Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that any problem can be solved through discussion. Referring to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine-Iran war, the PM said that war can not provide any solution. Therefore, she called for a peaceful solution through negotiation to stop the war. PM  Sheikh Haqsina said this at the conference of the UNESCAP in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday morning (April 25). Sheikh Hasina said, 'I call upon the world leaders to stop the war between Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Iran-Palestine. I know the consequences of war. Bangladesh does not want any war. World leaders should take initiatives to stop war by looking at those who are still suffering in various ways because of war.' Sheikh Hasina also urged ASEAN to play a role in dealing with Rohingya crisis and controlling the internal conflict in Myanmar.  

Ahmed Saad, the lead vocalist of the country's popular band Paper Rhyme, has passed away at the age of 52 after a prolonged battle with cancer. He died at a private hospital in the capital on Tuesday night (April 23) around 12 o'clock. It is known that Saad was suffering from cancer for a long time. He had a heart attack three days ago and admitted to United Hospital. He suffered another heart attack on Tuesday morning. Later the attending physician declared him dead. The news of the singer's death was confirmed by his school friend and Paper Rhyme band member Anindya Kabir Abhik. He said, 'Saad was suffering from cancer for several years. Sometimes he recovered a bit but a few months ago, cancer spread throughout his body.' The funeral of Saad is expected to take place on Thursday (April 25), but the matter will be finalised from his family. In the 90s, the band Paper Rhyme captured the hearts of listeners by releasing only one album. The band was well known for their unique lyrics and compositions in genres such as hard, melodic, and soft rock. Their songs like "Andhokar Ghore", "Akasher Ki Rong", and "Elomelo" became particularly top favorite songs of the audience. In 1996, the band Paper Rhyme's first album was released under the banner of Soundtek. Basically, the band was formed by some school friends on January 24, 1992. Its lineup consisted of Saad on vocals, Rashed on guitar, Nasir on keyboards, Sumon on beige guitar, and Abhik on drums.

Monks have petitioned to have the relocation order reversed, but to no avail. Atsok Monastery in Dragkar county, Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in western China's Qinghai province, in an undated picture. Citizen journalist Authorities have begun relocating a 19th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery in China that is expected to be submerged under water after the completion of the world’s tallest 3D-printed hydropower dam, two sources from the region told Radio Free Asia. The expansion of the Yangqu hydropower station on the Yellow River – known as the Machu River among the Tibetans – in Qinghai province was started in 2022 and will be completed later this year. For the past two years, monks from Atsok Gon Dechen Choekhorling Monastery in Dragkar county, or Xinghai in Chinese, have petitioned authorities to rescind relocation orders issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, a Tibetan source said, insisting on not being identified to protect his safety.  But in April 2023 the government’s Department of National Heritage declared that the artifacts and murals inside the monastery were of “no significant value or importance” and that its relocation would proceed, he said. Chinese authorities have announced to local residents that they will fund the costs of dismantling and reconstructing the monastery, and performing ceremonies and rituals at the relocated area, the sources said. However, many of the murals and surrounding stupas cannot be physically moved and so will be destroyed.  Tibetans also believe that the place is sacred: That it has been made holier over 135 years of prayers and practice by generations in the same venue.  Disregard for cultural heritage The dam’s construction, Tibetans say, is yet another example of Beijing’s disregard for their culture, religion and environment. Videos obtained by RFA showed a relocation ceremony being held earlier this month outside Atsok Monastery while authorities addressed local residents from a stage flanked by trucks and cranes on both sides. “The resettlement work could begin with the government’s approval and the support of the local population,” a local Chinese official can be heard saying in one video. Other footage obtained by RFA show scores of Tibetan residents praying and prostrating themselves on the road and in the fields before stupas near Atsok Monastery in what sources said was their way of “bidding farewell to this ancient monastery that has been their place of devotion for generations of Tibetans.” The monastery, founded in 1889 and named after its founder Atsok Choktrul Konchog Choedar, is home to more than 160 monks. In 2021, the government issued an order forbidding monks under the age of 18 from enrolling or studying and living in the monastery.  