Paul Weissfellner

Dr. Fenn

INTF 105-19: Science Writing

October 26, 2016

Land Divided, Coast United

In her article “Land Divided, Coast United,” Josie Glausiusz gives the reader a brief introduction to Gaza’s water and sewage crisis. She focuses on the struggles faced by the individuals responsible for maintaining the water and sewage treatment systems while also providing background about how the situation reached where it is today and factors that prevent it from improving. A blockade by Israeli forces prevents many materials, including those needed to repair and improve infrastructure and to treat sewage, from entering the Gaza strip because they could also be used by terrorists to launch attacks against Israel. One thing that really spoke to me was her repeated calls for cooperation between Israel and Gaza to fix these issues. Israel, historically, has been a global leader in purifying water and making it usable. For 5 months, I lived in a small community in the middle of the desert, about 50 km from the Gaza border, and saw the results of Israeli irrigation and water purification techniques: grass, trees, and acres of olive orchards, all irrigated by brackish water drawn from beneath the ground. Israeli-Gazan cooperation with regards to water would be a powerful thing, able to provide access to cleaner water and a higher standard of living to hundreds of thousands of people.