UN experts warn of water-borne diseases spreading in hotspot

UN experts are sounding the alarm that water-borne diseases are spreading in the Gaza Strip due to heat and unsafe water.

Water-borne diseases are spreading in Gaza due to a lack of clean water and rising temperatures, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Gaza said on Friday.

“It’s getting very hot there,” Jamie McGoldrick told reporters via video link from Jerusalem. “People are getting far less water than they need, and as a result, due to the lack of safe and clean water and failures in sanitation systems, water-borne diseases are emerging.” “.

“In the coming months, we must find a way to improve water supplies to areas where large numbers of people are currently concentrated,” Jamie McGoldrick said after his latest visit to Gaza at the end of his three-month deployment.

According to the World Health Organization, contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery and hepatitis A.

As Reuters recalls, since mid-October, after the attack on Gaza in response to deadly Hamas attacks in southern Israel, WHO has recorded more than 345,000 cases of diarrhea, including more than 105,000 in children under 5 years of age.

Israel has committed to helping expand the capacity of humanitarian organizations to provide aid to Gaza and has approved the resumption of the water pipeline in northern Gaza.

The only natural source of water in the Gaza Strip is the coastal aquifer, which stretches along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea from the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt through Gaza to Israel.

Over the years, the enclave’s water quality deteriorated rapidly, mainly because it was pumped out faster than rainwater could replace it to meet the needs of Gaza’s population.

As early as late 2023, the World Health Organization issued alarming warnings that Gaza was being ravaged by famine and was expected to lead to an increase in illness across the sector, especially among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.

An unprecedented 93% of Gaza’s population faces crisis levels of hunger, experiencing food shortages and high levels of malnutrition. At least 1 in 4 families are in “catastrophic conditions”: severely food insecure and hungry, having to sell off their possessions and resort to other extreme measures to afford basic food. Hunger, need and death are obvious, WHO experts stated.

In Gaza, by the end of last year there was a rapid increase in the number of infectious diseases. By that time, more than 100,000 cases of diarrhea had been reported since mid-October. Half of these are children under 5 years of age, 25 times the number of cases reported before the conflict. By December, more than 150,000 cases of upper respiratory tract infections had been reported, as well as numerous cases of meningitis, skin rashes, scabies, head lice, and chickenpox. Hepatitis is also suspected because many people have obvious signs of jaundice.

While it is easier for a healthy body to cope with these diseases, an exhausted and weakened body will fight them worse. Hunger weakens the body’s defenses and opens the way to disease, WHO experts warned.

Poor nutrition increases the risk of children dying from diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and measles, especially when they lack access to life-saving health services. And even if the child survives, the malnutrition could have lifelong consequences as it slows growth and cognitive development, experts predict. Breastfeeding mothers are also at high risk of malnutrition. From 0 to 6 months of age, breast milk is the best and safest food a baby can receive. This protects it from nutritional deficiencies and contraction of deadly diseases such as diarrhea, especially in settings where access to safe drinking water is extremely limited.

Lack of sanitation and hygiene, as well as a collapsing health care system, contribute to this toxic mixture. About two million people have been forced to flee their homes, with more than 1.4 million in overcrowded shelters. These conditions contribute to a further increase in the number of infectious diseases. At the end of 2023, Gaza had on average only one shower for every 4,500 people and one toilet for every 220. Clean water remains in short supply, and people are increasingly forced to defecate in the street. These conditions make the spread of infectious diseases inevitable.