Gaza City, Palestinian territories. The United Nations Development Programme began clearing a large wartime garbage dump in Gaza City that has overtaken the Fras Market district and poses environmental and health risks. UNDP officials said the work started on Wednesday.
Dump formed after access to main landfill was blocked
Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said the solid-waste mound has swallowed the once busy Fras Market. He estimated the dump at more than 300,000 cubic metres and about 13 metres high.
Mrakic said the mound formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr al-Dik area adjacent to the border with Israel when the Gaza war began in October 2023. The Juhr al-Dik area is now under full Israeli control.
Waste to be moved to temporary site south of Gaza City
Over the next six months, the UNDP plans to transfer the waste to a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.
The site covers 75,000 square metres and will also accommodate daily waste collection, Mrakic said in a statement sent to Reuters. The project is funded by the Humanitarian Fund and the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
Municipality cites worsening solid-waste crisis
Some Palestinians were seen sifting through the garbage for items to take away, while others expressed relief that the market area would eventually be cleared.
“It needs to be moved to a site with a complex of old waste, far away from people. There’s no other solution. What will this cause? It will cause us gases, it will cause us diseases, it will cause us germs,” said Abu Issa near the site.
The Gaza Municipality confirmed the start of the relocation effort in collaboration with the UNDP, calling it an urgent step to contain a worsening solid-waste crisis after about 350,000 cubic metres of rubbish accumulated in the heart of the city.
How do you think the relocation effort will affect daily life in Gaza City over the next six months?