Ref: 38-2015

The participants recommended the formation of an independent
professional committee to study all aspects of the project, including
reconsidering the site of the waste disposal plant project, and providing a
final vision and recommendations. The committee would include independent and
impartial figures, environment experts, a representative of the PCHR and representatives
of the local community. On Monday morning, 13 July 2015, PCHR Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights Unit organized a workshop entitled “The Project of
Establishing a Solid Waste Plant in Khan Yunis and Its Impact on the
Environment”.  The workshop was held
in offices of the Palestinian Farmers’ Association in Khan Younis. It was
organized as PCHR has been following up  the
construction of the plant in the west of Khan Younis, and communicating with
the implementing parties and the population of Gizan Abu Rashwan neighborhood,
where the project will be established. PCHR has received some complaints fom
the population. The workshop, in which representatives of governmental bodies,
UNRWA, civil society organizations and political factions participated,
included five interventions.

Khalil Shaheen, Director of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Unit, opened the workshop welcoming the participants. He called for raising
debate and dialogue concerning the project of establishing the solid waste disposal
plant in order to conclude 
recommendations that  meet the
needs of  Khan Younis population,
especially  the  residents of Gizan Abu Rashwan neighborhood,
in conformity with the rules of international human rights law and Basic Law of
the Palestinian Authority that guarantee all human right, including the right
to live in a clean environment, including having basic services, such as water
and environmental health.

Eng. Bahaa Eddin al-Agha, Director of the Environment Protection Department
in the Environmental Quality Authority in the Gaza Strip, presented in an
intervention entitled “The vision of the Environmental Quality Authority
to Improve Solid Waste Services in Khan Younis”. He pointed out that Khan
Younis Municipality managed to get the necessary funding by the Islamic Bank to
set up a solid waste disposal plant in Khan Younis, under the supervision of
UNRWA. Al-Agha added that the task is focused on improving the conditions of
the solid waste sector in the Gaza Strip, which is on the verge of collapse,
but the large project which is being implemented in various governorate is
reviving it. Agha emphasized that the project aims to create healthy dumps,
equipped to prevent the arrival of waste to the soil and equipped to deal with
methane gas. He mentioned that the establishing the plant has also an economic
objective;  instead of supplying 200 tons
of solid waste produced daily by Khan Younis 
to other stations, the solid waste are treated in the plant intended to
be established.

In his intervention entitled “The Vision of Khan Younis Municipality
for the Development of Solid Waste Services”, Eng. Nour al-Din al-Madhoun,
the director of solid waste management unit, presented the stages of the
establishment of solid waste plants in the Gaza Strip,  He indicated that before 2009, solid waste disposal
plants were not established  in the Gaza
Strip according to international standards for establishing  such plants. This plant, which UNRWA and the
Municipality of Khan Younis intend to establish in west of Khan Younis, meet
the conditions of establishing  plant,
and this plant is for temporary 
collection of waste, and thus the waste would not be accumulated in the
same place. Al- Madhoun eased the concerns of neighborhood  residents 
by saying that the plant will be completely covered and subject to standards relating to civilian protection, and
will not spread the smells of solid waste.

The Eng. Mohammed Riyati, deputy director of the projects of infrastructure
and development of camps at UNRWA, presented an intervention entitled “The Role of UNRWA in Improving the Infrastructure of
Solid Waste Projects”. He pointed out that 
the establishment of the plant was agreed between UNRWA, Khan Younis Municipality
and the Council of solid waste in 2011, and it is among the strategic projects
that are stablished in the Gaza Strip and
supervised by UNRWA. Riyati added that the Khan Younis Municipality was responsible
for choosing the location, while UNRWA took over the mission of supplying the necessary materials to stablish the
project within the materials supplied through the Gaza Strip crossings for the
benefit of international institutions. He pointed out that UNRWA communicated
with the Israeli occupation authorities that approved it after three years.

In his intervention entitled “The position of the Committee of Gizan
Abu Rashwan Neighborhood towards the Establishment of the Solid Waste Plant”,
Mr. Ali al-Houli, chairman of the neighborhood’s committee,  noted that  the committee and residents of the
neighborhood do not reject the establishment of the project, and that the their
objection was against poor selection of location of the project. He pointed out
that the residents of the area suffered seriously during the past years,
especially during the recent Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip,
because of the accumulation of solid waste in the same the place where the
project is intended to be established. Al-Houli added that if the plant is established,
it will pollute the groundwater and environment, and the waste will seep from
transport cars, which negatively affects the lives of the population in Khan
Younis.

Dr. Ahmad Dahlan, a professor of geography at Al-Azhar University,
presented an intervention entitled “Environmental Impacts of the Construction
of the Solid Waste Plant in Khan Younis”. He pointed out that the
implementing agency of the project focused on the mechanisms of the establishment
of the permanent station in the Sufa area, but they did not care to establish
waste relay station in Khan Younis, and did not make the required effort to
listen to the specialists and residents of the neighborhood. He added that the
establishment of the waste plant will negatively affect the health of resident
in the place, in view of the many diseases spreading in the Gaza Strip. He
called on the implementing agencies to transfer the move the location of the
plant southwards where fewer people live.

At the end of the workshop, the participants recommended forming an
independent committee to study all aspects of the project, including the
suitability of the designed for it, and provide the final vision and
recommendations. The committee should include independent and impartial figures,
environment experts, a representative of PCHR and representatives of the local
community.