(Jane Rice) Children in refugee camps and temporary shelters are at high risk of burns because of chronic overcrowding and a lack of safe electricity and gas supplies.
Nowhere is this more so than in Gaza. Last summer’s conflict saw the displacement of half a million people and destruction of 18,000 houses. The displaced have sought temporary shelter in UN schools, with extended family or in tents next to their bombed out homes. These temporary shelters are far from safe.
Many people living together in cramped conditions around poorly installed heating and cooking elements create dangerous conditions where accidents can easily happen. Electrical burns occur because of faulty wiring, a result of bad construction practices in the rush to rebuild homes.
Gaza has had a fuel crisis since October 2007 when Israel imposed limits on the amount of fuel for its power station and cooking gas entering Gaza. Adding to the problem has been the Gaza government’s financial crisis that has further limited the amount of fuel it can import and the destruction by Egypt of the tunnels used to smuggle supplies into Gaza. At peak times, the population were receiving electricity for eight hours a day at best. Outside those hours they had to switch to diesel-powered generators, if they could afford it.
Families now are receiving electricity for only four hours at 12 to 18-hour intervals. At a time when fuel prices in the rest of the world are falling, the energy crisis in Gaza is worse than ever.
These two factors, combined with freezing winter conditions, are forcing families to make more use of candles and unsafe generators. Fires inside the home and the storing of fuel in jerry cans increase the risk of accidents resulting in burns.
According to data collected by Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, two thirds of admissions for burns are children and 96 per cent of such injuries occur inside the home. The most common causes are hot liquids, flames and fires. It is heartbreaking that in the same week that children are freezing to death from a lack proper shelter, others are suffering burns and smoke inhalation because they cannot control the sources of heat they have.
Fire safety education should help. Children and their parents need to ensure that heating and cooking elements are properly installed. But this will only go so far. Overcrowding often means that children cannot stay away from dangerous flames and hot liquids. The only way to resolve this is a long-term solution to displacement. In Gaza that means the siege needs to end and homes need to be rebuilt so families can live in safety and comfort, and children are not at such a high risk of being burnt.
MAP has been supporting the development of specialized burns units at hospitals in the occupied Palestinian territories through the provision of equipment and training for staff. www.map-uk.org
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