UAE BEGINS CONSTRUCTION OF WATER PIPELINE FROM EGYPT TO SOUTHERN GAZA AMID GROWING CRISIS
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Agency Report
The United Arab Emirates has commenced the construction of a major pipeline to transport desalinated water from Egypt into southern Gaza, in an urgent bid to address the worsening water crisis in the besieged territory.
According to the Emirati state news agency WAM, technical teams from the UAE have begun delivering equipment and initiating work on the nearly seven-kilometre (4.5-mile) pipeline. The project is designed to supply clean drinking water daily to an estimated 600,000 people in the Al-Mawasi area along Gaza’s coast.
The Israeli defence ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed earlier this week that the project would begin imminently and is expected to take several weeks to complete.
The UAE has also launched additional initiatives, including the drilling and rehabilitation of potable water wells, WAM reported.
The initiative comes amid severe water scarcity in Gaza, where more than 80% of the water infrastructure has been destroyed in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The Palestinian Water Authority and UN agencies have raised alarm over the growing threat of disease and famine, particularly in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering.
Residents are largely dependent on salty, contaminated wells or sporadic aid deliveries that are frequently disrupted due to fuel shortages and limited humanitarian access.
“The water crisis in Gaza continues to deteriorate rapidly amid a severe fuel shortage, extensive infrastructure damage, and inaccessible water sources,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned.
There was a brief respite as the Deir el-Balah desalination plant in central Gaza resumed full operations over the weekend, following its reconnection to the Israeli electricity grid for the first time since spring.
Meanwhile, UN agencies have called for a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid. UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed, “The trickle of aid must become an ocean,” as UN-backed experts warned that a “worst-case scenario” famine is now unfolding in Gaza and could become irreversible without immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access.
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