RAMALLAH, June 4, 2018 (WAFA) – A little over 11% of Gaza’s population use safe drinking water compared to over 95% in the West Bank, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a press release on Monday.
In a report marking World Environment Day, the PCBS that based on data from the 2017 Population, Housing and Establishments Census, while 62.4% of persons in Palestine use safe drinking water, only 11.4% in Gaza Strip use safe drinking water compared to 95.1% in the West Bank.
It said that while the daily allocation per capita from consumed water for domestic purposes in Palestine is 83 liter/capita/day (82.3 l/c/d in the West Bank and 84 l/c/d) in Gaza Strip based on 2016 statistics), 97% of drinking water in Gaza Strip does not meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standards and it is also less than the minimum quantities recommended by WHO, which is 100 l/c/d.
The PCBS said that Palestine’s carbon dioxide emissions per capita during 2016 were significantly lower than those of its neighboring countries.
It said the energy sector share was 72.8% of these emissions, whereas solid waste sector share was 19.2% and the rest came from agriculture sector (8.0%).
"Beat Plastic Pollution" was the theme for World Environment Day 2018, which is a call for action to all to combat one of the greatest environmental challenges of modern time.
Data of the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government showed that plastic formed about 14.6% of the total solid waste in the West Bank and 12% of the total solid waste in Gaza Strip.
A total of 327 plastic establishments were working in Palestine during 2017 (out of 158,573 establishments in Palestine) and there were 2,361 employed persons in this field (out of 444,034 employed persons in Palestine).
The value added of the plastic establishments in Palestine reached $56,931,800 during 2016, out of the value added of the industry sector in Palestine, which reached $1,776,667,200.
Data of 2016 showed that the total imports of raw plastic reached $15.1 million compared to $16.4 million in 2015.
The average household daily waste generation in Palestine in 2015 was estimated at 2.9 kg (around 3.2 kg in the West Bank and 2.4 kg in Gaza Strip). The overall quantity of household solid waste generation on a daily basis was about 2,551.0 tons in 2015 (1,835 tons in the West Bank and 716 tons in Gaza Strip).
The PCBS said that more than 50% of solid waste components were organic materials.
M.K.
