Gaza: "At the current pace, it will take us 7 years to remove all the rubble" - UNDP Presser | UN

“At the current pace, it will take us seven years to remove all the rubble,” said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo, briefing reporters via video link. During a press conference held at UN headquarters in New York De Croo described “extremely painful conditions to live in” and said UNDP is working on a three-part recovery effort focused on rubble removal, temporary housing and restarting the private sector. On debris clearance, he said, “Rubble removal - we have done approximately 0.5 percent of the total. At the current pace, it will take us seven years to remove all the rubble.” He added that “90 percent of the people of Gaza today live in the middle of that rubble, which is extremely dangerous also from a health point of view and unexploded weapons which are there,” underscoring the scale and risks of the task. Turning to shelter, De Croo said, “The second dimension on which we work is recovery housing. As I said, 90 percent of the population lives in what you could even, not even call tents. I mean, this is very, very rudimentary tents.” He stressed that UNDP’s recovery housing units are “definitely not reconstruction, but it's an improvement on what is available for the moment.” “So far, we've been able to build 500 of these. We have 4000 which are ready,” he said, but added that “the needs are gigantic between 200,000 and 300,000 units are necessary to give people a better living. Not the living that they should have, but a better living than what's available for the moment.” The third track, he said, focuses on livelihoods. “And then third dimension which we work on is private sector restarts. Private sector has been in hibernation.” Through “limited investment and limited work for cash programs,” he said UNDP has been able, “for example, in food processing, to get back going.” To scale up assistance, De Croo said the agency has “one big ask to the Israeli authorities and that is to have more access, more access for material to do debris removal, more access with our recovery housing units and more access to help the private sector that we can restart.” He said, “We understand the security concerns of the Israeli authorities, but that would not be a reason to not provide organizations such as UNDP, other UN organizations and international NGOs to provide us the more access that is definitely needed, to be able to help more people.” Answering a question about Board of Peace he said, with 2.2 million people in Gaza, “In the current circumstance, we really need all hands. And it's really all hands on deck and all type of support, being it financial or being it operational is welcome.” He added, “any help in providing more access in a safe way would be to their help.”


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