Gaza's Water Turns Toxic: Sewage-Filled Pond in Sheikh Radwan Poses Major Health Risk

Gaza's environmental and public-health crisis deepens

Israel's offensive in Gaza has not only destroyed neighbourhoods, displaced families and damaged medical facilities, it has also severely damaged the territory's water and sanitation infrastructure, contaminating soil, groundwater and coastal waters on which Palestinians depend.

Four weeks into a fragile ceasefire — which Israeli forces have reportedly breached daily — the environmental consequences are increasingly stark. In Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, a rainwater collection pond that once reduced runoff has become a pooling ground for raw sewage, debris and stagnant water. For many displaced families, the site has become both shelter and hazard.

'We took refuge here, around the Sheikh Radwan pond, with all the sufferings you could imagine, from mosquitoes to sewage with rising levels, let alone the destruction all around. All this poses a danger to our lives and the lives of our children,' said Umm Hisham, a pregnant displaced resident, in comments reported by Al Jazeera.

According to local municipal officials, pumps that once drained the pond were destroyed during air strikes. With power and sanitation systems crippled, contaminated water has been rising and, in places, reportedly exceeded 6 metres (about 20 ft), threatening nearby homes, tents and anyone who comes near the site.

'There is no doubt there are grave impacts on all citizens: foul odours, insects, mosquitoes. Also, foul water levels have exceeded 6 metres without any protection; the fence is completely destroyed, with high possibility for any child, woman, old man, or even a car to fall into this pond,' said Maher Salem, a Gaza City municipal officer, to Al Jazeera.

Humanitarian and health officials warn that stagnant, polluted water increases the risk of disease outbreaks, especially among children. Many families report that water from wells, containers and tanker trucks is visibly polluted, but they have no safer alternatives.

At the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim al-Zeben described the situation as an environmental catastrophe linked to the wider assault. He said the conflict has produced nearly a quarter of a million victims and more than 61 million tonnes of rubble, some contaminated with hazardous materials, and that deliberate damage to sewage and water networks has likely contaminated groundwater and coastal waters.

In September, a United Nations Environment Programme report warned that Gaza's freshwater supplies are 'severely limited and much of what remains is polluted.' The report highlighted collapse of sewage treatment, destruction of piped systems and reliance on cesspits as factors likely increasing aquifer contamination.

The combined effects — contaminated water sources, damaged sanitation systems and destroyed farmland — raise acute public-health and food-security concerns. Back in Sheikh Radwan the air is heavy with rot and despair as families struggle daily to find water, food and safety.

What to watch: monitoring by humanitarian agencies for waterborne disease outbreaks, further damage to water infrastructure, and efforts to restore pumping and sanitation systems will be critical to preventing a wider health emergency.