Gaza’s sole power plant shut down triggering up to 20 hours of outage a day | GAZA One Year On

1.6.16

Gaza’s sole power plant shut down triggering up to 20 hours of outage a day | GAZA One Year On: The capacity of the Energy Authority in Gaza to purchase fuel to run the plant has been undermined since the beginning of 2016, following a change in the arrangement with the Ramallah-based Ministry of Finance, which provided the GPP with a full exemption on fuel taxes. The scope of this tax exemption had been gradually reduced since January, significantly increasing the cost of fuel.

The electricity shortage, combined with the lack of affordable fuel have resulted in a further reduction in the water supply to households, which has declined from approximately 80 to 55 litres per person per day. Additionally, the five wastewater treatment plants had to shorten the treatment cycles, thus reducing the quality of the sewage discharged into the sea. The potential shut down of sewage pumping stations also exacerbates the risk of back-flow and flooding of raw sewage onto streets.