Half a million in Gaza lack access to running water

UNICEF: Supplying water to shelters in Gaza:

"NEW YORK, USA, 16 January 2009 After 20 days of military operations in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation there has deteriorated to new levels of desperation.

An estimated half-million Gazans are now without running water. Food and electricity are also in short supply. Bombing and shelling which has already killed more than 1,100 people, including more than 350 children continues.

UNICEF has delivered water, water-purification tablets and water canisters to the Palestinian Red Crescent for distribution. More supplies are ready to be distributed when it is safe to do so. Relief efforts and basic repairs to the water and sanitation infrastructure are significantly hampered by the ongoing violence.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is currently operating and supplying 49 shelters in Gaza, where some 45,000 people are living. While drinking water has reached all but one of the shelters, lack of access to clean water poses a serious health threat throughout the country. In several communities, raw sewage runs in the street.

To read the full story, visit: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/o..."



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