Further deadly sewage floods are feared after a wave of stinking waste and mud from a collapsed septic pool inundated a Gaza village, killing five people, including two babies. The collapse has been blamed on residents stealing sand from an embankment.| Stand by for handwringing: |
It highlighted the desperate need to upgrade Gaza's overloaded, outdated infrastructure - but aid officials say construction of a modern sewage treatment plant has been held up by constant Israeli-Palestinian fighting.However, construction of a new plant did not appear to have been affected by year-old international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. The Gaza City mayor blamed the collapse on local people digging dirt from an earthen embankment around the structure and selling it to building contractors.
The existing plant in northern Gaza - located just a few hundred metres from the frontier with Israel - stored incoming waste in seven holding basins. But with the burgeoning population producing nearly four times as much waste as the plant could treat, local officials were forced to store the overflow in the nearby dunes, creating a lake of sewage covering nearly 45 hectares, according to the United Nations. An embankment around one of the seven holding basins collapsed, sending a wall of sewage crashing into the neighbouring village of Umm Naser. The wave killed two women in their 70s, two toddlers and a teenage girl and injured 35 others, hospital officials said. More than 200 homes were destroyed, health officials said. "This is a human tragedy," said Public Works Minister Sameeh al-Abed.
Rescue crews and gunmen (!) from the militant Hamas group rushed to search for people feared buried under the sewage and mud. Most residents fled or were evacuated. Rescuers in wetsuits paddled boats through the layer of brown foam floating on the green-brown rivers of waste. Others waded up to their hips into the sewage. Angry residents drove reporters out of the area and mobbed government officials. When Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh arrived to survey the damage, his bodyguards fired in the air to disperse the crowd.
Fadel Kawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said the sewage level had risen in recent days, creeping up the earthen embankments. Gaza City Mayor Majid Abu Ramadan, who leads a council of Gaza municipalities, blamed the collapse on endemic lawlessness. He accused local residents of stealing the dirt and selling it to building companies for 300 shekels ($A86.80) a truckload. |