(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GAZA, April 19 (KUNA) -- Several local and international organizations called Wednesday for finding an urgent solution to power cutoff in the Gaza Strip in order to fend off a looming humanitarian, environmental and health crisis there.
Speaking at a news conference attended by 25 municipal chiefs, Gaza Municipality Chairman Nezar Hejazi said unless Gaza power outage was over, there would be serious environmental reflections and Gazans would suffer more.
Power cutoff would egregiously impact on municipal services and disrupt wastewater treatment stations, thus posing health and environment hazards, he said.
Water supply would also be affected since Gaza municipalities basically count on power to provide people with water, Hejazi complained.
The Palestinian official urged donor countries to provide fuel and equipment to municipalities so that they could function normally, noting that the Gaza Strip needs a minimum 500,000 liters of fuel on a monthly basis.
On his part, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said in a press statement that all stakeholders, mainly the international community, should work together in order to ensure a final solution to the energy problem in Gaza.
He vowed that the United Nations (UN) is ready to provide its help in order to put this goal in place.
Mladenov called for reforming Gaza electricity company to improve levying and ensure transparency in line with relevant international criteria.
The UN official urged the international community to bankroll this necessary reform, calling on the Palestinian government to provide all required facilities for supplying fuel to Gaza power station.
He even cautioned against the social, economic and political aftershocks of the energy problem in the Palestinian territory.
Rallies were staged in the Gaza Strip over the last few days in protest against the Israeli siege on Gaza, calling for an immediate way out of the power crisis. (end) wab.mt
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