The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that Gaza’s water crisis has reached breaking point. Ongoing hostilities, mass displacement, and extreme fuel shortages have left communities without access to the basic clean water and sanitation they need to survive. Fuel is essential to power Gaza’s desalination plants, water and sewage pumps, and even toilets. Without it, water cannot be produced or delivered. 

Most people in Gaza are now receiving far below the WHO’s emergency standard of 15 litres of water per person per day. With only 40 percent of Gaza’s drinking water facilities still functional, water production is less than half of what it was during the last ceasefire in March.  

Scott Lea, Emergency Country Director, recently returned from Gaza and shared, 

 “The entire water system has broken down. There is simply not enough clean water to meet the needs of the population in Gaza. The people we meet have no food, and now no water. IRC teams continue to distribute clean, desalinated drinking water to families in Asda city (40,000 litres per day) and Almutahabeen displacement camp in Mawasi (20,000 litres)—both in Khan Younis. Working closely with other agencies we are reaching as many people as possible, but the supply of clean water is irregular, and the demand is overwhelming. Without a regular supply of fuel it is impossible to meet the water needs of the population.”