Life in the poor and crowded Gaza Strip is going to get harsher still unless action is taken now

Life in the poor and crowded Gaza Strip is going to get harsher still unless action is taken now, according to a new United Nations report released on Monday.

"The population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1 million people in 2020, resulting in a density of more than 5,800 people per square kilometer (more than 15,000 per square mile)," a UN statement quoted the report as saying.

Infrastructure across a number of sectors – electricity, water and sanitation, and municipal and social services – is "not keeping pace with the needs of the growing population," it said.

The UN said that demand for drinking water was projected to increase by 60 percent over the next eight years, "while damage to the aquifer, the major water source, would become irreversible without remedial action now."

It added that more than 440 additional schools, 800 hospital beds and more than 1,000 doctors would be needed by 2020.

The report was jointly put together by the offices of the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, the UN children's fund (UNICEF), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and UNSCO, the special coordinator for the peace “process”.