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“They end up drinking this water that's actually just meant for like washing and such.”
Dr. Mimi Syed, Emergency medicine. Time in Gaza: Dec. 2024

Dr. Mimi Syed: I had an opportunity this time to actually walk around in the camps and talk to the families and actually visit inside of the tents, just deep inside those encampments. And the living conditions are just horrible. I mean, they are not compatible with human life. The contamination of the water is very high. I spoke to the Infection Control Manager there that takes care of the water filtration system. And he was explaining to me that the filtration, the chlorine, the solvents that they need, the membranes that they need, none of that is available. The water is coming up, I mean, literally from a hose, children fill these dirty plastic containers. And it’s supposed to be filtered again, but those filters that are in front of residential areas, they’re generated, the power is generated by fuel, which of course is not available. So they end up drinking this water that’s actually just meant for like washing and such. But that’s leading to this chronic diarrhea that children have, especially small babies that are affected so much by this. Every child there that I saw in the emergency department had diarrhea. And then it leads with the malnourishment on top of that. It’s leading to organ failure and things like kidney failure, we’d see in children. I mean, it’s rates that you don’t typically see in other countries. It’s all because of this water, very high in salt content. You can’t filter that out. It’s sea water. And, you know, of course, the elderly are at the same risk of becoming ill, critically ill, that way.

Forced DisplacementWaterMalnutritionSanitationElderly