In Gaza, it's not easy being green
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- In the small central Gaza town of Deir el Belah, one family has made a cottage industry out of green innovation.
"There was a period in Gaza when there was no gas or you had to wait for hours in line to get gas. So we made the oven according to our needs," said Maher Youssef Abou Tawahina, who, along with his father, runs a hardware shop in town.
Abou Tawahina is referring to a solar-powered oven that he and his family invented two years ago. The oven, which sits in the family's backyard, takes five minutes to heat up using electricity. Then, its glass ceiling uses the sun to continue the heating process. The oven is not quite hot enough for baking bread, he said, but it's perfect for roasting chicken.
The idea of the solar-powered oven was so well received around Deir El Belah that orders poured in from around the neighborhood. Abou Tawahina said that he and his father built over 30 of them until the insulating glass became unavailable on the market.
A dozen miles up the road, in northern Gaza City, high energy costs also drove Waseem El Khazendar to innovate for his own survival.
When gasoline in Gaza reached $4 per liter, Mr. Khazendar said, he could hardly afford to drive his car, even within the tight confines of Gaza.
As a result, Mr. Khazendar, who was trained as an engineer in Cairo, created Gaza's first-ever electric car.
His innovation made waves throughout Gaza. Palestinians flocked to his office to see the car. Local news outlets, too, were fascinated.
Mr. Khazendar, however, eventually parked his little electric Peugeot in the wrong place -- a factory his family owned in north Gaza, when the war between Hamas and Israel began. The Israeli air force bombed the factory, destroying the car.
First Published August 22, 2010 12:00 am
