Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Age: Gaza sewage flood "blamed on residents stealing sand from an embankment"

Someone at Daily Kos inevitably commented "The spectacle of Gazans drowning in their own sewage yesterday was a tragically powerful metaphor for their suffering under occupation." You could take that a lot of ways:
Further deadly sewage floods are feared after a wave of stinking waste and mud from a collapsed septic pool inundated a Gaza village, killing five people, including two babies.

The collapse has been blamed on residents stealing sand from an embankment.

It highlighted the desperate need to upgrade Gaza's overloaded, outdated infrastructure - but aid officials say construction of a modern sewage treatment plant has been held up by constant Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

However, construction of a new plant did not appear to have been affected by year-old international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. The Gaza City mayor blamed the collapse on local people digging dirt from an earthen embankment around the structure and selling it to building contractors. [...]
(Hat Tip: Daily Alert)

No comments: