Gaza municipality warns of environmental catastrophe as 250,000 tons of waste pile up under blockade

GAZA, May 28 (YPA) -The Gaza Municipality has warned that accumulated waste in the city has exceeded 250,000 tons, posing a serious environmental and public health threat amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis now entering its 19th month.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, the municipality said enormous amounts of rubbish are piling up in residential neighborhoods, with no capacity to remove it due to the blockade and lack of resources. Municipal teams are reportedly barred from accessing official landfill sites.

The municipality said it is implementing partial emergency measures to curb pollution, such as collecting rubbish and moving it to temporary dumping sites within the city and sweeping main streets. However, it stressed that these efforts are “insufficient in the face of rapidly deteriorating environmental and health conditions.”

The crisis is worsened by fuel shortages, lack of waste management equipment, and Israeli-imposed restrictions that prevent the transfer of rubbish to the main landfill site in Juhor ad-Dik, east of Gaza.

Gaza’s infrastructure is near total collapse after over 17 years of Israeli blockade and the latest military escalation, which devastated large swathes of civil infrastructure, including water and sewage networks.

Health and environmental experts are warning of short-term consequences, including the spread of infectious diseases, the rise of insect and rodent populations, and contamination of groundwater, especially in a densely populated area suffering from a severe lack of health services.

The waste crisis is adding to the already overwhelming pressure on Gaza’s residents, who face food, water, and electricity shortages, with no political solutions in sight.

@E.Y.M