War turns the sea into a sewage outlet.. a new disaster haunts Gaza residents

Large parts of the Gaza beach have become an open outlet for untreated sewage, due to the destruction of infrastructure and the failure of treatment plants caused by the war and the blockade. Thousands of cubic meters flow into the sea daily, raising fears of a health and environmental catastrophe. Residents and displaced people suffer from odors and diseases, and the Gaza municipality confirms that about 24,000 cubic meters are discharged daily without treatment.

The Gaza beach is no longer a safe haven for the residents of the Strip, as large parts of it have become an open outlet for untreated sewage, due to the destruction of infrastructure and the failure of treatment plants caused by the ongoing war and the Israeli blockade. Thousands of cubic meters of sewage flow directly into the sea daily, raising fears of a health and environmental catastrophe threatening both sea and land. In the Shati camp, citizen Asaad al-Najjar says the sea is no longer what we knew before the war; they wake up to the smell of sewage instead of the sea breeze, and they do not allow children to approach the water. He points out that the crisis has worsened unprecedentedly since the war broke out in October 2023, as treatment plants stopped and networks suffered severe damage. The crisis also extends to thousands of displaced people who pitched their tents on the beach, including Ahmad Siyam, who fled from the bombing to the sea but found it polluted. The spokesman for the Gaza municipality, Hosni Mahanna, says Gaza City has five main outlets, and about 24,000 cubic meters of sewage are discharged daily into the sea without treatment due to the halt of the central treatment plant in Sheikh Ajlin. He explained that the war destroyed about 220,000 linear meters of networks and damaged eight pumping stations, and the lack of fuel and spare parts makes operation more difficult. He warns that the collapse of the system leads to the spread of diseases and environmental pollution.