Why Gaza Needs a Water Treatment Facility Yesterday

This is not a photo from Gaza; but it shows exactly what is happening to 108,000 metric tons of Gaza's untreated sewage every day.

Good afternoon from sunny Seattle, folks. Unfortunately, the destruction of necessary infrastructure (including power plants, water purification facilities, and electrical grids) has become a weapon of war in recent decades; and the impact of these atrocities on civilian populations is severe, even life-threatening. Combined with economic sanctions or embargoes, it's all that a civilian community can do to stay alive. We've seen it in Cuba, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, and now Gaza. And the hell of it is, none of this is necessary; it's all a matter of politics; and it doesn't do a damn thing to sway or remove a corrupt or oppressive government. It's almost entirely ordinary civilians who endure the living death of economic sanctions combined with destruction of infrastructure; the leaders targeted by sanctions are usually filthy-rich, and seldom if ever phased by the effects of sanctions administered by the international community.

Over two million civilians in the Gaza Strip have been living this way, punctuated by exchanges of rocket fire with Israel's military, since 2006, primarily due to the Hamas party's assumption of government leadership in Gaza. This, moreover, seems to be why much of the world ignores the plight of Gaza's civilian population. Why should we care about Gaza? I hear and read frequently. Hell, they're just a bunch of Arabs/Muslims/terrorists/antisemites/whatever. Let them all rot. Well, they're also human beings (who bleed red!), family members, community members, and all the rest, who--for some time now--have had almost no drinkable water that doesn't come out of a bottle or cooler. This is primarily due to bombing of their civilian infrastructure, as well as the waste of funds for weapons instead of infrastructure rebuilding by Gaza's so-called government. The one power plant in Gaza barely functions; access to electricity is severely limited; and there is virtually no means of treatment and purification of sewage, runoff, and other waste water.

Seattle's beloved former Congresscritter, Dr. Jim McDermott, brought both these problems and potential solutions to the world's attention with an essay published in Time magazine during the end of his final term in the U.S. House of Representatives. In this article, he points out that not only are the residents of Gaza desperately in need of properly treated water, but it is also in Israel's best interests to supply enough electricity to Gaza to keep its (already-existing) water treatment facility running nonstop. Why? Because sewage and ocean currents don't recognize political boundaries; and--among other problems--untreated sewage and other pollutants are already turning up on beaches in the coastal Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon, both a mere stone's throw (literally) from Gaza's boundaries. Of course, Dr. McDermott has been accused in some quarters of "anti-Israel bias" for such remarks as "[W]hat is most lacking to resolve it are not technical solutions but political will"; but trust me, every word he wrote in that essay is the truth, however inconvenient. However much Israeli citizens may detest Gazans and their leaders, the last thing the former want to deal with is untreated sewage on their beaches, and the resulting waterborne illnesses running rampant in their communities.

Happily, some of McDermott's proposed solutions are beginning to be implemented, thanks in part to funding provided by Qatar, and the recent completion of the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment facility, which only requires full-time electricity to be fully functional. Just this month, the British government pledged substantial funds for the construction of Gaza's planned Central Water Desalination Plant, according to the Palestinian Water Authority. Since approximately three percent of Gaza's water supply is drinkable, construction and full-time operation of these facilities cannot begin too soon. The moral lesson to be taken from the sucky situation in Gaza is twofold: Economic sanctions on a civilian population is purely evil, from any ethical or philosophical standpoint; and one scores no political or ethical points whatsoever from the destruction and deprivation of critical civilian infrasture, especially electrical grids and water purification mechanisms. Not only does it cause ordinary people needless suffering; but those who are screwing them over will likely get their victims' sewage and accompanying bacteria in their own citizens' beaches and backyards.