Sanitation Infrastructure Support For Paediatric Hospital In Gaza

In January 2018, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association partnered with the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) to provide plumbing and sanitation equipment for Al Nasir pediatric hospital in Gaza city.

About the project

The United Nations reports that some 95% of the drinking water in the Gaza Strip is unfit for human consumption. This situation is exacerbated by an ongoing electricity crisis which sees Gaza suffering without electricity for up to 20 hours per day. The lack of electricity cripples all economic activities and the delivery of vital services, especially health services, water supply and sewage treatment.

Repairs to sewer systems damaged or destroyed during the 2014 Israeli military operation "Protective Edge" and the restoration of basic electricity services remain urgent. Destroyed sewage systems see wastewater leaking into the clean-water networks and into the environment, worsening the risks to public health.

Al-Nasr Paediatric Hospital, which was established 50 years ago, is one of the oldest hospitals in the Gaza Strip. This means its plumbing and sewage system is already quite old and even more susceptible to metal damage from the excess salinity of Gaza's groundwater supply, which impacts patient care, infection control and sanitation for patients and staff there. In 2014, the PCRF supplied the hospital with two desalination stations to provide clean water to the hospital.

Learn more about the situation in the Gaza Strip - click image above.

This current project provided urgent maintenance to the hospital's desalination stations and plumbing network.

About the hospital

Al Nasir Hospital is the main neonatal hospital in Gaza. On a daily basis, the hospital provides care for more than 200 children under the age of 5. The hospital also has the first nursery and paediatric intensive care department in Gaza comprising 100 medical beds.

Your AFOPA membership at work...

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association contributed $15,000 to this important project. We thank our members and donors, without whose support, projects like this cannot happen.

Below is a collection of photos from the project: