Oxfam Australia Media Release
- Nearly 1,700 kilometres of water and sanitation networks have been destroyed
- Big-ticket repairs of networks urgently needed but Israel baulks in approving supplies
The resumption of aid into Gaza, including fuel to operate undamaged water and sanitation facilities along with water trucking, has improved the amount of water available to people in some parts of Gaza. But the picture remains extremely bleak and dangerously critical, especially in the North Gaza and Rafah governorates, warned Oxfam today.
Fifteen months of Israel’s military assault has destroyed 1,675 kilometres of water and sanitation networks. In North Gaza and Rafah governorates, which have suffered the most destruction, less than seven per cent of pre-conflict water levels is available to people, heightening the spread of waterborne diseases.
As fragile ceasefire negotiations hang in the balance, any renewed violence or disruption to fuel and the already inadequate aid would trigger a full-scale public health disaster.
Clémence Lagouardat, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Gaza said:
“Now that the bombs have stopped, we have only just begun to grasp the sheer scale of destruction to Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Most vital water and sanitation networks have been entirely lost or paralysed, which is creating catastrophic hygiene and health conditions.
“Our staff and partners have told how people are stopping them in the streets asking for water, and that parents are not drinking to save water for their children. It is heartbreaking to hear about children having to walk for miles for a single jerrycan of water.”
In the North Gaza governorate, almost all water wells have been destroyed by the Israeli military. Over 700,000 people have returned to find entire neighbourhoods wiped out. For the few whose homes remain standing, water is non-existent due to the destruction of rooftop storage tanks.
In Rafah, over 90 per cent of water wells and reservoirs have been partially or completely damaged, and water production is less than five per cent of its capacity before the conflict. Only two out of 35 wells are currently operational.
Despite efforts to resume water production since the ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza’s water pipelines means that 60 per cent of water is leaking into the ground rather than reaching people.
Oxfam and partners’ initial assessment after the ceasefire found:
- More than 80 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure across the Gaza Strip has been partially or entirely destroyed, including all six major wastewater treatment plants.
- 85 per cent of the sewage pumping stations (73 out of 84) and networks have been destroyed. Some have been repaired but urgently require fuel to operate.
- 85 per cent of small desalination plants (85 out of 103) have been partially damaged or completely destroyed.
- 67 per cent of the 368 municipal wells have been destroyed. Most of the private small wells cannot function due to lack of fuel or generators.
The lack of safe water, combined with untreated sewage overflowing in the streets has triggered an explosion of waterborne and infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 88 per cent of environmental samples surveyed across Gaza were found contaminated with polio, signalling an imminent risk of outbreak. Infectious diseases including acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory infections – now the leading causes of death – are also surging, with 46,000 cases, mostly children, being reported each week.
Chickenpox and skin diseases such scabies and impetigo are also spreading rapidly, particularly among displaced populations in the Northern Gaza Governorate, where water shortages are most severe.
Meanwhile, with no waste collection and transport for over 15 months, more than 2,000 tonnes of garbage has been piling up in the streets every day. This toxic combination of open sewage, uncollected waste and contaminated water is creating a perfect storm for a deadly disease outbreak.
“Despite the increase in aid since the ceasefire, Israel continues to severely impair critical items needed to begin repairing the massive structural damage from its airstrikes. This includes desperately needed pipes for repairing water and sanitation networks, equipment like generators to operate wells,” said Lagouardat.
Oxfam’s own 85 tonne-shipment of water pipes, fittings and water tanks – worth over $480,000 – had been held up for over six months because it was deemed as dual-use and “oversized” to enter. Israeli authorities only finally approved the shipment this week, although it has yet to enter.
“Hundreds of thousands of displaced people across the Gaza Strip have had to resort to digging makeshift cesspits next to their tents. This daily discharge of approximately 130,000 cubic meters – the equivalent of 52 Olympic pools – of untreated sewage is contaminating the Mediterranean Sea and Gaza’s only aquifer.
“Rebuilding water and sanitation is vital for Gaza to have a path to normalcy after 15 months of horror. The ceasefire must hold, and fuel and aid must flow so that Palestinians can rebuild their lives. Lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis can only come through a permanent ceasefire and a just solution,” said Lagouardat.
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If we persist in permitting wars as we are , much of the world will be living like this! Refusing to confront climate changing activities will do it too. Complex civilisations fall faster than more ‘primitive’ ones , be warned !
The inglorious Zionist stare of Western appeasement and accommodation, Israel, is a problematic invention of the West that is proving that the West’s delusional experiment has failed. Zionist Israel is the biggest threat to world peace and stability. It is becoming clearer by the day that the Tel Aviv government is intent on being the catalysts for WW3 and nuclear Armageddon.
Zionist Israel is not a country. Zionist Israel is nothing more than an expensive strategic US military base masquerading as a civilised democratic
country whose sole purpose is to protect US commercial assets in the Middle East.
As Genocide Joe Biden said
“Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region.”
Basically Zionist Israel was the US’s useful idiot in the Middle East but now it is a nuclear armed rogue state that the US and the West has lost control of.
The atrocities and war crimes committed by Zionist Israel will never be forgiven or forgotten and will haunt the US and the West for their complicity. Zionist Israel will go down in history as the pivotal point of the US and the West’s demise.
The genocidal plan is to make the Gaza strip uninhabitable.
Much the same is happening in the West Bank with the draining of sound waters to supply Israel, denying farmers and graziers with their water supplies.
The ‘miracle’ will occur when Israeli settlers take full control. Suddenly every thing will be A OK. The Gaza as the new Riviera with the trump towers overlooking the Mediterranean, or the settlers housing complexes dotted over Samaria and Judeah.
Canguro, am I glad to see you.
Sending you an email.
Is there no end to the bastardtry of these buggers?
Even blind Freddy can see the Israelis have absolutely no intention to repair or replace any of the infrastructure they so willfully destroyed – and all with one motive.
According to one detailed study (referred to in another comment), the buggers even removed the top soil from agricultural areas and completed the job by driving heavy machinery over what remained in order to compact the subsoil – having beforehand removed and destroyed all traces of any vegetation, including fruit orchards, vegie gardens and olive groves – and (unofficially I’m told), destroying any functioning water wells along the way.
How is that not calculated to remove any chance of self-sustenance?
When you place that together with destroyed homes, destroyed life-enhancing infrastructure, lack of potable water, increasing evidence of illness, starvation and disease, what do you get?
Not a problem according to Mr. Dutton.
Julian, bringing that sort of one-sidedness closer to home, I read in Crikey about attacks on Muslim women, graffiti on mosques and other forms of Islamaphobia, but not a mention in the mainstream media, nothing on the ABC, nothing in the Guardian, it is almost like that really didn’t happen, yet we are told of every bit of antisemitism which is rather real or confected.
And the dog whistle of antisemitism barks loudly in parliament. But not a whisper about the unmentionable Islamaphobia.
Thanks for mentioning that troubling aspect Bert, and as you note, not a whisper in the main press outlets. Should we be surprised at this? Unfortunately not.
I had earlier been aware of those disgusting incidents when I was directed to an article on Crikey that dealt essentially with social cohesion.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/02/17/media-double-standard-antisemitism-islamophobia-social-cohesion/
The author referred to the potential stich-up operation run by the Daily Telegraph and also to the debacle of the ABC’s handling of the Lattouf matter and concluded: “Both events typify why, for all the posturing, we should ditch the pretence we care about “social cohesion”.
The author later referred to “a double standard that speaks to how differently different sections of the community are regarded and valued.” We know that Dutton couldn’t care less about social cohesion and the Govt. appears not to be too fussed about it either.