nutrients that can encourage the growth of microalgae and cyanobacteria.

 

Jack Gilron, professor emeritus and a water desalination expert at Ben-Gurion University's Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, said that untreated sewage discharged from Gaza increases the risk to desalination infrastructure along the southern Mediterranean coast.

 

For Gaza's residents, however, the consequences remain most immediate at the household level.

 

Families are forced to choose between spending scarce money on water of uncertain quality and relying on sources that may expose them to contamination.

 

Around them, sewage collects in streets, displacement sites and damaged drainage basins, while the infrastructure needed to contain and treat it remains largely out of service.

 

The destruction has created interconnected crises: declining water production, damaged distribution networks, groundwater contamination, inadequate sanitation and the discharge of untreated wastewater into the sea.

 

Temporary repairs to individual wells or pumping stations may restore limited services, but they cannot rebuild a system in which most infrastructure has been damaged and treatment capacity has collapsed, according to Shtayyeh.   - (ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/28 September 2026  - - -