Technical Assistance to PCU Gaza



Contract partner: PWA - Palestinian Water Authority Country: Palästinensische Gebiete Funding amount: € 934.590,00 Project start: 01.01.2013 End: 31.12.2017

Short Description:

Overall goal


The situation relating to the water sector in Gaza has long been of serious concern. The supply of fresh water to the population of approximately 1.6 million in Gaza currently relies almost totally on groundwater. However, the groundwater is massively over-pumped and the aquifer shows clear signs of imminent collapse, with rapidly advancing saline intrusion. Severe contamination – mainly due to wastewater – is also evident, and hardly any of the groundwater meets internationally accepted standards for domestic use. The population of Gaza is therefore exposed to very high levels of risk: the treatment of water is too expensive for many of the inhabitants and water-borne diseases continue to be prevalent among the population.

In late 2008, a report (now commonly known as the “PWA Audit”) was prepared for the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) on Refocusing of the Water Sector Infrastructure in Palestine. In this report, the need for a “Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Program” (GETAP) was envisaged. The first component of this Emergency Technical Assistance Program has now been the publication of a study on a broad mix of possible options for increasing the water supply in Gaza, called the “Comparative Study of Options for an Additional Supply of Water for the Gaza Strip” (known as “CSO-G” and published in July 2011). In total, this study suggests nine interventions that are inter-linked and together present a coherent approach to addressing the critical issues in the water sector in Gaza.

As the first of these interventions, the CSO-G suggests the establishment of a Gaza Programme Coordination Unit (G PCU), required to drive and coordinate all the proposed interventions. The PWA has asked Austria to support it in establishing this G-PCU. The purpose of this grant and project thus is to significantly improve the likelihood of effective and efficient implementation of the set of nine interventions recommended by the Comparative Study of Options (CSO-G).

project number 2560-01/2012
source of funding OEZA
sector Wasserversorgung und sanitäre Einrichtungen
tied
modality
marker
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
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