GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian Water Authority announced Dec. 11 that the new Beit Lahia wastewater treatment plant in the northern Gaza Strip will treat up to 35,000 cubic meters per day. In an agreement with the Palestinian Energy Authority and the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, the plant will be provided with 6 megawatts of electricity to operate. Israel allowed the entry of the equipment needed to construct the plant in November, and it said it would supply the plant with a power line that will be active 24/7.

Gaza is suffering from a wastewater crisis due to power outages that exceed 20 hours a day. The existing treatment plants have not grown with the increase in demographics. Though new plants have been needed, Israel previously prevented the entry of the necessary construction materials over fears the Palestinian resistance would use them to manufacture weapons. Wastewater had reached the Israeli beaches near the northern Gaza Strip in the summer of 2017, pushing the Israeli government to warn its citizens against using them.

Two more stations are under construction and due to open at the end of 2019. The donor institutions had coordinated with the Israeli side to build them in 2008, but the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) refused to discuss it.

Shadi al-Bassiouni, the head of the Department of Water and Sanitation at the Municipality of Beit Lahia, told Al-Monitor that the Beit Lahia station is only awaiting its agreed-upon electricity supply to begin service to 350,000 northern Gaza residents. He said the wastewater crisis worsened this year as power outages prevented the plant from treating wastewater, which ran to the sea and into ponds.