ガザの海水淡水化プラント、１か所が再稼働 ６０万人超に水供給

【デイルアルバラフ（パレスチナ自治区）ＡＦＰ＝時事】パレスチナ自治区ガザ地区で先月、海水淡水化プラント１か所が静かに再稼働した。１４か月以上にわたる紛争で荒廃したガザで、公共サービスの復旧に向けた小さいながら重要な一歩となった。（写真は、パレスチナ自治区ガザ市で、水を入れた容器を運ぶ子どもたち）
　国連児童基金（ユニセフ）によると、プラントはイスラエルの電力網に再接続され、それ以降、１日当たり約１万６０００立方メートルの淡水を生産。中部デイルアルバラフと南部ハンユニスでタンク車や水道施設を通じて、６０万人以上の市民に水を供給している。
　水を供給するパイプラインが損傷し、爆撃で退避を余儀なくされたガザ市民の多くは、貴重な水を貯蔵する手段もないまま避難所生活を送っている。
　淡水化の処理施設はガザ地区には３か所あり、このプラントはそのうちの一つ。紛争前は、人口２４０万人の約１５％の需要を満たしていた。
　２０２３年１０月７日にイスラム組織ハマスがイスラエルに越境攻撃を仕掛け、それを機に紛争が始まってからの数か月間、同プラントは、ソーラーパネルと発電機を利用して最小容量で稼働していた。
　ユニセフがイスラエル側と電力復旧の合意に達したと明らかにしたのは６月下旬だが、プラントに電力を供給する電線が激しく損傷しており、ガザの電力会社の広報担当者は「応急処置」ではあるが「修復に５か月かかった」としている。
　イスラエルの送電線に再接続され、ようやくフル稼働できた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/12/26-18:40）

The quiet resumption of operations at a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip last month marked a small but significant step toward restoring public services in the Palestinian territory ravaged by more than 14 months of war.
The process of restarting the plant in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, involved both Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders who could have a hand in the territory's future, especially amid renewed hopes for a ceasefire in recent days.
While its reopening has had a limited tangible impact so far, diplomats close to the project suggest it could offer a tentative roadmap for Gaza's post-war administration.
Since being reconnected to Israel's electricity grid, the station has been producing approximately 16,000 cubic metres of water per day, according to UNICEF.
It serves more than 600,000 Gaza residents through tankers or the networks of Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates in central and southern Gaza, respectively.
Its production capacity remains limited in the face of immense needs, an official within the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA) told AFP.
Residents of the devastated Palestinian territory have struggled since the early days of the war between Israel and Hamas to secure even basic necessities, including food and clean water.
Human Rights Watch last week accused Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza by restricting water access -- a claim denied by Israeli authorities.
The WASH Cluster, which brings together humanitarian organisations in the water sector, reports that distribution of water has become very complex in Gaza.
The pipelines transporting water have been damaged, leaving Gazans -- many of whom are living in makeshift shelters after being displaced by bombardments -- without any means of storing the essential resource.
The plant is one of three such seawater processing facilities in the Gaza Strip, which before the war met around 15 percent of the 2.4 million residents' needs.
In the months following the outbreak of war, sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the plant operated at minimal capacity, relying on solar panels and generators amid a persistent scarcity of fuel in Gaza.
It could fully resume operations only after reconnecting to one of the power lines supplied by Israel, which charges the Palestinian Authority for the electricity.
- Practical solutions -
UNICEF, which provides technical support for the Deir el-Balah plant, indicated in late June that it had reached an agreement with Israel to restore electricity to the plant.
Subsequently, COGAT, a division of Israel's defence ministry overseeing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, announced that the desalination plant had been reconnected to the Israeli grid.
But the line meant to supply the plant was heavily damaged.
It took five months to repair the line from Kissufim in Israel, said Mohammed Thabet, spokesman for Gaza's electricity company. These are emergency, temporary solutions.
Several diplomatic sources told AFP that the episode showed the Palestinian Authority had proven it was in a position to have a hand in the future governance of Gaza, as its institutions were fixing the electricity line on the ground, coordinating with all actors.
The Authority aims to play a central role in post-war Gaza, seeking to strengthen its influence in the territory after it was significantly weakened when Hamas took control in 2007.
An Israeli security source told AFP that the Israeli partners involved had acted on instructions from the political echelons, and that the project was part of an effort to prevent an outbreak of disease, which could endanger the lives of hostages still held in Gaza.
When Hamas militants attacked Israel last year, they abducted 251 hostages, of whom 96 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel facilitated the connection of the electric line specifically to the desalination plant, the source said, adding that a mechanism was in place to track usage to prevent electricity from being stolen.
Israeli authorities' cooperation on the plant's reopening comes soon after it agreed to work with a UN-led polio vaccination drive, pausing its bombing campaign in Gaza in areas where children were receiving the doses.