"Fully foreseeable: The reverberating effects of water and health in Gaza"
Protection of Water During & After Armed Conflict
Report
The Geneva Water Hub's study on Gaza exposes severe health crises resulting from damaged water and sewage services. The region faces dire consequences such as dehydration deaths in newborns, and outbreaks of hepatitis A, scabies, and diarrhea. These outcomes, both predictable and preventable, are worsened by a failing healthcare system and severe overcrowding. The findings emphasize a blatant disregard for International Humanitarian Law and indicate a troubling trend toward the weaponization of water resources.
“Only the dead have seen the end of the war”, Plato is said to have said. This study by the Geneva Water Hub shows just how true this is for survivors in Gaza today.
The effects of damage to and degradation of water and sewage services are shown to reverberate onto people’s health in devastating ways. Newborns die of dehydration, and hundreds of thousands are infected with hepatitis A, scabies, or acute diarrhea. The misery is compounded by a health service on its knees, over-crowding of people forced from their homes into camps, and severe malnutrition.
With researchers from Gaza, Imperial College, Boston University and Stanford University, the study finds that these effects - and worse yet to come - are entirely predictable. And therefore preventable. If the conduct of hostilities complied with the Rules of War / International Humanitarian Law, the reasonably foreseeable effects on civilians would be avoided. IHL also obliges Israel to facilitate the restoration of essential services and to maintain basic living conditions.
The disregard for the Rules of War in Gaza may reflect an ominous trend of weaponization of water wider afield and ensures the end of the war for survivors in Gaza will come only years after the end of hostilities.
The effects of damage to and degradation of water and sewage services are shown to reverberate onto people’s health in devastating ways. Newborns die of dehydration, and hundreds of thousands are infected with hepatitis A, scabies, or acute diarrhea. The misery is compounded by a health service on its knees, over-crowding of people forced from their homes into camps, and severe malnutrition.
With researchers from Gaza, Imperial College, Boston University and Stanford University, the study finds that these effects - and worse yet to come - are entirely predictable. And therefore preventable. If the conduct of hostilities complied with the Rules of War / International Humanitarian Law, the reasonably foreseeable effects on civilians would be avoided. IHL also obliges Israel to facilitate the restoration of essential services and to maintain basic living conditions.
The disregard for the Rules of War in Gaza may reflect an ominous trend of weaponization of water wider afield and ensures the end of the war for survivors in Gaza will come only years after the end of hostilities.
Download the full report below.
FULLY FORESEEABLE: The reverberating effects of war on water and health in Gaza
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