Hey, everyone, this is Bisan from Gaza, and I am still alive.

Hey, everyone, this is Bisan from Gaza, and I am still alive. The only source of drinking water here in Gaza Strip is the aquifer or the underground water. And this is basically because Israel is stealing the Palestinian rivers and valleys, preventing the Palestinians themselves from getting to their own water, besides destroying the seawater desalination plant that was supposed to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with drinking water before 2023. Today we are reporting this. We're asking the Palestinians how they're dealing with this issue, and we're figuring how the Gazans are obtaining water after all. It's too much. We're exhausted. Yesterday my granddad called a guy and told him we want to fill water [from his truck], but he never showed up. So all we were able to fill was salty water. We don't have drinking water. I've been filling up water like this since I was young. - For three years? Yeah, for three years. How many water containers like this do you carry every day? About 3 or 4. It's so tiring. All our lives we've had to fill up water, carry it, bring it... we have to carry everything. But these days the water is so exhausting. - Why is that? Because of the containers and gallons I have to carry. I carry everything. And it's even harder for little kids in the summer heat. Kids get really tired carrying water. What's your name? Sara. I'm 13. We've got to search for a long, long time in the heat to find some water. And us kids, we can't carry a lot of water. So we need help. And also, sometimes there's no water near where the kid lives. So they have to go far to find it. Most of Gaza's fresh water comes from the underground water source called the Coastal Aquifer. And for years, more water has been pumped out than nature can replace, allowing seawater to seep in. During the genocide, damage to water and sewage systems polluted it even further. And today, much of Gaza's groundwater isn't safe to drink without treatment and desalination. Gaza has always suffered from severe water scarcity. We needed a non-traditional solution, so we decided on desalinating the seawater. The first phase included three desalination plants. We were also preparing to build a central desalination plant in Deir al-Balh, producing about 55 million cubic meters of water every year. We had three central seawater desalination plants. Since the start of the war, one has been completely destroyed, the one that used to serve western Gaza. Unfortunately, the war destroyed what we'd already built and what we had planned to build. ISRAELI FORCES DESTROYED ALL SIX OF GAZA'S WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS. Most sewage either flows directly into the sea, or it seeps into the aquifer in the coastal areas. There is contamination between sewage and the water that people use, especially those living in the coastal area. Overall, around 80 percent of the infrastructure has been destroyed, either partially or completely. For many families, every drop of clean water depends on the few desalination plants still operating. Today we are in a desalination plant that is still working despite the severe circumstances here in Gaza Strip. The process starts actually from the well. The underground water Gaza is at the sea, so the underground water is close to the surface. People can dig to obtain water in general, but it's not drinkable until it's desalinated. The process after that is the desalination of the water inside the machine. Before going to the trucks and having the chemicals inside it. Today, I am starting the desalination process of the day in one of the water desalination plants here in north Gaza [in] the desalination plant. I have the honor to do this and to help some people for to obtain water for their day. We do this. Turn to manual. Turn on. Uh huh. Okay. Off. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I was scared that it's bad or something happened to the generator. WITH MUCH OF GAZA'S POWER GRID DESTROYED, THESE PLANTS RELY ON DIESEL GENERATORS TO KEEP THE WATER FLOWING. Even in areas where some wells and desalination plants are still undestroyed, the Israeli blockade and the prevention of fuel, chemicals, generators, desalination plants and even some spare units from entering to Gaza prevent a sufficient solution, a sustainable solution for the problem. Very important piece of information that the water in Gaza Strip is not reaching to people in pipes or in networks, for example. The water is reaching from the desalination plants to the camps via trucks. And this unfortunately does not guarantee that everyone gets the water whenever they want and however they want. Unfortunately, people need to stay in lines, carry water in jerry cans for long distances and it's not even enough. We don't have a water network, or municipal supply. The only water we receive comes from charities and donors like you. That's why crowds gather around the water trucks. One truck is never enough. We need two or three trucks because the number of people is increasing, the heat is getting worse and so is the struggle. People go all over Gaza looking for water. I swear we go to places we've never been before just to find water for us and our kids to drink. It was better before the war. Now everything is difficult. Finding water has become so difficult but everything in Gaza is difficult now. Most of the drinking water in Gaza now is contaminated because of the sewage and the seawater, and because of the amount of water extracted from the aquifer here in Gaza. Even the labs and the facilities needed to test the water were destroyed. And now we are going to the public health unit or public health lab that is supposed to test the water so they can tell us more about the contaminated water, especially during the past three years. At this point in time we're focused on testing the water, the quality of the water reaching people after 2 or more years of suffering. Before the war, the contamination levels in the drinking water was about 3 or 4 percent annually. But during the war it reached up to 10% contamination. Before, people would get about 80-100 liters of water a day - and that included drinking water. Today that might reach just 6 to 8 liters a day. Some areas might get 20 liters. But in general, the amount of water reaching people, whether it's drinking water or for other uses, is not enough. So add the summer heat to the lack of water and you get the spread of skin diseases due to poor hygiene and limited access to hygiene products in the camps. So all this affects public health, and it's children and the elderly who suffer the most.