Some 89 per cent of the population of Gaza does not have access to safe drinking water, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) announced yesterday.
According to the report, the PCBS said that only 11 per cent of Palestinian families in Gaza have access to safe sources of drinking water, compared to 95 per cent in the West Bank.
Punitive measures imposed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Gaza was cited as one of the main reasons leading to the dire situation in Gaza.
In 2017, Abbas imposed a number of measures on the Strip in an effort to pressure the people to turn against the Hamas government. The steps included halving salaries of public employees, forcing thousand of employees in to early retirement and stopping payments for the supply of electricity in to the Strip.
PCBS statistics also showed that the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem was 4,705,601 in 2017, 77 per cent of whom live in urban areas, 15 per cent in the countryside and eight per cent in refugee camps.
The statistics showed that seven per cent live in houses where three or more persons share one room.