The United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has increased its dependency on alternative energy to run its facilities in the besieged Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute electricity crisis, the Palestine Information Center reported.

In a statement published on Sunday, UNRWA affirmed that it became increasingly dependent on the use of renewable energy solutions to meet its facilities’ needs for electricity in Gaza and to continue to provide services for the Palestinian refugees there.

According to the statement, the agency started in 2015 to utilize solar power systems in its facilities and managed to provide 80 medical centers and 80 schools with such systems.

In Gaza, One Man Wields Solar Power To Purify Water https://t.co/MsI2hSZCAs

— Marcos Ramírez (@ImMarcosRamirez) September 10, 2016

The agency has also embarked on providing another 50 schools with such solar systems as part of a plan to expand the use of this renewable energy source in all its facilities.

UNRWA has more than 250 facilities in Gaza, including 22 medical centers and over 150 schools, which has made it a major consumer of electricity in Gaza, so using other power-generating alternatives will contribute to decreasing the pressure on the weak power network in the impoverished enclave.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been depending on alternative power sources in the last decade in the Gaza Strip to overcome the electricity outages crisis. Many Palestinians, many of them live under the poverty line in Gaza due to the 10-year old siege cannot afford to purchase alternative power systems however.

(PIC, PC, Social Media)