Maia Project: Clean Water for Children in Gaza

I have been working with MECA on the Maia Project to provide safe, clean drinking water to Palestinian children in Gaza for nearly a decade. During this time, we have installed hundreds of water units in various locations; including communities, kindergartens, and schools. The process is long and complex. But the happiest moments were always when people could finally fill their glasses or bottles with clean water. I witnessed their joy each time we installed a new water purification unit.

Before October 2023, Gaza was already facing a water crisis and severe shortages of clean drinking water. Since the beginning of this genocide, I worked on installing 13 additional water units throughout Gaza. The process has become far more difficult and challenging due to the limited availability of materials needed for design and installation. It has also been extremely hard to find chemicals and spare parts to keep the water units MECA built operating, especially with no access to grid electricity.

Despite all this pressure, continuing this work gives us strength. We are working while we ourselves are searching for a cup of clean, drinkable water for our children; just like the people we were trying to serve. I know very well what a cup of clean water means to a mother with young children. I personally suffered from kidney problems caused by salty contaminated water. Everyone in Gaza has gone through similar experiences.

The situation in Gaza has gotten so much worse with the start of the Israeli genocide. I never imagined that one day our water units would become the only source of water for hospitals; when patients, doctors, and medical staff were trapped inside, and Israel besieged the area for days. These painful experiences should never have happened. But in the midst of the horror this was the most meaningful success story: installing water purification units that provided clean drinking water without forcing people to risk their lives or leave hospitals in search of water. This is exactly what hospital staff told me during our continuous phone calls in that incredibly difficult time for all of us.

We are trying with every resource we have to deliver water to everyone who needs it. Currently MECA distributes 1,600,000 liters of water daily across Gaza with our local partners. We reached northern Gaza with water trucks on the same day people returned to their homes or lands. We delivered water to completely destroyed locations where people set up tents on the rubble of their homes, such as Jabalia and critical areas in Beit Lahia near the “yellow line”. And we have continued delivering water even during extremely dangerous times in Gaza City last September.

Without water, people cannot remain on their land or return to it.

With your donations, we reach more people through water trucking and our Maia units. We provide safe, clean water to many medical centers, educational facilities, community kitchens, and displacement areas.

Unfortunately, we lost some water units during this genocide. But the ones that are still working are a lifeline. Communities across Gaza protected these units and kept them working with the same care they give their own children. When they were forced to flee, they fled with the water units if they could find a truck to carry them.

Water is life. Life means being surrounded by people who work tirelessly to keep you safe. Honestly, no photos or videos we share can truly capture the happiness and relief, even if temporary, people feel when they receive MECA’s clean drinking water.

We were abandoned by most of the world’s governments, and we felt it deeply everyday. Every day of thirst, every day of hunger, every day of disease, and every day without shelter. But being able to serve our people during the most inhumane periods of life we’re going through, has been a lifeline, not just for them but for us as well. Being able to support our people keeps us going, and your donation to support the Maia project and water trucking makes that possible. 

You’ve been by our side all this time, don’t stop supporting us now.

As temperatures rise this summer, so does the suffering in occupied Gaza — not by natural disaster, but by design and intent.

Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians continues to target every aspect of life — and water is no exception. Fuel blockades and shortages, which Israel controls, have forced the shutdown of Gaza’s desalination plants, cutting families off from one of their last sources of clean water. Today, one cubic meter of water can cost $54, and that's one of the "good case-scenarios" as in some areas the cost reached $80, and that is enough for just 66 people for one day — a devastating marker of how water has been weaponized to deepen the crisis.

Amid this Israeli-manufactured humanitarian catastrophe, we are doing everything we can to resist this system of slow death. We are providing at least 890,000L of clean, safe drinking water every day in Gaza

Daily Emergency Clean Drinking Water Distribution:

• 450,000L in Gaza City
• 150,000L in the Middle Area
• 290,000L in Mawasi
(+ an extra 200,000L on the hottest days as we've witnessed the last week)

We’ve deployed 22 water monitors and field workers, and we’re working with 4 local partner associations to get water to every accessible area — especially as municipalities in Gaza are overwhelmed in responding to the ongoing crisis.

We are also fighting to reduce the cost of water, so we can expand daily distribution and ensure that clean water — a basic human right — is not out of reach for Palestinians in occupied Gaza.

We are also using mobile generators to pump water from wells. This water is not safe for drinking but can be used for other household needs. Through this project we are able to:

• Operate 164 ground wells in Gaza City and Mawasi Khan Younis
• Pump 4,694,000 L of water weekly
• Reach over 74,000 families every week with domestic water

Water is Life. Thank you for your support for this critical work.