UNRWA Environmental Health and WASH in Gaza

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Around 1.4 million people (approx. 74% of the population) in the Gaza Strip are UNRWA-registered refugees. Severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods due to the blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007 are hampering economic development and have led to a dramatic deterioration in the socioeconomic situation of the population. More than half of the population - and the trend is rising - live below the national poverty line despite support services. Among other things, the public water management infrastructure in communities and refugee camps is very outdated and urgently needs to be rehabilitated or expanded. The aim of the transitional aid project is to improve the living and environmental conditions of Palestine refugees in the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and to strengthen their resilience by providing and increasing the efficiency of basic WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services. In the first phase, 168,000 people in seven of eight refugee camps are to benefit. The aim is to reduce acute health risks to the target group caused by environmental influences (e.g. contaminated water) in the short term, and to strengthen the supply situation and resilience of the refugees in the medium term in order to be able to better deal with future escalations of the conflict, pandemics and the difficult socio-economic conditions in the Gaza Strip. The following measures are planned as part of this project for a sustainable improvement of the WASH infrastructure in and around refugee camps: rehabilitation of the water distribution networks, rehabilitation and expansion of the sewage networks, flood protection and surface drainage measures, including appropriate drainage solutions. The project is being implemented by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). EUR 15 million will be made available for this purpose.