Palestine: Rafah Municipality Warns of Groundwater Pollution in the City

Rafah - Engineer Ashraf Ghneim, head of the Water and Sewage Department in Rafah municipality, warned of the possibility of groundwater pollution in the city. This risk comes from the backlog of solid waste in Tal Al-Sultan area, and the fact that it is not being transported to the dumping site which is situated near the checkpoint of Sofa. Israeli forces are forbidding the municipal staff to access the solid waste dumping site. Ghneim clarified that the continuation of accumulating the solid waste in this area will lead to seepage into the groundwater aquifer polluting the water storage of the city. He made clear that the danger lies in trash that accumulates for more than a month, where natural breakdown of the substance can seep into the groundwater.  The municipality made several calls and wrote urgent letters to many environmental and international organizations asking them to interfere. Moreover, Ghneim expressed that the municipality faces other water problems due to the continued cut-off of electricity, explaining the need to use generators for distributing the water equally to all parts of the city. Due to the long hours of operation, these generators became incapable of pumping large amounts of water. He explained that these generators were designed to function as an alternative option during an ordinary electricity cut-off, and not as a long term substitute for electricity supply.