Gaza Municipality Warns First Winter Storm Flooding Displaced Families’ Tents Puts City on Path to Certain Winter Catastrophe
Flooding of displaced families' tents in Gaza's first winter storm threatens a certain winter catastrophe amid destroyed infrastructure and a ban on bringing in machinery. Gaza Municipality appeals for urgent intervention
Exclusive – Shehab
The head of the media department at Gaza Municipality, Mohammed Al-Sarsawi, affirmed that the flooding of displaced families’ tents with the first rains of the winter storm puts the city before a certain humanitarian and services catastrophe, due to the massive destruction inflicted on infrastructure and rainwater drainage facilities and the continued ban on bringing in machinery and heavy equipment.
In an exclusive statement to the Shehab News Agency, Al-Sarsawi said the municipality had repeatedly appealed to international organizations before the onset of winter for urgent intervention and relief for the humanitarian situation, but those appeals went unanswered, at a time when most of the municipality’s large machinery was destroyed during the war, with no new equipment permitted to enter for more than a year.
He explained that the municipality is forced to deal with the fallout on the ground with scarce and very modest resources, amid an acute shortage of fuel, oils and spare parts needed to operate what remains of its machinery.
Al-Sarsawi revealed that the recent rainfall amounted to about 15 percent of the annual average, causing a number of shelter camps to be flooded.
He noted that municipality crews intensified their work before and during the storm to deal with water pooling in the city’s streets, especially the area of the Al-Kanz Mosque and low-lying zones, in cooperation with residents, alongside the launch of awareness guidelines for displaced people to avoid setting up tents in flood channels or near buildings at risk of collapse.
The head of the media department at Gaza Municipality renewed his call on the international community and UN organizations to move immediately to provide essential supplies for displaced people and to equip the municipality with the machinery and equipment needed to protect shelter centers and limit the fallout of the winter catastrophe.
