“Action needs to be taken now if Gaza is to be a liveable place in 2020 and it is already difficult now,” UN humanitarian coordinator Maxwell Gaylard told journalists when the report was released on Monday.
“The population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1 million people in 2020, resulting in a density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometer,” a UN statement quoted the report as saying.
Infrastructure across a number of sectors – electricity, water and sanitation, and municipal and social services – is “not keeping pace with the needs of the growing population,” it said.
The UN says only a quarter of Gaza waste water is treated. The rest, including raw sewage, goes into the Mediterranean Sea.
Even now the coastal strip, under an Israeli blockade of varying intensity since 2006, is suffering from its worst-ever fuel shortage and resultant power cuts, as well as from unemployment levels of around 45 per cent.
The UN said the demand for drinking water was projected to increase by 60 per cent over the next eight years, “while damage to the aquifer, the major water source, would become irreversible without remedial action now”.
It added that more than 440 additional schools, 800 hospital beds and more than 1,000 doctors would be needed by 2020.<\/p>\n