المركز الفلسطيني يعقد لقاءً حوارياً بعنوان ” واقع خدمة المياه في مدينة الزهراء “.

Within the activities of the project "Empowering citizens through institutionalising social accountability in local government", with support from the Local Governance Reform Programme implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, in cooperation with Al-Zahra Municipality, held a dialogue meeting on Thursday 19 July 2018 entitled "The reality of water services in Al-Zahra City".

It was attended by the mayor of Al-Zahra and municipal officials, a representative of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, the city's mukhtar, a number of notables and dignitaries and representatives of the residential towers in Al-Zahra City, in addition to representatives of the youth council and institutions and a diverse group of citizens from among women and young people.

The session was opened by Ms. Alaa Al-Hosni, social accountability project coordinator at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, who welcomed those present, thanked the municipality for its continued cooperation and stressed that this meeting comes as part of applying social accountability mechanisms aimed at improving the municipality's relationship with citizens and developing municipalities' basic services.

Mr. Jalal Touman, mayor of Al-Zahra, affirmed the municipality's continued efforts to enable citizens to take part and to continue working towards a qualitative improvement in the services provided to citizens, despite the economic conditions and crises that weigh on the population of the Gaza Strip.

Eng. Alaa Murad, head of the water and sanitation department, explained how the municipality provides water services in Al-Zahra City and the problems that hinder its work, such as weak revenue collection and excessive water consumption. The meeting included a presentation of statistics on population numbers, water consumption rates, the proportion of bills collected and the municipality's deficit in providing the service, in addition to statistics on the problem of water salinity.

The floor was then opened to questions from those present and to listening to their problems and observations, as well as the solutions and corrective mechanisms that would help improve water service delivery in Al-Zahra Municipality.

All questions were answered, and the discussion produced an integrated picture of the different aspects of service delivery and ways to improve it from the perspective of both the local community and the municipality, resulting in the following recommendations:

Finding mechanisms to raise citizens' awareness of sound practices in rationalising water consumption, which eases the burden on the municipality.
The need to follow up the sources of water consumption in Al-Zahra City in cooperation with the Water Authority and the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.
Finding mechanisms and facilities to improve the current situation of weak revenue collection, which is a shared responsibility between citizens and the municipality.
Encouraging citizens to approach the complaints department in the event of any fault or technical failure in the water network.
Networking with specialised institutions to develop an approach to the problem of increasing salinity in Al-Zahra City and the rising per capita consumption rate in the city.
Holding further community sessions to develop the set of solutions through a citizens' charter.