Gaza garbage strike sparks health fears in strip
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA, April 14 (Reuters) - A municipal workers' strike left mounting piles of refuse in Gaza's streets on Saturday and officials said they feared a "sanitary catastrophe" amid a continued western aid boycott of the Palestinian government.
Thousands of municipal workers began a strike last week in protest at being unpaid for months by the Palestinian government, which is under a financial blockade led by the United States and Israel.
The Palestinian unity government sworn in last month is dominated by Hamas. The Islamist group has not met the demands set by the Quartet of Middle East mediators, which includes the United States, to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past interim peace deals.
"When there is a strike, it brings us very near to a health, environmental and sanitary catastrophe," said Gaza City's mayor Majed Abu Ramadan. "The threat is real."
Residents said workers had not made garbage collections for almost a week.
"My children have become sick because of the bad smell and the mosquitoes," said 50-year-old Abu Adel.
Abu Ramadan said councils depended on money they collected from residents to pay their workers, but the continued financial squeeze meant people were not able to pay their bills.
"This has resulted in the municipality being unable to sustain the salaries for its 1,800 employees, these employees who serve the 600,000 residents of Gaza City," he said.
An official with the main Gaza City municipality said thousands of workers from most local councils in the strip had joined the strike.
Workers said they had not been paid in eight months and there was mounting anger over the lack of financial support given to the municipalities by the Palestinian government.
"Workers understand that it is bad not to collect the garbage, but they have been forced to do so because their families had nothing to eat," said striking worker Adnan al-Mashharawi said.
Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad told the European Union on Wednesday the unity government needed more than $1.3 billion in international aid this year to avert a "devastating" humanitarian crisis.
The EU, the Palestinians' biggest donor, has continued to pay subsistence allowances to 150,000 families.
