RVF announces a positive story out of Gaza. Since the spring of 2024 its team of engineers has provided clean drinking water to more than 135,000 Gazans through the installation and repair of water desalination plants. 

That’s nearly 7% of the population. Access to clean drinking water was already a serious problem in Gaza before the war began in October 2023, as 95% of water available to Gazans was contaminated. Even the poorest households had to rely on bottled water.

 With that supply no longer available, many have been forced to drink from unsafe sources. The lack of potable water, soap and clean toilets among the displaced means diarrheal diseases, hepatitis A and other infectious diseases are on the rise, including the resurgence of polio. Before the conflict began, RVF was working with the United Nations to bring safe drinking water to schools across Gaza. 

Building on its nearly 15-year experience working to improve children’s health in Gaza, RVF’s staff pivoted to repair and install desalination units to alleviate the severe water crisis caused by the war.

 “We’re trying our best to repair (desalination) plants with the least equipment available,” said RVF Gazan engineer Mohammed Baraka. “Most spare parts aren’t available because the crossing points are closed. To date, the RVF team has repaired or built seven desalination units in Rafah, Khan Younis and Nuseirat. Currently the team is installing a water desalination unit to serve the staff of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital and over 5,000 displaced people sheltering near the hospital.

Baraka said the experience is both heartbreaking and uplifting. “I get mixed feelings, to be honest, as I sometimes feel happy and sad but happiness takes over when we secure drinking water, when I see my people collecting that water, and drinking it.” The ability to collect drinking water daily has been life changing for many. “There’s a huge difference between when water is available and when it isn’t,” said displaced Gazan Samia Gamal Salman Al-Magabli.

The mother and her four children are among the nearly 2 million Gazans, more than 90% of the population, who have been displaced since the war began in October. 

The family relocated to an emergency shelter at a school in Nuseirat which has been damaged multiple times by Israeli military attacks. On July 24, 2024, the RVF team completed its repair of the school’s desalination unit – providing clean drinking water to more than 10,000 displaced Gazans. “We were suffering because diseases started to spread,” said Al-Magabli. 

“There was a lack of cleanliness. Thankfully, we’re now able to wash, drink, make tea and prepare milk bottles.” The RVF team is continuing its dangerous work to alleviate the suffering of other displaced persons.