EU launches desalination plant in Gaza Strip

The European Union (EU) has launched a €10m low-volume desalination project in the Gaza Strip in response to a humanitarian water crises in the area.

The facility is located on about 7.4 acres earmarked to the Palestinian Water Authority in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

The EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility and UNICEF for the construction of low-volume desalination plant in Khan Younis.

Contraction of the is expected to be complete by 2015.

Upon completion, the facility will provide safe drinking water and water for domestic use to around 75,000 people in the Gaza Strip.

EU envoy to the West Bank and Gaza John Gatt-Rutter said as the EU has reiterated in the past, the continued policy of closure in Gaza has damaged the natural environment, notably water and other natural resources.

"I hope that this intervention can bring real change for some Palestinians living under unsustainable conditions in the Strip," Gatt-Rutter said.

Palestinian Water Authority Chief Shaddad Attili said the facility is one component of a rolling programme of interventions designed to tackle the area’s acute water problems and save its underground aquifer from imminent collapse.