Importance of Energy in Gaza
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No matter where people are living in the world, energy is essential for our everyday lives. It is one of the seventeen sustainable development goals that are trying to be achieved throughout the global community. Reliable energy is depended upon to complete day to day tasks. “Having a well-established energy system supports all sectors: from businesses, medicine and education to agriculture, infrastructure, communications, and high technology” (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2017, para. 3). By supporting all sectors, communities and thrive and prosper. Without any access to energy, everyday tasks become more difficult and people become prone to diseases. Being able to perform a daily routine would be very difficult without any use of energy. “Without electricity, women and girls have to spend hours fetching water, clinics cannot store vaccines for children, many school children cannot do homework at night, and people cannot run competitive businesses” (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2017, para. 6). Unfortunately, this is the case for 1.2 billion people around the world. That means that one in five people across the world does not have electricity. One community that has recently been exposed to this crisis is the Palestinian territory, Gaza. Since late April, a dispute between the Palestine Authority and the rival Hamas group has caused an energy crisis in Gaza. This dispute has led to a lack of electricity within the Palestine territory. A mutual agreement needs to be met to allow this Palestinian territory to have access to electricity again. Furthermore, in his paper, Barron (2017) states the cause of this crisis is those who are living in Gaza are not paying for electricity supplies, so the Palestinian Authority is attempting to isolate its rival, Hamas. The residents of Gaza are paying Hamas, however, these payments are not being delivered to the Palestinian Authority. This has been occurring over several years, so as a result, the Palestinian Authority has stopped supplying Gaza and diesel is no longer being brought into Gaza from Israel. This is causing the power station for Gaza to be turned off which has led to the Palestinian territory having no electricity. This had led to large amounts of protests across the strip. With the Winter and cold nights approaching, many will have to build fires and use charcoal in order to stay warm throughout the night. There have also been many cases where clashes with police have occurred which resulted in gunshots being fired and citizens being injured and killed. Kershner, (2017) explains that the two million residents of Gaza have about four hours of electricity a day. Since their own power station is out, they are relying on electricity lines from Israel and Egypt. It is not clear who is to blame for this crisis. Some will blame Hamas which is the Islamist group that runs Gaza, while others will blame the Palestinian Authority for restricting the entry of materials needed to repair the power station. In her paper, Yakubovich (2017) explains that Hamas has the power to fix the problem by delivering the money he collected to the Palestinian Authority. This will allow the Palestinian Authority to pay for the required energy sources which will allow Gaza to have energy again since its power plant will be working again. Although this looks like a good plan, no one can guarantee that Hamas, a terrorist group, will use the funds for more terror efforts.
After all, no matter who is to blame, something that everyone can agree upon is the fact that the living conditions in Gaza have had a decline and those living there are enduring many hardships. Generators are being used to power large facilities and hospitals, however, this is proving to be very costly since generators use a lot of fuel and they are not meant to be used for this long. The Gaza strip only has electricity for about 4 hours a day. Basic needs are not being met and (Barron, 2017, para. 1) stated, “Everyday life tasks such as cooking, washing, laundry as well as working and going to school have all become more difficult.” Living in conditions where basic needs are not met make it tough to survive and be healthy at the same time. Many people are getting sick and developing diseases since hospitals are not working efficiently and people are living in unsanitary conditions. Businesses are also having trouble operating. Most businesses are suffering from losses since the have to buy these costly generators in order to operate. Not to mention, there is not an adequate amount of water. The electricity shortage has been affecting the water supply since pumps are not able to work properly. So people do not have enough drinking water and sewage is not being treated properly. This crisis needs to be addressed immediately and solutions need to be provided for this Palestinian territory. “International support is essential to help the people of Gaza build desalination and sewage treatment plants to provide a new water supply and stop the existing aquifer pollution. Millions of dollars are needed to implement the necessary projects, but donors will not agree to donate the funds without a long-term energy plan in place” was stated by (Yakubovich, 2017, para. 14). Many organizations are only willing to donate if the money is used effectively and proven to be beneficial in the long term. Recently, the United Nations has funded $2.5 million to help cover the needs in the Palestine territory. The funds have come from the Governments of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. Most of the money that was funded will be used for fuel for the generators since these are the most costly. This will allow generators to power hospitals and other important facilities. The money will also cover funding for equipment and supplies for farmers on the strip. This will allow farmers to grow food and pump water for others who do not have access to performing this task.