Gaza - UNICEF reaches deal with Israel allowing repairs to main water desalination plant

"UNICEF confirms an agreement (with Israel) was reached to re-establish the medium voltage feeder power line for the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant," said Jonathan Crickx, the agency's spokesman in the Palestinian territories."

More than two-thirds of Gaza's sanitation and water facilities have been destroyed or damaged in Israeli attacks, according to data cited by U.N. agencies, and only an intermittent supply of bottled water has been allowed in since Israel imposed a punishing siege on the territory.

The plant in Khan Younis, once resupplied with electricity, should produce enough water to "meet what humanitarian standards define as a minimum intake of 15 liters per day of drinking water per person, for nearly a million displaced people" in southern Gaza, Crickx said.

Click here for the article in the Daily Sabah

Note: The Khan Younis desalination plant in the Gaza Strip was established in 2017 with 10 million euro funding from the EU and implemented by UNICEF to provide drinking water to the area. The plant is the largest in the Gaza Strip and aims to produce high-quality desalinated water for more than 250,000 people in Khan Younis and Rafah. However, as of June 2024, the plant was not operating at full capacity due to energy shortages.