Water Authority received the Austrian Representative to Palestine, Astrid Wein, and Deputy Ambassador, Karin Kosina. Where the delegation visited the seawater desalination plant in Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, the first phase of which was established in 2003 with Austrian support and has been developed over the past years with the support of donors, to its completion at the beginning of this year to reach a capacity of 6,000 cubic meters per day. The delegation was also briefed on the workflow in the central laboratory of the Coastal Municipal Water Utility in Al-Zahra city, south of Gaza.

 The delegation met with the staff of the Coordination Unit of Gaza Sustainable Water Supply Program, supported by the Austrian Development Agency, where the Unit Administrator, Eng. Marwan Bardawil, spoke about the team's work and tasks since its activities began six years ago and its support in the areas of health, environment, communication, planning, etc. and contribute with the water Authority departments to work on implementing their strategies to solve the water crisis.

The Austrian Development Agency supported the first phase of the station of Deir Al-Balah with a capacity of 600 cubic meters per day 16 years ago, as well as the establishment of the Central Laboratory of the Water Utility in 2010, which was recently equipped with modern equipment with Austrian support as part of the rehabilitation and maintenance project for the first phase of the plant. The necessary needs to improve water quality monitoring programs in the Gaza Strip were also discussed.