And while authorities have announced that the monks and residents of nearby villages will be relocated to Khokar Naglo, near Palkha township, no alternative housing has been built for the monks, the sources said. Seizing land Tibetans often accuse Chinese companies and officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people, sometimes resulting in standoffs that are violently suppressed. In February, police arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks, who had been protesting the construction of a dam in Dege county in Sichuan’s Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, that would submerge at least six monasteries and force several villages to be moved. The NDRC said the Yangqu dam will force the relocation of 15,555 people – nearly all ethnic Tibetans – living in 24 towns and villages in three counties — Dragkar, Kawasumdo and Mangra. Dragkar county sits in Tsolho, or Hainan in Chinese, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the historic Amdo region of Tibet. They warned the head of the monastery and residents that they “will be punished for any disturbance caused,” the sources said. The Yangqu hydroelectric plant — expected to generate about 5 billion kilowatts of power annually to Henan province — is an expansion of the Yangqu Dam that was first built in 2010 and began operating in 2016 as a 1,200-megawatt hydropower station.  The expanded hydropower dam is expected to be the world’s tallest structure built with 3D printing, as detailed by scientists in the Journal of Tsinghua University. The first section of the dam, said to be over 150 meters (about 500 feet) tall, is scheduled to become operational this year, and the entire project operational the following year. Source: rfa

Love, marriage, children, then separation, this news is not unknown to Shakib-Bubly fans. The two celebrities have not lived under the same roof for a long time. Mentioning that there is no place for any other man in her life except Bubly Shakib, the heroine said, "Shakib is the prince of my life. He is  the only man i love." Marrying Shakib is a wrong decision of life, did it ever feel like that? In response to such a question, Bubly said, yes it seems. Because, in many difficult times of my life, when I needed him by my side, I did not have him by my side. At that time, it seemed that the decision to marry him was wrong. "My son is everything now. No love, no relationship can get close to me. In the future, I will spend time with films, children, family," she added.  

Salih Hudayar, foreign minister of East Turkestan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) on Saturday participated in a virtual discussion organised by the Asian Human Rights Forum, focusing on grave human rights violations, especially in Asian countries. Salih Hudayar in his statement during the session, emphasised that the situation is a global concern that needs immediate international attention and action.  

With lenders tightening their purse strings and the number of projects in decline, Chinese revenue earned from engineering and construction works in Africa has fallen by more than 30 per cent since 2015. Now observers say this is the “new normal”. It was a different picture almost a decade ago when Chinese companies earned more than a third of their total overseas revenue from Africa. That is certainly not the case today. According to data from the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, engineering and construction contracts in Africa earned Chinese companies US$37.84 billion in gross annual revenues in 2022, which was a 31 per cent drop from US$54.78 billion generated in 2015, the year lending to Africa was at its highest. Africa made up 19.4 per cent of global revenue for Chinese companies in 2022, CARI said, almost halved from its 2010 peak of 38.9 per cent. Excluding small businesses, it is estimated there are more than 10,000 state-owned and private Chinese companies currently operating in Africa. Most of these moved to the continent during former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s push for businesses to “go out” in search of new markets and raw materials at the beginning of the century. Between 2000 and 2022, China pledged a total of US$170.1 billion to African countries – money that went into building mega projects, including ports, hydroelectric dams, highways and railways. But since the highs of the start of the century, and the peaks of the 2010s, lending concerns, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, have sparked a turnaround, observers said. Worries over the ability of some countries to repay their loans led to a drop in Chinese lending to Africa, as financiers became more cautious and thorough in their loan appraisals. Between 2012 and 2018, Africa borrowed more than US$10 billion annually from Chinese lenders. By 2021 that had dropped to US$1.2 billion, and in 2022 it fell under the billion-dollar mark to US$994.5 million, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa database at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre. Hong Zhang, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation, said it was a simple case of falling loans having a direct impact on falling revenue. “The drop in contract revenue in Africa can be attributed to the decline of Chinese loans to Africa,” Zhang said. Citing CARI data, she said Chinese loans to Africa had been declining since around 2013, except in 2016 when the debt restructuring in Angola made a one-off jump. Meanwhile, Asia’s share has been on the rise, she said. Asia remains by far the biggest source of revenue for Chinese companies engaged in engineering and construction contracts, bringing in US$82.43 billion in 