A bit more energy toward building a viable society (and a bit less energy toward wiping out the Jews) might have prevented this horrible event: Gaza sewage sweeps through village, four dead.

GAZA, March 27 (Reuters) - A sewage reservoir burst next to a village in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing at least four people and injuring 20 in a torrent of putrid water and waste that buried their homes, officials said.

Dozens of residents of Gaza’s small Bedouin Village were still unaccounted for after the sewage overflowed from ground-level treatment pools in what one resident called a man-made tsunami.
Among the dead were two children, aged one and two.

Parents waded through the sewage-filled streets, looking for missing family members. At least 25 makeshift homes were destroyed or completely buried.

“Has anybody seen my child?” stunned resident Abdel-Salam Abu Atiq pleaded. “This is a disaster. Who is responsible?”

It was not immediately clear what caused the sewage to erupt from the reservoir, but local residents blamed the municipal government for failing to address the mounting sewage problem.

That would be … Hamas. You know, the terrorists they voted into office?

UPDATE at 3/27/07 8:28:33 am:

Hamas, meanwhile, is blaming everyone else; Israel, the US, and the international community for not giving them more money—even though they’ve known this was coming for at least two years, and even had the money to fix it already.

A local Palestinian official blamed the disaster on shoddy infrastructure and UN officials said they had been warning of a catastrophe for more than two years.

A 2004 United Nations report warned that the sewage facility was at its maximum capacity and flooding was inevitable unless a new waste treatment plant was constructed. It said that even without overflowing, the effluent lake posed a serious health hazard, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes and waterborne diseases.

Stuart Shepard, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the wave of waste released Tuesday sent the health risks even higher. “It is an extremely serious situation,” he said.

Shepard said that since the report was published, international funding for a new plant had been secured but construction had not been able to go ahead because of the high security risks in the area. [That would be … Hamas. —ed.]

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum blamed international “sanctions against Palestinians, including Gaza and the West Bank” for the condition of Gaza’s infrastructure. Most foreign donors froze aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas swept to power in a 2006 general election, but Shepard said the Umm Naser project had not been affected by the boycott.

UPDATE at 3/27/07 8:37:05 am:

Israel, of course, offered to help, but the Palestinians said, “No, thanks.”

Defense Minister Amir Peretz instructed the Gaza Liason Administration to offer any assistance necessary to the Palestinians. Sources at the administration said that they had been in touch with their Palestinian counterparts and offered medical aid, as well as the raw materials needed to fix the wastewater wall that caved in.

The Palestinians expressed their appreciation, but said that, for now, they were able to deal with the flooding on their own. Sources at the Gaza Liason Administration said their offer stood, and they would help if requested to do so.

Angry residents drove reporters out of the area and mobbed government officials who arrived at the scene.