More than 130 million gallons of clean drinking water have been delivered to the Gaza Strip by a network of desalination plants established by the UAE in December.
The six plants, on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border, produce about 1.6 million gallons of water daily and have the capacity to serve up to 600,000 Palestinians. The desalination network – opened under the UAE's continued relief operation – is providing a crucial lifeline to embattled civilians bearing the brunt of the conflict.
A dire shortage of treated water poses a serious health risk to Palestinians already counting the cost of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis. The plants gather water from the Mediterranean Sea through a system of pipes. The water is then filtered and sent underground across the border to the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza produced only 5 per cent of its usual water supply in March as a result of the damage to infrastructure, said a UN Environment Programme report released last month.
The Emirates has also set up 12 warehouses at a logistics base in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, where it is stockpiling tonnes of essential aid, including nappies, blankets, canned food, flour, rice and medicine.
The depots are packed with vital goods as a direct result of the goodwill and generosity of the UAE public since the outbreak of the war. Thousands of volunteers gathered across the UAE in October to pack aid boxes for Palestinian people under the Compassion for Gaza campaign.
The UAE had provided 33,100 tonnes of urgent supplies to Gaza as of June 13. Figures released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed that aid was delivered by 320 flights, seven ships and 1,243 lorries.
No comments:
Post a Comment