Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions her Department has had with its international partners and the Palestinian Authority on the proposed construction of a water desalination plant in the Gaza Strip.

The UK has regular discussions with the UN, the Office of the Quartet Representative (OQR) and other partners who are working on this issue. A desalination plant can only be built, however, with increased imports of construction materials, and would only be effective with a reliable and sufficient power supply in Gaza. The UK has provided £500,000 for the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism with the objective of enabling reconstruction to take place at the scale required. In addition, and in close co-ordination with our EU partners and the OQR, we continue to press the Israeli Government at ministerial and official level to ease the restrictions on Gaza, and to take actions which will improve the chronic energy and water shortages there.