Gaza's Desalination Pivot

by Futoshi Tachino

The crucible

Gaza is where climate vulnerability collides head‑on with political blockade. A joint World Water Day press release from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Water Authority notes that 97 percent of water pumped from the Strip’s coastal aquifer fails World Health Organization standards—leaving most families to scrape by on as little as 3 to 15 litres a day (PCBS & PWA, 2024). When a July 2025 Israeli strike hit a queue of people filling jerrycans, Reuters described residents doubling back to brackish wells despite the risk of disease (Reuters, 2025). Layer the region’s projected heat on top of that. A 2021 study in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science warns that, without steep emissions cuts, parts of the Middle East and North Africa will face “super‑ and ultra‑extreme” heatwaves above 50 °C by late century (Zittis et al., 2021). With water scarce and temperatures soaring, Gaza’s humanitarian emergency easily mutates into a climate‑security tinderbox.

An unexpected proposition

Into this bleak picture stepped Palestinian environmentalist Nada Majdalani, country director of EcoPeace Middle East. In her July 2025 appearance on the TED Talks Daily podcast, Majdalani argued that climate cooperation can outpace—and ultimately reshape—regional politics (Majdalani, 2025). Her focal point is EcoPeace’s newly unveiled “Peace Triangle,” a bundle of cross‑border infrastructure deals that link large‑scale Jordanian solar power, an electrified freight corridor, and—crucially for Gaza—a 200‑million‑cubic‑metre‑per‑year desalination plant on the enclave’s Mediterranean coast.

Why start in Gaza?

Gaza’s geography, usually viewed as a curse, can become an asset:

• Abundant raw input. Three sides of the Strip face seawater—the feedstock for desalination.
• Solar upside. Annual insolation exceeds 2,000 kWh per square metre, promising cheap renewable energy once the grid is reinforced.
• Humanitarian urgency. Few places combine acute need with global sympathy, making concessional finance more politically palatable.

EcoPeace originally championed a 55 MCM plant, but Majdalani now argues the facility could scale nearly four‑fold, pushing unit water costs down and generating surplus to pipe eastward to water‑poor Jordan (EcoPeace, 2025).

How the water‑for‑energy swap works

1. Desalinate at scale. Powered first by imported electricity and later by Jordanian solar, Gaza’s Central Desalination Plant (GCDP) produces up to 200 MCM annually.
2. Send water to Jordan. After Gaza’s baseline demand—roughly 120 MCM in normal times—is met, the remaining water travels under the Jordan River to the kingdom’s parched north.
3. Buy Jordanian solar. Jordan, already a regional renewables hub thanks to its 2022 Project Prosperity agreement with Israel, sells clean electricity back to both Israel and the Palestinian territories, creating a circular trade in which each party is simultaneously buyer and seller.

That circularity matters. If any actor disrupts one link, it immediately loses the benefits of the other two, creating a built‑in deterrent to sabotage.

What Gaza stands to gain

• A public‑health turnaround. At full tilt, the plant would lift per‑capita supply well above the World Health Organization’s 100 litre‑per‑day benchmark, breaking the cycle of water‑borne disease.
• Economic stimulus. Construction injects capital and skilled jobs; cheap water underpins agriculture and small industries once borders reopen.
• Grid leverage. A guaranteed market for Jordanian renewables strengthens Gaza’s case for upgraded transmission lines and for rooftop solar that cushions against future blackouts—exactly the kind of outage that, in late 2024, idled a smaller plant until Israel quietly re‑connected power (Times of Israel / AFP, 2024).
• Diplomatic capital. Becoming a net water exporter up‑ends Gaza’s narrative of total dependency and gives local leaders a tangible stake in regional stability.

A textbook case of environmental peacebuilding

Scholars define environmental peacebuilding as cooperation born from shared ecological challenges. Traditional examples involve joint wetland restoration or fisheries management; Majdalani’s Peace Triangle scales the idea dramatically: multi‑billion‑dollar hardware makes it harder—and costlier—for politicians to walk away than to keep cooperating. In her TED talk she puts it bluntly: “Climate is the one border that respects no border.”

Storm clouds on the horizon

No grand plan is without critics.

• Security risk. Gaza’s infrastructure has been bombed before; financiers will demand heavy political‑risk insurance.
• Governance vacuum. A cease‑fire would need to leave room for a Palestinian utility capable of running the plant and paying its bills.
• Power dependency. Desalination needs electricity; Gaza’s grid is still hostage to decisions made well beyond its borders.
• Financing complexity. A price tag north of US $1.5 billion is too large for humanitarian grants alone. A blended‑finance trust—possibly anchored by the World Bank—would be essential.
• Human‑rights safeguards. Amnesty International has already condemned earlier power cuts to Gaza’s smaller desal plants as “cruel and unlawful” (Amnesty, 2024). Any new facility would need bullet‑proof guarantees that water will not be weaponised.

From blueprint to breaking ground

1. Secure a cease‑fire and access guarantees. Without physical safety, no engineering team will mobilise.
2. Package design‑finance. Gulf sovereign funds, European development banks, and climate‑focused philanthropies could pool resources in a build‑own‑transfer scheme linked to the Peace Triangle’s broader solar and rail projects.
3. Synchronise grid upgrades. High‑voltage lines from Jordan should be laid along existing gas corridors to minimise land disruption.
4. Institutionalise oversight. EcoPeace proposes a tri‑national water‑energy regulator with civil‑society seats reserved for Gazan NGOs—a hedge against elite capture and a transparency signal to donors.

A half‑full glass at last?

Majdalani closes her TED talk with an analogy: “Pipes, cables and railways are the veins of tomorrow’s Middle East. The question is whether they pump anger or circulation.” Gaza’s desalination pivot offers a rare glimpse of the latter. It cannot resolve borders, prisoners or sovereignty, but it does tackle an existential daily need—water—while hard‑wiring cooperation into the machinery of the future. In a region where every degree of warming multiplies risk, pragmatic interdependence may prove the only coolant strong enough.

References

Amnesty International. (2024, November 14). Israel’s decision to cut off electricity supply to Gaza desalination plant cruel and unlawful. https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/israels-decision-to-cut-off-electricity-supply-to-gaza-desalination-plant-cruel-and-unlawful/

EcoPeace Middle East. (2025, January 28). Our new path to sustainability: The IMEC Peace Triangle. https://ecopeaceme.org/2025/01/28/the-imec-peace-triangle/

Majdalani, N. (2025, July 14). An unexpected plan for peace in the Middle East [TED Talk]. TED Talks Daily podcast. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4re2IQamQkNG4pp8Yrw3UR

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics & Palestinian Water Authority. (2024, March 22). World Water Day press release. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?ItemID=4716&lang=en

Reuters. (2025, July 14). Gazans’ daily struggle for water after deadly strike. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gazans-daily-struggle-water-after-deadly-strike-2025-07-14/

Times of Israel / AFP. (2024, December 26). Water desalination quietly returns to Gaza, after work by Israel and PA. https://www.timesofisrael.com/water-desalination-quietly-returns-to-gaza-after-work-by-israel-and-pa/

Zittis, G., Hadjinicolaou, P., & Lelieveld, J. (2021). Business‑as‑usual will lead to super‑ and ultra‑extreme heatwaves in the Middle East and North Africa. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 4(20). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-021-00178-7

About the Author

Futoshi Tachino is an environmental writer who believes in the power of small, positive actions to protect the planet. He writes about the beauty of nature and offers practical tips for everyday sustainability, from reducing waste to conserving energy.

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