2022, with Africa in second place. However, although revenue from Africa is in decline, some parts of the continent are bigger earners than others. China’s highest African revenues were gained from the five resource-rich countries of Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together, they accounted for 41 per cent of all Chinese companies’ 2022 gross annual revenues from construction projects in Africa. In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country, Chinese businesses are undertaking mega projects, such as multibillion-dollar railways and ports. China’s annual revenues from Nigeria rose steadily from US$488 million in 2004 to a peak of US$4.99 billion in 2012, boosted by the West African nation’s booming construction industry. Since then, that figure has remained high, sitting at around US$4.59 billion in 2022. Angola got more than a quarter of China’s total African lending between 2000 and 2022, receiving as much as US$45 billion. A major Chinese project there is the US$4.1 billion Caculo Cabaca Hydroelectric Power Station. Oil-rich Algeria has seen Chinese companies build massive projects, such as railways and highways. And in Egypt, Chinese firms are building mega projects at the Suez Canal as well as helping to construct the new administrative capital in Cairo. Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many Chinese companies have been working on the nation’s infrastructure and mining sectors, attracted by the fact it holds the world’s largest reserve of cobalt, vital to the production of electric vehicle batteries. Yunnan Chen, a senior research officer at the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank, said contracts and revenues were down for engineering and construction projects in Africa because the number of projects had fallen. Even before the pandemic, financing for infrastructure construction via overseas finance was in decline, she said, and that was impacted further by the Covid lockdowns. “We simply don’t have the same kind of project pipeline as we did in previous years,” Chen said. She also noted that several African countries, including Angola and Egypt, had been facing external debt repayment issues. “Governments don’t have the capacity to borrow to finance new construction as they did five years ago,” she said. The current situation is the “new normal” for Chinese contractors in Africa, according to Tim Zajontz, a research fellow in the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. “Lower contract revenues are ultimately the result of more conservative lending practices on the part of China’s policy banks,” said Zajontz. “Debt sustainability concerns have ended the loan funding spree in African infrastructure markets, which we witnessed for good parts of the 2010s,” he said. But, despite the reduced revenue, Africa still holds an attraction for Chinese firms. Higher returns is one such pull for Chinese companies, according to Zhang. She explained that since there is usually no competitive bidding for Chinese-financed projects, as “Chinese contractors help broker the loans from China”, companies can see better returns. “Therefore, when Chinese loans took up a higher percentage of Chinese contracts in Africa than in other regions, the average return could be higher as a result,” Zhang said. Zajontz noted that Africa is particularly attractive to firms in sectors that have faced crises in China’s domestic market, such as construction and infrastructure. “We will see further diversification of Chinese investments across Africa,” he said. “A bigger share of returns for Chinese firms will come from public-private partnerships in infrastructure, from investments in the processing of minerals and agricultural goods, and from digital platforms and other services.”   Source: South China Morning Post

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are allegedly spreading misinformation about Ukrainian military and politics, fueling debate over a potential ban of the platform. This is the type of message one might come across on Ukrainian Telegram channels:  "The Armed Forces of Ukraine are recruiting homeless people." "Ukrainians are going to surrender Kharkiv." "Ukrainian border guards were allowed to open fire on those trying to flee Ukraine." These messages, monitored by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, are distributed by allegedly pro-Russian Telegram channels apparently to sow panic and disinformation about Ukraine's military affairs and political establishment. The speed and anonymity of Telegram have heightened the debate over whether to block the platform in Ukraine. This issue has reached political circles, with discussions now within the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, who raised their concerns about the platform. What is Telegram? Banning Telegram is not an easy step to take. Its rapidly growing popularity in Ukraine has made it the most popular resource for news consumption. Before the Russian invasion three years ago, only 20% of Ukrainians used Telegram as a news source. In 2023, Telegram is showing growth of up to 72%. Telegram is incredibly popular globally, with around 700-800 million monthly users. While WhatsApp reigns supreme, Telegram is widely used in Eastern Europe, as well as in India, Indonesia, the United States and Brazil.  