UNICEF Warns Gaza Water Basin Could Overflow as Rains Flood Tents

UNICEF has warned that a sewage-filled stormwater basin in Gaza City could overflow as heavy winter rain falls, after Israeli authorities refused entry to the equipment needed to repair it. The UN children’s agency said the decision leaves displaced families, many of them children in tents, facing a growing threat of flooding and disease.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder gave the warning in Geneva on Tuesday, saying the agency had spent a year preparing a $3 million repair plan with Israeli authorities and the US-backed Board of Peace. In recent days, COGAT, the Israeli military agency for humanitarian affairs in Gaza, rejected the project, citing security concerns.

FAKTA: Gaza’s Flooding Crisis

• The facility: Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin, damaged in the war and now filled with sewage. Only two of its six pumps still work.
• The risk: heavy rain could push it over its banks, sending contaminated water through nearby streets and tent camps.
• The repair plan: a $3 million project prepared over a year with Israeli authorities and the US-backed Board of Peace.
• The decision: COGAT rejected the project in recent days, citing security grounds.
• The scale: heavy rain has already flooded tens of thousands of tents. The WHO says nearly one million displaced people face medium or high flood risk.
• The appeal: UNICEF seeks US$97.5 million for its Gaza winter response.

A Year of Preparation, Rejected in Days

Elder said UNICEF had spent over a year seeking approval to bring pumps, generators and spare parts into Gaza to fix the basin. The equipment was refused on security grounds, an apparent reference to strict Israeli rules on goods that could also serve military purposes.

He warned contaminated water could flow into Gaza City’s streets and tents, forcing children and families from their makeshift homes once again and sharply raising the threat of disease. UNICEF has urged the Israeli authorities to let the repair equipment in immediately.

Rain Already Flooding the Camps

Heavy rain this week has already flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced Palestinians across Gaza. Over the weekend, a sand dune collapsed onto a tent in Deir al-Balah after heavy rainfall, killing three children aged four, five and eight, along with their mother.

With only two of the basin’s six pumps working, the site has little capacity to cope with further rain. UNICEF and its partners are distributing tarpaulins, winter clothing, blankets and hygiene supplies and clearing blocked sewers.

Reconstruction Stalled

The crisis comes amid a stalled recovery. A US-backed ceasefire agreed last year included plans to rebuild Gaza, but reconstruction has made little progress amid deadlock over Hamas disarmament and an Israeli military withdrawal. No wastewater treatment plant in Gaza is currently operating.

The World Health Organization has also warned that flooding, poor sanitation and limited access to clean water and health services could spread infectious disease. UNICEF has called on the international community to press for the entry of life-saving supplies and to fund its winter response. Read more international news on Watan News.