The water along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast is beginning to turn brown as health experts warn of the spread of open sewage and disease in the area.
Satellite images analysed by BBC Arabic show what appears to be a large sewage spill off the coast of Deir al-Balah.
A local official told BBC Arabic that displaced people in nearby camps were discharging their sewage straight into the sea.
“It is due to the increase in the number of displaced people and many are connecting their own pipes to the rainwater drainage system,” said Abu Yazan Ismael Sarsour, head of the Deir al-Balah emergency committee.
Wim Zwijnenburg, an environmental expert from the Pax for Peace organization, confirmed after studying the satellite images that the wastewater appeared to come from nearby, busy camps and flowed into the sea.
The sewage spill in the footage, captured on August 2, covered an area of more than 2 km2 (0.8 miles2). Satellite images show that the spill first began in June and steadily increased over the next two months.
It is unclear whether coastal pollution is still increasing, as more recent satellite images are not available.
Intensive Israeli bombardments have led to the collapse of Gaza’s wastewater management infrastructure, a UN environmental report concluded in June.
Cogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry which oversees policy for the Palestinian territories, told BBC Arabic that a special humanitarian task force has taken action to improve the sewage system in Gaza.
According to a statement, Cogat has coordinated the restoration of wells and desalination plants, as well as the expansion of water pipelines in Gaza in recent months.
The BBC is unable to independently verify specific improvements to Gaza’s sewage infrastructure. Israel, like Egypt, does not allow independent journalists into Gaza except on controlled, short-term visits with the Israeli military.
However, health experts are warning of the spread of waterborne diseases after a 10-month-old baby was partially paralyzed by polio, the first recorded case in Gaza in 25 years.
UN and World Health Organization (WHO) officials also called for two one-week ceasefires so that 600,000 children in Gaza can be vaccinated.
But observers say the supply of vaccines is likely to face the same barriers that have affected the flow of other humanitarian aid, making distribution slow and extremely difficult. The destruction of Gaza’s health care system will also make any vaccination program a huge challenge.
In a response to BBC Arabic, Cogat stressed that there are no restrictions on medical assistance.
In a later statement on social media, Cogat said “another 60,000 polio vaccines will be delivered in the coming weeks to vaccinate more than one million children.”
The charity Oxfam told BBC Arabic that a quarter of Gaza’s population had already fallen ill with waterborne diseases.
“We are seeing a catastrophic health crisis unfolding before our eyes,” said Lama Abdul Samad, a water and sanitation expert at Oxfam.
“Polio is a waterborne disease and is directly linked to the sanitation situation.”
“Sanitation facilities have been severely damaged, flooding streets and neighborhoods, effectively leaving people living next to pools of sewage,” she added.
New photographs and satellite images analysed by BBC Arabic show how Gaza’s problem of untreated sewage is growing.
The Sheikh Radwan Lagoon in northern Gaza, once a source of clean rainwater, appears to be overflowing with dirty water.
Ms Abdul Samad said after viewing the photos that the lagoon is clearly polluted by raw sewage.
Several Palestinians living nearby have complained to BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline emergency radio service about the overflowing sewage, the stench and the rodents emerging from the lagoon.
“Untreated sewage is flowing into our premises due to the overflowing Sheikh Radwan Lagoon,” said Ibrahim Ramzi.
Meanwhile, Ghada al-Haddad, an aid worker in central Gaza, sent BBC Arabic a video of a makeshift camp where sewage had collected in a pond next to displaced people. She described the smell as “overwhelming” and “unbearable”.
Polio is just one part of the health crisis facing Gaza.
Earlier this month, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reported 40,000 cases of hepatitis A – which can also be transmitted through ingesting contaminated water – in Gaza since the war began, compared to just 85 cases in the same period before.
Public health experts also warn of a possible cholera epidemic.
Aid agencies report that doctors in Gaza are also struggling to treat a large number of cases of dysentery, pneumonia and serious skin diseases due to the collapse of the health care system.
“The reason behind the spread of these bacterial diseases is the complete lack of a sanitation system,” explains pediatrician Dr. Ahmed al-Farra.
He said problems included “mixing of clean groundwater and sewage, severe overcrowding, extreme heat, lack of ventilation, overcrowded tents and too much sharing of toilets”.
According to UN estimates, the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced since last fall.
Many people are living in shelters with just one toilet for 600 people, a World Health Organization official told reporters in July.
On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage back to Gaza.
More than 40,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military operation in Gaza since the attack, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.
