Vulnerable children and communities in the State of Palestine access

In the State of Palestine, there is an ongoing water crisis impacted by the protracted conflict, water scarcity, climate change and rapid population growth resulting in shortages of sustainable clean and safe water, and sanitation. Less than 40 per cent of households have access to safely managed water, ranging from 4 per cent in the Gaza Strip to 66.2 per cent in the West Bank. Across the state of Palestine, almost one in five households use water sources that are contaminated with E. Coli[1]. At the same time, 33 per cent of children in the State of Palestine do not have access to safely managed sanitation services.

In the past few years UNICEF has been working to support Water and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Systems Strengthening, while also advocating for more sustainability and Climate Action. UNICEF has also provided institutional strengthening support to key partners whether on the national and local levels such as the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and the Coastal Municipality Water Authority (CMWU) in the Gaza Strip.

Access to Water

UNICEF has implemented several initiatives with a wide range of partners such as the support for the infrastructure improvement in the Gaza Strip resulting in an end to season flooding by providing stormwater collection systems. These actions transformed the lives of 800,000 people. However, the work does not stop there as different interventions are ongoing to expand the production capacity of the Southern Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant with support from the European Union. Once completed, some 250,000 Palestinians living in Rafah and Khan Younis – around half of them children – will have access to safe drinking water.

[1]Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), December 2021, P. 14

WASH interventions are not limited to the Gaza Strip, but also the West Bank. The Yatta Water Supply Project, funded by the Kingdom of The Netherlands aims to improve infrastructure by installing water pipes and expanding Yatta’s current water network. Upon completion, it will provide the people of Yatta with sustainable clean water supply by September this year, impacting the lives of over 100,000 people; half of whom are children.

Capacity Building

UNICEF has been working closely with the PWA on the capacity-building of the service providers on Water Safety Plans. This will help with the sustainability of the water projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The capacity-building included how they will work to improve the understanding of the water supply system, improve stakeholder collaboration, and operational efficiency of water infrastructure.

Jihad Al-Desht, an engineer from the CMWU the Gaza Strip is one of the people who had undertaken one of the capacity-building training for System Strengthening, “We were trained in a more advanced system that will help us work when the desalination plant expands and to ensure sustainable supply of water in times of emergency.”  He adds that the new system is more efficient and will be more flexible. UNICEF supported the training of water service providers, improving their technical and financial performances. The training helped the service providers plan and adopt fair water distribution systems to ensure that everyone has equal access to water as many areas do not receive water due to a lack in pressure and scarcity, while other areas closer to water sources take up most of the water supply.

Mageda Alawneh is an engineer from the PWA who also benefitted from the capacity-building. She said that “we defined the bottlenecks that we are facing in the water sector as well as results on how we can take this forward.” She added that, “all the results of the workshop and the training will be in our plans and in our implementation of the project.”

Alawneh also says that in Masafer Yatta, they now have the components of improving the water situation there and improving the supply of water through the ongoing infrastructure and training of engineers. Alawneh adds, “we are working on strengthening the capacity of the municipality on how to handle the operation, and maintenance of the water network.”

Coordination

As the cluster lead agency for WASH, UNICEF works closely with over 54 active WASH partners in managing and responding to the emergency needs of children and communities in the State of Palestine with information from the humanitarian situation on the ground.

Through active participation, UNICEF has been present in the main Water and Sanitation Sector Group discussions, including the technical working group focused on the Gaza Strip, and different meetings with donors, bringing the humanitarian context to the discussion with the main sector development partners.

UNICEF’s work does not stop there. In collaboration with the PWA, UNICEF is developing a profile for drinking water sources in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip undertaking a water resource assessment and vulnerability map. This will allow the identification of any man-made and natural threats for water resources; it will also help find opportunities for both sources and service providers.

None of this of course would have been possible without the support of UNICEF’s partners who believe in the importance of WASH services especially vulnerable women and children. These partners include Australia, the European Union, European Humanitarian Aid, Italy, Kuwait Fund, the Kingdom of The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

UNICEF remains a major player in the WASH sector in the State of Palestine, providing sector leadership in coordination, direct implementation, and advocacy. As member states are meeting in New York within the framework of the UN Water Conference to take stocks of the progress and the gaps to reach the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on SDG 6, it is important to continue to strive for children and communities to have safe access to WASH services and to be at the forefront of these efforts as water is a fundamental human right.