Israel will build a pipeline to absorb sewage from neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip after the sewage treatment facility there was shut down due to the electricity crisis.

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The Sderot Municipality and the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council in the Gaza vicinity were asked this week to implement the decision of the Water Authority and to receive the wastewater from Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip through its sewage treatment facility.

Gaza in the dark (Photo: AFP)

Currently, the sewage from the Gaza Strip flows through Nahal Hanun, is stored in the sands of Moshav Netiv Ha'asara and pollutes the area and the groundwater. Once every few days, Israeli trucks come and draw the sewage.

The new sewage pipe is to be built in the Erez Crossing area. From there, the absorbed sewage will be transferred to the sewage storage facilities of Kibbutz Erez and then to Sha'ar Hanegev and Sderot's sewage treatment facilities.

Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council head Alon Shuster addressed the Water Authority this week: "The State of Israel should devote great efforts to the flow of dedicated electricity to the sewage treatment plant in Beit Lahia, and not only to solutions that mean the use of Gazan water, which should be used for agriculture in Gaza, . The Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council and the Association of Towns for Sewage in Sderot-Sha'ar Hanegev do not accept any conclusion made over our heads."

The Water Authority said in response: "The Authority is treating the matter as an emergency event, to stop the massive flow of sewage from the Gaza Strip into the territory of the State of Israel (via Nahal Hanun.) The Water Authority is working to reduce the expected damage from Palestinian wastewater overflows and to protect the wells of the area. The flow of sewage from the Gaza Strip toward the State of Israel began long before and without any connection to the electricity problems in Gaza, and we expect the cooperation of and with all the regional bodies in the region. "

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, met Thursday with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a number of senior Hamas officials in an attempt to bridge the gap between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority over the electricity cuts.

The Al-Hayat newspaper reported Friday that Mladenov had suggested to Hamas's leadership that the European Union pay the excise tax on diesel fuel entering the Gaza Strip to operate its power plant, which Hamas and the Palestinian Authority refuse to pay. In return, the EU will be allowed to erect an oversight body in Gaza.