Electricity Cuts in Gaza Renewed as Heat Wave in Gaza Strip; Al Mezan Condemns the Cuts and Calls Ramallah and Gaza Governments to Palestinians’ Interests First

During the past two days, long electricity cuts in Gaza have been renewed as a heat wave strikes the Strip.
Before this new crisis, electricity cut-offs lasted for eight hours every day on average.
Now, the cut-offs last twelve hours, followed by six hours supply; i.
e.
for two thirds of the time.
The cut-offs have spread in all of Gaza’s five districts.
The Gaza Power Plant announced yesterday that its production would halt as it has run out of fuel because the Ramallah Government has stopped sending adequate amounts of fuel for the Plant.
The Ramallah Government says that the suspension of fuel supplies is related to a significant decline in the value of the financial revenues sent to it by the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, which renders the Government unable to purchase the needed fuel.
  According to sources in the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, the shortage in electricity has increased to 60%.
The actual electricity needs in the Gaza Strip’s districts has reached 300 megawatts whereas the available amount is only 137 megawatts since Power Plant stopped working.
This supply comes from Israel and Egypt.
  The deterioration in capacity to supply the Gaza Strip with electricity comes amid a severely hot weather.
The electricity cuts affect water supplies to houses.
 Municipalities pump water to homes at specific times, which is not coordinated with the times of electricity supply.
As a result, water does not reach houses for hours and sometimes for days in some areas.
This is a serious source of suffering for people in Gaza.
It could also have negative impacts on the public sanitation and environment.
  In addition, pollution has been in the rise in Gaza, as people use electricity generators ay home and stores.
These generators produce smoke and noise.
It also adds to the pressures faced by the population, as people are forced to buy generators and fuel, and use them for long hours at a time Gaza’s population suffers from high rates of poverty and unemployment.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights deplores the continued deterioration of the electricity services in the Gaza Strip, which continues to be worse despite the readiness of the Power Plant to produce larger amounts of power.
Sources at Gaza Power Plant have declared that the Plant’s four turbines are ready to work and that the only problem is the shortage in imported industrial diesel.
Al Mezan notes that the agreement between the Electricity Distribution Company and the Power Plant obliges the former to pay the full the bill whether or not the Company uses the full production of the Plant, which is 120 megawatts.
It is therefore logical to increase the production and distribute it in order to increase the revenues without extra costs for the Company.
  Al Mezan reiterates its calls on both sides to work towards ending the Palestinian internal split without any further delay.
This situation has only contributed to deterioration of the human rights situation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; including by creating such crises in providing basic services.
It has also weakened the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle to achieve their rights to freedom, self-determination, and statehood, while Israel, the occupying Power, continues to violate international law throughout the settlement activity, the construction of the Wall, and creating facts on the ground in occupied Jerusalem to ensure controlling it in the future.
  Ends