Support vulnerable people in quarantine centers and red zone area communities in the Gaza Strip affected by the COVID-19 crisis through WASH interventions Action Against Hunger (AAH) is proposing a 6-month emergency response to the COVID-19 outbreak to support people hosted in quarantine centers across the Gaza Strip and vulnerable communities in red zone areas affected by the mitigation measures imposed by local authorities to limit the spread of the pandemic. 
This intervention has two key objectives: 1) To improve quarantine centers’ and quarantined/isolated persons’ access to enhanced WASH services, and 2) To ensure adequate, safe, and regular WASH services for the vulnerable communities located in areas under restrictions of movement. The first objective will be tackled through improving the drinking water supply systems inside the quarantine centers so that hosted people will have access to safe drinking water, and connecting the quarantine centers to municipal wastewater networks to enable safe discharging of the wastewater. Objective 2 will be addressed through conducting electro-mechanical repair works on the existing public desalination plants to resume the supply of drinking water to vulnerable communities living in designated red zone areas and through providing targeted families with hygiene promotion messages to improve their knowledge and practices in handling water safely.
These activities have been designed based on AAH’s July 2020 Assessment of quarantine centers and September 2020 Rapid assessment of public desalination plants operated by the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU). The intervention will contribute to a continuity and quality of services and thus support the local authorities and service providers in their mission to maintain humanitarian and WASH services.
The proposed activities aim to support an estimated 23,500 individuals (7,675 men, 6,303 women, 4,842 boys and 4,680 girls) hosted in the targeted quarantine centers and living in red zone areas, including 349 people with disability (PWDs). The communities will be kept informed on the different stages of the response and beneficiaries will have the opportunity to provide feedback and complaints, if any, following the different channels of AAH’s Feedback and Complaints Mechanism that will be clearly explained.
AAH has extensive experience implementing similar WASH interventions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and more specifically in the Gaza Strip, particularly in rehabilitating public desalination plants operated by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and CMWU under ECHO funds, and rehabilitating wastewater drainage systems and dissemination hygiene promotion messages with funds from ECHO in hospitals as well as funds from the oPt Humanitarian Fund in Saftawi area.
The proposed activities were coordinated with the WASH cluster, the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), CMWU, the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), MoH, and the WASH cluster area focal point, as an emergency response in line with the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) 2020 objectives and the oPt Humanitarian Fund 2020 2nd Standard Allocation Strategy. 
AAH will adopt the recommended protective and preventive measures in order to limit transmission while doing the works and to protect beneficiaries, staff and all the stakeholders involved in the project. Operational procedures and movements of staff and contractors will be coordinated with MoSD, the Ministry of Interior (MoI), CMWU and related municipalities, and adapted to the rapidly changing context and regulations in the Gaza Strip.