During an episode organized by the GO network, recommendations for lobbying for the implementation of promises to resolve the “Eastern Region” crisis

November 17th 2021

Several Parties recommended that donors and competent bodies be pressed to implement promises related to the sanitation crisis in the eastern region of Khan Younis during an interactive panel organized by GO, within the project of GO – A Digital Interactive Youth Community FOR Better LGUS’ Services.

The episode brought together and discussed relevant parties including, the engineer Iyad Rashwan, from the Ministry of Local Government, and the engineer Attiya Bursh from the Water and Environmental Quality Authority, in addition to Mr. Shada Abu Rok, mayor of Khuza ‘a, and activist Ahmed Abu Salah, one of the operatives of the “Alsharqiya is collapsing” campaign.

The Go Network reviewed citizens’ views in the Eastern Region, during interviews prepared by its team, where citizens indicated their suffering in that area as a result of absorption drilling and lack of sanitation rights.

One citizen said, “We have the right to be like other residential areas in the Gaza Strip”, while a young woman resident of the area said that when she leaves her home, it is difficult to do so, where the streets are filled with absorbent drilling and water ponds, and with the risk of drowning or falling in any hole.

One citizen deplored the neglect of the border areas, compared to the Strip’s internal and main areas. Others have spoken of their daily struggles with mobility and movement during their daily needs, other than the transmission of horrific events that have occurred to some citizens, and their damage from this ongoing crisis.

For his part, Abu Rock demanded during the episode that at least the line transporting from the municipalities to the Sofa region, so that the municipality can discontinue the projects, in order to supply the densely drained areas, stressing that “sanitation is a right of citizens, presumably worked on 30 years ago.”

In his turn, Rashwan said, the sanitation project is a major strategic project, at the country and government levels, and is planned centrally, stating that it needs to combine all government efforts, with local government bodies, donors, to come up with an urgent solution to the crisis.

He noted that “since 2006, complete schemes for the sewage project have been prepared, but have ceased. In 2014, an agreement was signed with the Islamic Development Bank and the United Nations for the construction of the East Fakhari Central Processing Plant in the amount of $42 million. In 2015, the foundation stone of the large project was laid, stating that” This project is the nucleus of the solution to the problem of sanitation in the entire province of Khan Younis, including the eastern region, with a budget of about $58 million “.

The Water Authority, whose spokesman Attiyah AlBarash stated, indicated that most of the projects that come to the major municipalities, and the densely populated areas, were not in the eastern region of Khan Younis.

“There is a strategic plan for the water and sanitation sector, which is updated every year,” Albarash explained, stating that “this sector needs funding, both governmental and international institutions, to implement water and environmental projects”, and pointing to scarce funding for the environmental and water sectors.

Abu Salah, speaking of the suffering of the people of the Eastern Region, said that they “suffer from contaminated water and danger to their lives”, asking “Why is the blockade standing in front of the East Khan Younis only, to prevent it from being drained?”

“The problem poses a serious risk to the lives of children and citizens in this region, and has been in constant suffering since 1997, without serious action,” Abu Salah said, noting “promises from the Ministry of Local Government that the crisis will be resolved soon, without an effective solution.”

The seminar’s recommendations included the need for networking with all relevant stakeholders and financiers, by the Ministry of Local Government, in order to ensure that all that is necessary to resolve the crisis and provide sanitation systems in the eastern region. In addition to recommending the provision of reduced solar to municipalities to provide their mechanisms, for the urgent rescue of absorption wells.