A key feature of Telegram is anonymity. Anyone can create their own channel there and write anything while remaining anonymous. This means people can often publish unverified content, photos or videos. Ian Garner, historian and analyst of Russian culture and war propaganda, says this anonymity makes Telegram "the Wild West, where there are no rules, no control, and you have no idea what's real, what's true, who to trust, whether to trust anyone at all." Who pulls the strings? Initially created by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai, Telegram has, for its part, renounced Russian influence and moved its office to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Durov earned the nickname "Russia's Zuckerberg" for launching Vkontakte, the country's largest social media platform, at the age of 22. Vkontakte was among those banned in Ukraine in 2017. Ukrainian authorities first raised concerns about the influence of Russian social media and websites after the Russian annexation of Crimea and its first offensive against Ukraine in 2014. But Telegram has now become a vital source for real-time updates on air sirens and missile strikes in Ukraine. With many Ukrainians displaced or abroad and lacking access to televisions, some Telegram channels have become fully-fledged media outlets.  These channels were established by media figures, political analysts and bloggers, but the anonymous ones have become the biggest threat, as they often publish unverified information and outright lies. Nevertheless, their influence has escalated swiftly, prompting Ukrainian government officials to establish their own Telegram channels in response. Today, nearly every village head, regional council leader, city mayor, and even the president maintains official channels on Telegram to disseminate information directly to the public. One of the most popular Telegram channels in Ukraine is "Trukha," which stands for "True Kharkiv," referencing the city near the Russian border, though it covers news about the whole of Ukraine and has over 2.5 million subscribers. It stirred controversy when it was allowed to attend President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's closed meeting with journalists in October last year. "Trukha" was anonymous for a long time and faced accusations of spreading misinformation and sharing prohibited content, such as videos or photos of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes. Despite its questionable reputation, it was invited to Zelenskyy's year-end press conference in 2023, while other professional media were reportedly denied access.  To ban or not to ban? The Ukrainian parliamentary freedom of speech committee is not the only one to be concerned: Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine's military intelligence, views Telegram as a threat to "information and not only information security" of Ukraine. Oleksiy Danilov, ex-secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council, has echoed these concerns, particularly emphasizing worries about the anonymity of channels on the platform. Meanwhile, users seek answers to another question: What about freedom of speech? Some Telegram users have expressed worries that a ban would violate their freedoms. But a ban is unlikely, says Diana Dutsyk, head of the Ukrainian Media and Communications Institute and a member of Ukraine's Commission on Journalistic Ethics. She points out that Telegram is used by the president's office, which indicates there's a lack of political will for such a measure. But there is still a conflict between security concerns and Telegram's necessity. "Considering its significance as a key tool for political influence, especially in possible elections, immediate blocking seems improbable," Dutsyk stressed. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary freedom of speech committee, said that the discussion is ongoing, with no final decision yet, and they [authorities] are working to avoid a ban. The committee does not have the power to ban Telegram in Ukraine, but it can provide recommendations. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council would make the ultimate decision. A Telegram ban could be the last possible step if the cooperation with Telegram won't work, according to Yurchyshyn, "because the price of such holes in information security, which allow Russian propaganda to penetrate into Ukrainian information products easily, is very high in our country. A matter of life and death for our citizens."

While Germany's economy is stalling, Italy is experiencing continued growth. But this has little to do with PM Giorgia Meloni's economic policies and everything to do with subsidies and new debt. Mauro Congedo has been finding and renovating small architectural treasures with his brother and father for 25 years in Salento — a peninsula in the southeast of Italy that makes up the "heel" of the country. The apartments and houses that Congedo restores in this rather remote region are now suddenly finding buyers from Germany and England. "Things are going well again," said the 50-year-old architect. During the coronavirus pandemic, business almost came to a standstill. But what happened afterward in Italy in the industry was "crazy" he says, dragging out the "a" for a long time. But look deeper and Congedo isn't the only one enthusiastic about the economic recovery in Italy.  