The United Nations Children’s Fund says Israel agreed to restore power to a key desalination plant in southern Gaza.
“UNICEF confirms an agreement was reached to re-establish the medium voltage feeder power line for the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant,” said spokesman Jonathan Crickx.
Water has become scarce for the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million residents since war broke out nearly nine months ago.
More than two-thirds of Gaza’s sanitation and water facilities have been destroyed or damaged and only an intermittent supply of bottled water has been allowed in since Israel imposed a punishing siege on the territory.
The plant in Khan Younis, once resupplied with electricity, should produce enough water to “meet what humanitarian standards define as a minimum intake of 15 litres (four gallons) per day of drinking water per person, for nearly a million displaced people” in southern Gaza, Crickx said.
“This is an important milestone, and we are very much looking forward to seeing it implemented.”
source: AlJazeera
