People gather to fill up their water containers from a truck loaded with water cisterns in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 25, 2024. Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip: As the summer heat beats down on war-torn Gaza, Muhammad Bashir's skills are in high demand: he repairs rooftop water tanks that have been perforated by shrapnel and bullets.
Some of the leaky tanks in his workshop look like sieves.
"Before the war... we used to fix only one or two water tanks every month, but now we get dozens due to the occupation bombing of homes," he told AFP.
Tawfiq Ramadan, another repairman, said "there are no tanks available on the market, new or used ones. Since no one can do without water, people are bringing us the tanks to repair them."
Gaza's rooftops have long been studded with large plastic tanks that supply homes below with gravity-fed water and provide a valuable buffer for times when the mains are down.
Water trucks usually fill them up or residents pump up water from the public water system or domestic wells, said Omar Shatat, a water engineer in the Palestinian coastal territory.
Since October 7, relentless Israeli bombardment has devastated vast areas of the coastal territory.
"Most of the tanks we get are damaged by drone fire," said Bashir, who was working on a tank with hundreds of holes in it at his workshop in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
To fix the damage, Bashir uses a homemade gas blowtorch to melt repurposed resin, rubber or plastic and then applies the hot paste with a trowel to plug the leaks.
In an impressive display of craftmanship, the repairmen fixed a 300-litre tank that had been severed by an almost two metre (six foot) crack, the dried dark putty standing out like a long scar.
Dire water shortage
Israel's offensive has killed at least 37,718 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Gazan health ministry.
Israel also imposed a punishing siege, and water has become scarce due to damage to municipal water reservoirs and seawater desalination plants, and an intermittent supply of bottled water.
Gazans struggled to access adequate safe water even before the onslaught, and local underground water is often contaminated by saltwater intrusion, sewage and chemicals.
Since the onslaught erupted, more than two thirds of Gaza's sanitation and water facilities have been destroyed or damaged, according to data cited by UN agencies.
This has fuelled public health threats, including dehydration and food contamination, and the spread of diarrhoea and other diseases, especially in crowded displacement camps.
Water tanks have become near impossible to purchase, and even jerrycans, buckets and other containers are scarce.
Ramadan and Bashir repair those too when they crack.
"The crisis has worsened now as summer has arrived," said Bashir. "People need water to drink and wash."
