The Gaza Municipality has warned of an environmental and health disaster that threatens the Gaza Strip as a result of the accumulation of thousands of tons of waste between houses, residential neighborhoods and the camps for the displaced, due to the inability to deport or remove them as a result of the Israeli war on the 15 -month sector since 2023.
Engineer Assem Al -Nabih, a spokesman for the Gaza Municipality, said: A real catastrophe threatens the lives of citizens in Gaza City specifically, where more than 170 thousand tons of waste in the city accumulate, with many times this number at the Gaza Strip level.
He stressed in exclusive statements to the Qatar News Agency “Qena” that these piles of waste constitute an environmental and health disaster for the lives of Palestinian citizens, which leads to the spread of epidemics and various diseases, according to the competent authorities, the Ministry of Health and International Institutions.
The Prophet added that the accumulation of more than 170,000 tons of waste in the streets and roads, and between homes and shelters, leads to the spread of skin and intestinal diseases, especially among children and the elderly, in addition to the spread of insects and rodents, which increases the exacerbation of the health crisis and their seriousness on the lives of people.
He continued, “The accumulation of waste also affects the groundwater in the sector, where the waste juice leaks to it, which pollutes the water and harms the environment in general.”
Al -Nabih pointed out that the Gaza municipality is unable to collect and deport waste due to the destruction of the Israeli occupation of more than 85 percent of the municipal heavy mechanisms during the aggression, in addition to the difficulty of the municipal crews reaching the main landfills of the city east of the city due to the presence of the occupation in the region.
He explained that the collection of waste was used in random landfills within the city, which are not equipped and unhealthy, which leads to significant environmental and health damage. وشدد في سياق متصل على أن البلدية لن تتمكن من تجاوز هذه الأزمة الصحية المتفاقمة دون الحصول على الآليات الثقيلة والسماح لطواقمها بالوصول إلى المكب الرئيسي في شرق المدينة مبرزا أن قرار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بوقف شاحنات المساعدات إلى قطاع غزة يزيد من تعقيد الوضع ويؤثر على كافة القطاعات الإنسانية والخدمية.
Regarding the measures taken by the municipality to confront this crisis, the Prophet affirmed that what has been implemented so far by the municipality is only ambulance measures, in light of the failure to enter the needs that the municipality submitted to the international bodies since the ceasefire entered into force, noting in this context that the Gaza municipality has submitted requests to obtain heavy mechanisms, maintenance materials and sufficient fuel, but it has not yet received these needs.
A spokesman for the Gaza municipality warned that “the failure to introduce the necessary needs and special equipment will make it difficult to address these crises, which means that the suffering that lasted for 15 months of aggression will continue in the future.”