Gaza’s rapidly growing population of about 1. 64 million, which is expected to increase by 500, 000 by 2020, could soon lose its main source of fresh water from the underground coastal aquifer, which could become unusable by 2016 and sustain irreversible damage by 2020, the report said.
Clean water is limited for most Gazans to an average of 70 to 90 liters per person per day, compared to the minimum global world health organization (WHO) standard of 100 liters a day, according to Mahmoud Daher, officer in charge of the WHO in Gaza.
“We have respiratory diseases, skin diseases, eye diseases, gastroenteritis, which can all be linked to polluted water,” said Mohamed Al-Kashef, general director of the international cooperation department in the Gaza health ministry.
According to the UNICEF 2010 update, diseases associated with water account for about 26 percent of diseases in Gaza.
The nitrate contamination of the aquifer is believed to be a threat to infants and pregnant women in Gaza, the UNICEF said.
One of the child diseases connected to polluted water is Methemoglobinemia, or the blue-baby syndrome, which has occurred among babies born in Gaza. It is believed that high nitrate contamination in groundwater is causing the disease.
"Diarrhea, which has become very common in the Gaza Strip, is most likely linked to poor hygiene standards in enterprises which desalinate water," says Mahmoud Daher.
"Damage to the coastal aquifer will be irreversible without immediate remedial action," the UN report warned further.
Source: Palestine Info