Italy goes from problem child to head of the class While governments in Rome were used to announcing depressing growth forecasts and poor debt rankings in the years before the pandemic, the country is now quickly becoming Europe's growth engine. In the last quarter, the Italian economy grew by 0.6%, while the German economy shrunk by 0.3% in the same period. Beyond this short three-month snapshot, other figures for Europe's third-largest economy are impressive. "The Italian economy has grown by 3.8% since 2019," said Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank. That is "twice as much as the French economy and five times more than the German economy," he told DW. In Germany, the prospects are indeed looking bleak. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts growth of 0.3% this year for Germany. Leading German experts are only expecting growth of 0.1%. Italy, on the other hand, is expected to grow by 0.7% this year, according to the OECD. The Italian stock market is also benefiting from the optimistic mood. The FTSE MIB benchmark index, which is made up of 40 big companies, rose by around 28% last year, more than any other European stock market indices. Italy is on track for more growth. Trust in the Italian government is returning It didn't always look so encouraging. Economists initially reacted very cautiously when Giorgia Meloni became prime minister in October 2022. During the election campaign, Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party announced a nationalist "Made in Italy" economic course, agitated against migrants and did not clearly distance herself from Russia. After her election, the German weekly Stern described her as the "most dangerous woman in Europe." But in terms of economic policy, Meloni has so far largely remained on the same course as her predecessor Mario Draghi. This course is paying off for Italy, at least on the bond market. The interest rate at which the county borrows money is back to the level before she took office. At a press conference earlier this year, Meloni tried to take credit for the economic upswing. Above all, the lack of political stability in the past had slowed the economy she said, speaking from a position firmly in the saddle. But how much of the growth is down to Meloni's success? "Not much," said Krämer from Commerzbank. "The strong growth can be explained by Italy's loose fiscal policy." That means Italy's growth is based primarily on new debt. While the Italian state's new debt before COVID-19 was 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), it has shot up in recent years and was 8.3% of GDP in the first half of 2023. The country's overall mountain of debt is growing, too. In January, the EU Commission estimated that it would exceed 140% of GDP this year and continue to rise in 2025. For comparison, in Germany the debt ratio is 66%, in France it is almost 100%. Huge construction subsidies inject the economy To help the economy, the Italian state has been funding various home renovation measures since the end of 2020. For some measures they pay around 50% of the cost, others get even more. The most popular is called the "Superbonus 110" for energy-efficient renovations. Through this program anyone who renovates their house or apartment to make it more energy-efficient will get the entire expenses plus a 10% refund on top through a tax reduction scheme. "You can imagine that construction investments have skyrocketed," said economist and Italy expert Krämer. "This effect explains two-thirds of the strong growth we are seeing." The architect Mauro Congedo is not overly enthusiastic about the Superbonus 110 program. Everything has become more expensive. On top of inflation, the program drove up the costs of materials and workers. "If the state pays for everything, then people don't care how much it costs," said Congedo. In addition, no one controls the prices. Construction companies from Naples, Bari and the provincial capital Lecce asked him several times to adjust his costs upward. "They wanted me to charge twice as much. I didn't do it. It feels like stealing," he said. He thinks a bonus for the energy-efficient renovation of buildings is a good thing in general. However, owners should have to contribute to the costs and not just get it all from the government. Congedo doesn't think much about Giorgia Meloni either. The only good thing she did was get the Superbonus 110 program under control, he says. Money from the European Union In fact, the ultra-right head of government has slowed down the Superbonus program introduced by the left-wing Five Star Movement. In 2023, it covered a maximum 70% of costs and this year up to 65% of the renovation costs. Nevertheless, the tax credits resulting from the program will significantly reduce government revenue in the next few years. For the government in Rome it is probably very convenient that billions are still flowing — primarily from Brussels. Italy is one of the biggest recipients of the EU's COVID recovery fund. By 2026, almost €200 billion ($216 billion) will be paid out to Italy in the form of subsidies and loans. "The Italian state must reduce its very high budget deficit by this time at the latest," ​​said Krämer. "If they only start saving then, then this Italian growth miracle will probably end because they didn't use the time for structural reforms." Mauro Congedo is worried that remnants of the Superbonus 110 program will remain for a long time. "The prices are very high, and we have incurred a lot of debt." Luckily, he won't run out of work anytime soon. He's currently working on eight projects at the same time.  

