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The supply and regular disruptions are a daily fact of life, especially for half the population in high-rise buildings "where water must be carried to upper stories using electric pumps." As a result, bathing, brushing teeth, doing laundry, washing dishes, and preparing meals at times are impossible.
Sanitation infrastructure was also badly damaged and not repaired. Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility said that since the blockade it's been hampered by few essential spare parts to operate. In addition, "The increased pumping....depleted the aquifer and accelerated the salin(ity) of the water."
Loss of pressure also lets polluted water enter pipes, sent straight to households when distribution resumes. "About 90 percent of the water supplied to Gaza residents is not suitable for drinking, according to" WTO standards because of sea and contaminated water infiltration. As a result, water-related illnesses are widespread, and conditions are worsening and life-threatening.
Easily preventable diarrhea causes 12% of childhood deaths, and of 40,000 "newborn babies this year, at least half are at immediate risk of nitrate poisoning; the incidence of 'blue baby-syndrome (methaemoglobinaemia) is exceptionally high."
Nitrate poisoning is a major problem. In some places, it's 300 times the WTO standard.
Based on availability for those who can afford it, buying water privately trucked in is the only alternative other than begging from neighbors or doing without at great risk.
Sanitation
Waste water treatment facilities suffered "a complete breakdown," according to Ibraheim Radwan of Gaza's Engineering Syndicate. He described the impact of raw sewage flows to the sea and at times streets with contaminants leaching into tap water.
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