Tuesday 5 June 2012 marks World Environment Day.
 It is an important occasion on which to assert the importance of respect for all peoples’ environmental rights.
 International human rights conventions emphasize the close relationship between the environment and the individual’s enjoyment of basic rights.
Realization of environmental rights is a key factor in people’s lives and welfare.
 This year, World Environment Day is being observed with the slogan “green economy,” emphasize the vital role of the environment in achieving development and preserving natural resources against exhaustion and pollution.
  The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights today calls on the international community to uphold its legal and moral obligations to improve the environmental situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and to end the ongoing Israeli abuses there.
 It also calls on the local Palestinian authorities to take effective measures to improve environmental conditions in the oPt and the Gaza Strip in particular, which is suffering from continuing environmental deterioration.
 This environmental damage is due to overconsumption and pollution of natural resources in the absence of a green economy.
 Al Mezan takes this occasion to note the most prominent environmental problem in the Gaza Strip, including:   The power and transportation sector, which is suffering an acute crisis due to electricity cuts which continue for long hours each day as a result of the lack of fuel needed to supply the electric power plant.
 This has forced people to use small generators to maintain a regular home electricity supply.
 These generators increase environmental pollution.
 The fuel crisis also has an impact on the transportation sector; if the crisis continues, drivers may resort to use of vegetable oils to run their cars.
 These oils are highly harmful to the environment and to human health.
  The water and sanitation sector in Gaza suffers from an acute shortage of drinking water.
 Available information indicates that 95% of groundwater—the only domestic source of drinking water—is polluted and is not fit to drink.
 Sewage networks handle not more than 65% of the discharge of waste water from residential areas; the remainder is channeled through open canals into pits where it is left to be absorbed into the ground.
 Sewage consequently leaks into and pollutes the groundwater.
 80%  of waste water discharged through sewage networks is dumped in the sea, increasing maritime pollution; the remainder is deposited in open areas, also causing pollution of groundwater.
  In the land management sector, the overuse of sand has had grave effects on the environment and underground water sources, alongside depletion of the sand itself, which is a concern because sand quantities are very limited.
  This situation persists due to the Israeli siege and the inability to import sand or find alternative construction materials.
 Farmers, despite the use of organic chemistry in some cases, misuse chemical fertilizers, causing damage to the environment, groundwater, and human health.
  The solid waste management sector suffers from acute shortages, as 90% of the equipment needed to manage solid waste is not available, and the materiel on hand is is dilapidated and not fit for use.
 Even the main solid waste dump in Juhr Ad-Dik has ceased operation due to the lack of equipment.
  The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) persist in practices that damage the environment.
 Years after exhausting the environment and natural resources of the Gaza Strip and shifting agricultural production from environmentally sustainable plants to harmful ones, the IOF continues to bar the entry of materials and equipment needed to implement drinking and waste water projects.
 The Israeli siege and the fuel crisis also have negative impacts, as already mentioned.
 In addition, Gaza faces Israel’s ongoing razing of agricultural lands and water wells, use of weapons manufactured with uranium, toxic gases, white phosphorus (used during Operation Cast Lead), and other chemicals that have negative impacts on the environment and humans.
  Amidst the celebration of this year’s World Environment Day, with its focus on green economy and its role in human welfare, Al Mezan warns of the serious environmental situation in the Gaza Strip, which will become worse if the electricity cuts and the siege continue.
 Therefore, Al Mezan calls for:   1.
       The international community to uphold its legal and moral obligations and to promptly intervene to ensure that the population of Gaza can realize their environmental rights; 2.
       The international community to take effective measures to ensure an end to the collective punishment imposed on Gaza by the IOF, including lifting of the siege, guaranteeing freedom of movement, and ensuring arrival of equipment needed for various sectors linked to the environment; 3.
       An end to the Palestinian split and guarantees that public services are separated from political conflicts in order to ensure better environmental management.
  End