GAZA Lifeline Drinking Water Project

Gaza Lifeline Drinking Water Project

Dear Friends, my name is Kate Lynn-Devere, I'm from Herne Bay in Kent, England, and this is a fundraiser for the Gaza Lifeline Drinking Water Project.

We, Kate Lynn-Devere and Nicolette Burford de Oliveira have set up this fundraiser for a group of community volunteers called Gaza Lifeline who are trying as hard as they possibly can to constructively respond to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.

The Gaza Lifeline Team decided to set up this water distribution project to help maximise the survival prospects of children and other people in Gaza. Our team of volunteers will distribute water close to a tent encampment of displaced people on the outskirts of Deir Al-Balah city.

The vast majority of people in Gaza walk long distances to reach water distribution points. This is exhausting for most people as they suffer from malnutrition and sicknesses.

As winter now approaches, water collection is becoming yet more hazardous. Now people lack shoes and warm clothes. Shoes are not available in Gaza. So malnourished children and adults alike face the harrowing prospect of walking long distances and standing for long periods in queues barefoot and shivering, and vulnerable to catching, and worsening, respiratory infections.

Water Availability in Gaza

On the 16th September 2024, a UN official said: Israel prevents the entry of about 70% of materials needed to purify water in Gaza. Water pollution in Gaza is a silent bomb that has a greater impact than those that destroy buildings. According to Oxfam, by September 2024, 25% of Gaza’s population had already contracted water-borne diseases.

Intense Israeli bombardment has destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s water desalination plants, water reservoirs, water tanks, and water pipes. It has caused the collapse of Gaza’s waste management infrastructure. Consequently, the majority of people in Gaza have been forced into drinking water contaminated with toxic particles such as depleted uranium from bombs, and asbestos and other chemicals from pulverized houses. The water being consumed is also heavily contaminated by sewage. This has resulted in the catastrophic spread of waterborne diseases, including dysentery (a leading cause of child mortality), Hepatitis (now endemic in Gaza), typhoid fever, and fungal and itchy bacterial skin infections which cause children immense discomfort and prevent them from sleeping. A high risk of Cholera (also water borne) outbreaks now exists. Most people in Gaza fail to access clean drinking water, and those who do almost invariably have to travel excessive distances to do so.

THE PROJECT

Our project delivers fresh drinking water to 500 displaced families living in tents, in extremely harsh and dangerous conditions on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah city.

Water Quality

We obtain the water for distribution from the South Gaza Desalination Plant. The treatment process at this plant removes solids, sand and gravel and finer particles as well as salts and other minerals that are hazardous to human health. It then adds chlorine and certain other minerals to the water to ensure the water meets the standards for safe human consumption.

Water Distribution

We will be organising and supervising the daily delivery of 5,000 litres of drinking water (one water truck load) to a collection point in the encampment. This will provide 500 families with 10 litres of clean water each daily.

A total of 35,000 litres of clean water will thus be delivered per week.

Project Planning

How it works. We pay the water truck driver for each water truck filled to capacity with 5,000 litres of drinking water, with driver and petrol included in the cost. The truck driver collects the water from the desilination plant of our choice. He delivers the water to the collection point in the encampment area on a daily basis.

This arrangement ensures that exhausted and malnourished people don't have to travel long distances to collect and carry water.

A total of 35,000 litres of clean water will thus be delivered per week.

Our Team

Our core team in Gaza consists of 3 volunteers, Youssef, Ghassan, and Nour. They have been close friends for many years. Between them, they have over 10 years humanitarian voluntary work experience, going back several years.

Since the beginning of the war, our volunteers have assisted with rescue operations and clearing rubble from the streets and a number of food distribution initiatives. Nour has also successfully implemented two smaller Gaza Life community projects; one distributing money to displaced people and another in which Youssef also helped, providing meals to displaced people living in tents.

As well as taking responsibility for all the project logistics, the volunteer team will supervise the distribution of the water at the water collection point, making sure the process of supplying people with the water runs smoothly and safely.

Our volunteers are also responsible for financial accounting, evaluation and reporting. They will:

Please contact us via this page if you have any questions regarding this project and we will reply to you within two working days.

Cost of Implementation (the budget)

Summary Weekly Budget

Please consider committing to making a weekly or monthly donation to help us keep this project going on a monthly basis.

Your donations are gratefully received. Just to give you an idea as to how your donations help:

Video clip:

This is Nour, originally from Khan Younis. He is leading the project having already successfully implemented 2 community aid projects funded by previous GoFundMe campaigns. He has many years volunteering and project management experience within the community.

Nour and fellow volunteer Ghassan outside the printers where the large Gaza Lifeline banner to attached to the water truck, will be printed for this project (below):

This (below) is the water distribution location on the outskirts of Deir Al-Balah. Several water trucks deliver at this point but the demand by far exceeds the amount of water being distributed. The area is surrounded by displaced families and people who live mostly in torn and worn out tents:

These photos (below) are from a water distribution on which Ghassan helped. This project will identify itself with it's own banner with its Gaza Lifeline logo.

Nour and Youssef set up the Gaza Lifeline initiative in February 2024. Since then they have implemented two community projects both of which were funded by GoFundMe campaigns that reached their targets. They now wish to assist bringing water to displaced people living in tents on the outskirts of Deir Al-Balah. The number of water trucks taking water to these people at present falls far short of meeting the high demand for drinking water.

Nicolette has been in contact with Nour since November 2023. It was through conversations between them that Nour, Youssef, and another two of their friends set up the two previous community projects for each of which funds were successfully raised with a GoFundMe campaign. They now want to build on these past successes with the launch of this water distribution project.

Funds collected via this fundraiser will be transferred via PayPal to Nour, the Project leader on the ground in Gaza. We will provide receipts and other necessary evidence of the proper use of funds collected.