Absan Municipality Repairs Main Water Line in Eastern Khan Younes As Locals Return Home
(Arab World Press) - The Palestinian Water Authority, in association with the Absan Municipality in southeastern Khan Younes, has embarked on repairing the main line to provide drinking water for local residents who have returned home.
Mohamed Abu Jamei, a supervisor of the Palestinian Water Authority, said that the line being fixed is the only source of water in the eastern area of Khan Younes, in the southern Gaza Strip, which includes Absan al-Kabira, al-Jadida, Khoza’a and the European Hospital.
The line was damaged in the ongoing Israeli war on the enclave, which started in October.
Abu Jamei said that getting the line back to work would help provide water for about 30,000 people.
“The line was damaged in the war. Now, as locals return home, we are fixing the damaged lines. The water line we are repairing now is the only source of water in the eastern area,” he noted.
The water desalination station in Absan al-Kabira has seen crowds of people returning to Khan Younes with plastic containers in their hands to get drinking water to carry on foot to their homes, or to the tents they have pitched on the sites of their destroyed homes.
An elderly displaced Palestinian man dragging a cart loaded with water said that he had returned to the home he had been forced to leave for displacement in al-Mawasi, Khan Younes, after the Israeli forces declared Absan a ‘safe’ green zone.
“We do not have water, as the wells and pipes were all destroyed by the occupation forces. We are staying in tents because our houses have been destroyed.”
“After the water pipes are repaired, matters will hopefully become more stable, and will improve,” he added.
Mohamed Abu Zarifa, a displaced Palestinian man, was optimistic after he returned home in Absan al-Kabira, where he watched the water line, damaged in the repeated Israeli shelling raids, being repaired.
“Thank God, we have returned home. We are pleased to see the Absan municipality exerting efforts to bring water back to the inhabitants, and life to the area. We were displaced and have returned home, but we still have a problem with water. They are working on it, and hopefully the water supply will return to our homes,” he noted.
The inhabitants of Absan started to return after the Israeli forces withdrew, leaving demolished infrastructure, particularly wells and potable water resources, in their wake.