66% of Palestinians in Gaza suffer from water-borne diseases, says Environment Authority

RAMALLAH: The Environmental Quality Authority said that 66% of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip suffer from the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, chronic diarrhea, and intestinal diseases, due to the lack of drinkable water and the closure of all water desalination plants as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation aggression. It explained, in a statement issued today, as part of its ongoing digital environmental campaign, that the Israeli bombing of sewage lines and causing them to flood lead to a health and environmental catastrophe, especially the Sheikh Radwan Pool, whose has reached a critical level due to the accumulation of rainwater and the leakage of wastewater into it. The Environmental Quality Authority confirmed that the occupation's aggression resulted in the uprooting of about 50,000 trees and the bulldozing of thousands of acres of agricultural land, nurseries, and home gardens, which leads to increased desertification, loss of biodiversity, deterioration of soil quality, an d increased carbon dioxide emissions. It pointed out that the digital environmental campaign contains data and information about the serious negative impacts on the Palestinian environment. The Authority indicated that it aims to expose the occupation's crimes against the environment, as the aggression does not only constitute a humanitarian catastrophe, but also works to destroy the components of the environment, due to the accumulation of solid and medical waste, and generating carbon emissions, and its negative impact on climate change, in addition to the shortage of drinkable water due to the cessation of desalination plants and other various environmental issues. Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA