Water Authority warns of dangers of Israel’s threats to flood tunnels under Gaza with seawater

The Palestinian Water Authority warned of the risks that will result if Israel implements its threats to flood the tunnels under the Gaza Strip with water pumped from the Mediterranean Sea because this would cause water and environmental disaster and serious risks that may be difficult to manage in the future, especially for groundwater. The Water Authority, in a statement, explained that the implementation of threats would have devastating effects on the coastal-underground aquifer in the Gaza Strip, in terms of contaminating it with unprecedented high rates of salinity due to the salinity of the seawater, which is estimated at 30,000 mg/L. This will lead to the destruction of the underground reservoir, thus destroying any future hope for its rehabilitation, the statement maintained. 'This will thwart the strenuous efforts made in previous years to address the situation of the underground reservoir and overcome the looming environmental catastrophe in the Strip since 2020 and threaten to make the Strip u nviable," said the statement. The Water Authority warned that pumping seawater under the Strip will lead to the destabilization of the soil properties, thus leading to land subsidence across multiple areas of the Strip, which it stressed foreshadows the potential collapse of what remains of houses, buildings, and infrastructure, which will be reflected in the increased soil salinization that will result in it being uncultivable. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA