Standing near one of these long rivers of waste, the local chief medical officer, Dr Bassam Said Nadi, explained to me: "Recently there were heavy rains that caused shit to flow into the reservoir that provides water for this whole area. We had to distribute bottles, and alert everyone not to drink the water. We were lucky it was spotted. Next time..." He shook his head in fear.

 

A 2004 report by Friends of the Earth found that only six per cent of Israeli developments adequately treat their sewage. The other ninety-four percent dump their waste directly onto the Palestinians.

 

Meanwhile, in order to punish Gaza for voting "the wrong way", the Israeli army will not allow any pipes or cement into Gaza, in order to prevent Palestinians from repairing their own sewage system. Vast stagnant pools of waste are held within fragile dykes across the Gaza strip. Last March one of them burst, drowning a nine-month-old baby and his elderly grandmother in a tsunami of human waste. The Centre on Housing Rights warns that one heavy rainfall could send 1.5m cubic meters (39.6 million gallons) of feces flowing all over Gaza, causing "a humanitarian and environmental disaster of epic proportions.”

 

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