Palestinian workers drill water wells in Gaza City, June 1, 2014. The coastal aquifer, Gaza’s main water source, has been over-pumped for decades, even prior to Israeli occupation in 1967. Some 180 million cubic meters (mcm) are annually pumped from the aquifer, while its rate of replenishment is only 50-60 mcm a year. Over time, this has significantly lowered the groundwater level, leading to contamination of the aquifer’s water by seawater seeping in and saline groundwater rising from deeper in the reservoir