 Gaza Strip/Nairobi, 21 May 2009 - A team of experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is leaving the region today after completing fieldwork in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, as part of a post-conflict environmental assessment undertaken following the escalation of hostilities there in December 2008 and January 2009.
Conducted at the request of its Member States, the UNEP assessment aims to examine the natural and environmental impacts on the Gaza Strip caused by the recent hostilities, and to make concrete recommendations for rehabilitation.
The fieldwork phase of the assessment was carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of eight UNEP experts, who spent ten days in Gaza from 10 to 19 May. The main sectors under investigation were waste and waste water, the coastal and marine environment, and solid and hazardous waste management, including asbestos.
Travelling extensively across the Gaza Strip, the UNEP team undertook walkover inspections of some 32 sites to assess environmental impacts and collect samples for laboratory analysis. The team also collected data for an economic evaluation of the cost of rehabilitation and restoration of the environmental damage in Gaza.
Sites visited included residential areas, schools, industrial areas, sewage facilities, landfills and the coastline, where detailed sampling of water and sediments, bio-indicators, asbestos and waste water was conducted.
Samples collected on the ground will be sent to an independent international laboratory and analysed in the coming weeks. Together with concrete recommendations for rehabilitation, the findings of the assessment will be published in a UNEP Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment report during the summer.
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