UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (APP): With UN Security Council members still unable to agree on a ceasefire resolution, mainly over U.S. objections, the head of the UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) warned that without safe water, \u201cmany more children\u201d in war-battered Gaza will soon die from the disease. \u201cAccess to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death\u2026children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,\u201d UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days.\u201d The humanitarian alert came after more than 10 weeks of Israel\u2019s near-constant bombardment of the enclave that has resulted in the killing of 20,000 Palestinians and injuries to over 50,000. In a bid to escape the bombing which has heavily impacted the Strip\u2019s water production, treatment and distribution networks, more than 1.4 million uprooted Gazans have sought shelter in or near facilities run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. But UNICEF said that recently displaced children in southern Rafah governorate have only 1.5 to two litres of water every day, and that water services were \u201cat the point of collapse\u201d. \u201cFor survival alone, the estimated minimum is three litres per day,\u201d the UN agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Alarming as the lack of drinking water is, \u201chundreds of thousands\u201d of displaced people \u2013 half of them children \u2013 also remain \u201cin desperate need\u201d of food, shelter, medicines and protection, UNICEF stressed. At least 50 per cent of WASH facilities \u2013 providing basic water and sanitation services \u2013 have been damaged or destroyed in Gaza, as UNICEF warned that the impact of this situation on children was particularly worrying because they are more susceptible to diarrhoea, disease and malnutrition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready, officials have recorded almost 20 times the monthly average of reported cases of diarrhoea among children under the age of five, in addition to increases of cases of scabies, lice, chicken pox, skin rashes and more than 160,000 cases of acute respiratory infection,\u201d UNICEF reported. Since the start of the crisis, UNICEF and partners have provided fuel to operate wells, desalination plants, water trucking and waste and sewage management, along with bottled water and water containers for more than 1.3 million people. More than 45,000 jerry cans have been distributed along with at least 130,000 family hygiene kits, including menstrual health and hygiene products and hundreds of thousands of bars of soap.<\/p>\n
The UN agency underlined the need for generators to operate water and sanitation facilities, along with plastic pipes to fix broken plumbing. But these continue to be blocked from entering Gaza owing to \u201caccess restrictions\u201d. \u201cConstant bombing, restrictions on materials and fuel are preventing critical progress,\u201d UNICEF\u2019s Ms. Russell insisted in a tweet. The latest humanitarian alert came amid increasing international pressure for a new pause in hostilities in the Gaza Strip, to enable more aid supplies to be trucked in for the most vulnerable. The first pause lasted from 24 November to 1 December. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini recently warned that desperate people have been \u201ctaking the food, and eating it right away\u201d, while social media posts have shown groups of people stopping aid convoys and removing supplies. \u201cEverywhere you look, is congested with makeshift shelters.<\/p>\n
Everywhere you go, people are desperate, hungry and terrified,\u201d Lazzarini told journalists in Geneva. Citing the Gazan health authorities, UNRWA said in its latest update on the crisis that more than 19,450 Palestinians have been killed in the hostilities according to health authorities and \u201caround 70 per cent are reported to be women and children\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (APP): With UN Security Council members still unable to agree on a ceasefire resolution, mainly over U.S. objections, the head of the UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) warned that without safe water, \u201cmany more children\u201d in war-battered Gaza will soon die from […]<\/p>\n
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