Salam Mohammed Abu Ghararah

Since Israel tightened its closure of the Gaza Strip in 2007,
severely restricting the import of fuel and construction materials, repairing
and maintaining the waste management facilities to meet the needs of the people
of the Gaza Strip has become near impossible. Sanitation conditions are rapidly
deteriorating and, if the problem is not rapidly addressed, this could have a
major impact on the health of the people of the Gaza Strip.

Salam Mohammed Abu Ghararah is a 46-year-old former construction
worker who lives with his wife and seven children in the Bedouin village in
Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip. A stone’s throw away from the
border with Israel, the area surrounding the village is dotted with numerous
large pools of sewage waste.

The smell is pungent, attacking the senses, and, in the summer
heat, the air is thickened by the stench. Salam lives a mere 600 metres from
one of the pools of sewage. “I want to sell my house and move. My wife, too,
has had enough. Before the closure, I worked in construction, commuting every
day to Israel. I was physically fit. Now, living by the sewage has given me
breathing difficulties. I can’t do anything without losing my breath. At night,
I can barely sleep because I cough so much. I can no longer live a normal
life.”

On 7 March 2007, Salam and his family suffered a great tragedy,
when a pool of sewage on top of a nearby hill overflowed. The ensuing flood,
referred to by those living in the village as a ‘tsunami’, caused widespread
destruction in the village and resulted in the deaths of five people. Salam’s
12-year-old daughter was drowned in the flood.

 One of several waste pools located in
the area, with the Bedouin village visible behind it

“I was at work,” says Salam. “I did not know it, but my daughter
had decided not to go to school that day. It was early in the morning, and many
people were still in bed. I came home as soon as I heard what had happened and
found that my daughter had been carried down the street by the flood. She had
drowned. Another of my daughters had only saved herself by hanging onto the
branch of a tree. My house was completely destroyed along with everything
inside. Imagine coming home and finding your daughter has died and there is
nothing left in your home.”

It is difficult for Salam, knowing that his children’s health is
suffering because they live so near the pools of sewage. “We educate our
children. We send them to summer camps about having good hygiene, but they live
next to this sewage so there is only so much we can do. If only you could smell
it on a bad day. Even the people who live here, and are used to it, suffer
headaches. Mosquitoes gather around the pools and spread diseases. I am trying
to sell my house, but who would want to live in a place like this?”

Dr Mohammed Yaghi, a doctor for the Palestinian Medical Relief
Society, outlined some of the medical concerns that he and other doctors share
about the effects of living so close to open sewage. “There are many concerns.
Both short- and long-term effects must be taken into consideration. For a
start, humidity from the pools of sewage causes air pollution. It also creates
a perfect environment for insects which, in turn, carry diseases and spread
them among people living in the area. Waste from people, factories, and
hospitals is stored altogether in the pools. In the hot sun, it releases
poisonous gases which cause skin diseases and asthma. Children are especially
susceptible to these effects.”

The long-term effects are equally worrying, as Dr Yaghi explains:
“There are many side effects that could be carcinogenic if there is daily
exposure. Aside from the poisonous gases and the insects, the sewage seeps into
the ground and contaminates the natural underground water supply. Because there
is human waste in these pools, nitrogen from human excrement contaminates the
water supply. When ingested, this has serious consequences for a person’s
health. It may also affect the new generation, as pregnant mothers may give
birth to children with brain defects. We have also seen a rise in infertility,
both in those who have come of age since the beginning of the sewage crisis,
and those who were already adults. The contaminated water affects men and women
of all ages.”

Dr Mohammed Yaghi, a doctor for the Palestinian Medical Relief
Society

Medical facilities in the Gaza Strip can cope with the short-term
needs brought about by the waste management crisis. However, the medical
services cannot address the root of the problem, the presence of open sewage
and the contamination of the water supply. The water table in the Gaza Strip is
further contaminated due to the pumping of 90,000 cubic metres of sewage into the
sea every day.[i] In an effort to
address the issue, the Palestinian Authority set up a new central committee for
sewage treatment based east of Jabalia. An EU-funded water treatment project,
to be built in the northern area near the ‘buffer zone’, was scheduled to begin
in 2008. However, construction has been delayed due to frequent incursions in
the area by Israeli forces. Construction workers have been prevented from
accessing the area, despite an agreement between the EU and Israel which
guaranteed access. The implementing partner responsible for the project is
aiming to recommence construction in six months’ time, but this will depend on
the actions of the Israeli forces.

Israel, as the occupying power of the Gaza Strip, is obliged under
international humanitarian law to ensure and maintain public health and
hygiene, with the cooperation of national and local authorities (Article 56 of
the 1949 Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War). Also, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) has affirmed that Israel has the duty to fulfil its obligations under
international human rights in the Gaza Strip. In this context, Israel has the
duty, under Article 12 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, to recognise the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and is obliged to
respect and protect this right by improving all aspects of environmental and
industrial hygiene, and by preventing, treating and controlling epidemic,
endemic, occupational, and other diseases.

According to the CESCR, “environmental hygiene, as an aspect of the
right to health […] encompasses taking steps on a non-discriminatory basis to
prevent threats to health from unsafe and toxic water conditions” (CESCR,
General Comment no. 15, 2002). In order to comply with this requirement, Israel
should ensure that natural water resources are protected from contamination by
harmful substances and pathogenic microbes. Likewise, Israel should monitor and
combat situations where aquatic eco-systems serve as a habitat for vectors of
diseases wherever they pose a risk to human living environments. Also, Israel
must “ensure an adequate supply of safe and potable water and basic sanitation;
[and] the prevention and reduction of the population’s exposure to harmful
substances such as radiation and harmful chemicals or other detrimental
environmental conditions that directly or indirectly impact upon human health” (CESCR,
General Comment No. 14, 2000).