Former India head coach, Ravi Shastri has weighed in his opinion on Chennai Super Kings' decision to pass the captaincy baton before the start of the Indian Premier League 2024. Shastri believed that this move depended on MS Dhoni's fitness and the team's demands for him to play in the current season of the cash-rich tournament.  On Sunday, CSK are playing their third group stage game against Delhi Capitals in Match 13 at Vizag's Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Stadium. The defending champions have been unbeaten so far in the ongoing tournament and will aim to continue their winning streak against the winless DC team. Shastri also stated that Dhoni would allow the opening batter to captain and intervene only when necessary. “This is MS Dhoni’s last season, okay, very clear. You know, it depends on how his body copes with everything, whether he plays the whole season or doesn’t, only time will tell. But what he has done is that he said, I don’t want to give the job to Ruturaj halfway through the tournament,” Shastri said as quoted by News18. “Be in the hot seat from the outside, I'm (Dhoni is) watching from the back, and if he (Ruturaj) needs some help I’m there to help him out, but I think as compared to the year when Jadeja was captain, MS will take more and more of the backseat and probably contribute just in a little way between the drinks break or something like that,” he added.  Source: Crictracker

In Gaza, Palestinians are suffering from a lack of food and water. Problems around water supply in Palestinian territories are hardly new in this conflict, but the current Israel-Hamas war is making the issues worse. Experts are sounding the alarm: The threat of famine in the Gaza Strip is real. If nothing changes, famine would likely start in the northern end of the enclave by May. Half of the people still living in the area are already in dire straits, say experts from the multinational expert group that works on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative. The IPC is made up of representatives from 19 international organizations, including the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Oxfam, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the World Food Programme, and Save the Children. The IPC defines famine, the most serious level of its "food insecurity scale," as a situation where "at least 20% of the population is affected, with about one out of three children being acutely malnourished and two people dying per day for every 10,000 inhabitants due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease." The report says the current situation in Gaza will likely result in that scenario in the near future. Access to medical care, water and sanitation will also be limited. "Access to sufficient clean water is a matter of life and death, and children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink," the director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in December. "Without safe water, many more children will die." The conflict in Gaza is worsening a water problem that was already of serious and ongoing concern. The problem is partially due to Gaza's geographical location on the coast. Most of the water locals require comes from a natural groundwater reservoir, which tends to have a higher salinity level because it's so close to the sea. The groundwater reservoir is also polluted by untreated wastewater. Damage to water infrastructure from previous conflicts in Gaza also contributes to further contamination. Back in 2011, the UN had already determined that over 90% of the groundwater in the enclave was unsafe to drink without it being treated. Water and fuel blocked All this makes locals living in the Gaza Strip even more dependent on Israel for their drinking water. After the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people in Israel, the Israeli state cut off the water supply and stopped allowing deliveries of fuel into Gaza. The Israeli military campaign has since killed over 30,000 people.  Two out of three pipes bringing water into Gaza were reopened by Israel by the end of October. Israeli media outlet Times of Israel said that this meant that 28.5 million liters were being piped into the enclave daily. Before October 7, around 49 million liters had flowed into the enclave daily. However, the lack of fuel also impacts water supplies. Diesel is used to power electricity generators and Gaza's only powerplant. That electricity is used to run the desalination and water treatment plants. This means that lack of fuel also equals lack of clean water. Water problems in the Gaza Strip have not been addressed for years, said Tobias von Lossow, a researcher and expert on water security at the Clingendael Institute, based in the Netherlands. Among other things, larger water desalination plants were necessary. "But these have not yet been built, even though, apart from water treatment and deliveries from Israel, there are virtually no other options for supplying the population with clean drinking water," von Lossow told DW. Where water is political The water situation in the occupied West Bank is slightly less problematic. But there are water shortages here too. According to information on the platform GlobalWaters.org, which is run by the American development agency USAID, water is often lost in the West Bank due to outdated infrastructure and damaged pipes. Only 31% of Palestinians living in the West Bank have connections to a sewage network, and only between 5% and 10% of wastewater there is ever cleaned. Experts say this only further pollutes and depletes available groundwater. Palestinians carry and fill up the water bottles amid clean water and food crisis from mobile storages of charities as they have limited access to water . The interim agreement signed by Israeli and Palestinian officials in 1995 — often referred to as Oslo II — was supposed to help regulate water supplies. The agreement, which was only supposed to last for five years until there was movement towards a two-state solution, gave Israel control of 80% of the West Bank's water reserves. 'Artificial shortage' Palestinians say that Israel restricts water to their areas but sends plenty of water to Israeli settlers in the area — the settlements here are considered illegal by most of the world. Israel, which operates a world-beating desalination and water recycling system, insists that it's supplying plenty of water to the Palestinians in these areas. A May 2023 report by the Israeli rights organization B'Tselem said that Israelis in the West Bank use three times as much water as Palestinians living there do. The West Bank's water shortage "cannot be attributed to fate, a natural disaster or a regional water crisis," the group wrote. "It is the outcome of Israel's discriminatory policy to intentionally create a constant, artificial shortage among this population."  Water is very clearly a political issue in this area, and supplies in the West Bank have been reduced over the past few years. "The drop in the water levels in the Dead Sea by an average of 1 meter per year shows how much pressure on water resources has increased," von Lossow said. "The political circumstances here also make it difficult to provide better water supplies." The dispute over water is part of long-running Palestinian-Israeli disputes, he continued. "But it is only one of several major components that shape this conflict, alongside questions about territory, identity, religion and military issues."