The EU has announced 43 million in funding for projects aimed at restoring essential water and waste-management services in Gaza, but questions remain over how that money can be delivered while access and security for humanitarian workers remain severely restricted.
The projects, signed on 23 September under the EU’s new Team Gaza Initiative, include €37 million for improving access to safe water and reducing exposure to wastewater for around one million people. The announcement is part of a wider €883.6 million Team Gaza Initiative launched in July to coordinate early-recovery projects across water and sanitation, healthcare, energy, agriculture and food systems.
The funding is significant, particularly given the scale of Gaza’s destruction. But the announcement also highlights a central problem; and the EU itself acknowledged that “access for staff, equipment and supplies will be essential” for its commitments to become reality.
A UN report published on 24 September said around two-thirds of Gaza remains inaccessible or subject to severe access restrictions, while humanitarian organisations continue to face constraints on access and supplies. It also warned that the EU’s Team Gaza Initiative and other financing mechanisms had not yet translated into early recovery at scale.
In September alone, six UNRWA staff members were reportedly killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people, while at least 220 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
The funding therefore represents an important commitment to restoring services that people urgently need. Nonetheless, it falls short of resolving whether humanitarian workers can safely enter and operate in Gaza, and whether the necessary water, sanitation, fuel and reconstruction equipment can actually get in.
