- Inas al-Ghul, a 50-year-old, Palestinian agricultural engineer, built a glass-covered trough using wood from aid pallets and window panes from abandoned buildings.
- She utilised the greenhouse effect to evaporate and distill saltwater, making sea water drinkable in Gaza.
Oxfam states that:
“Israel is weaponising water as a tool of war”.
Oxfam issues a dire warning of “a deadly health catastrophe” looming over Gazans, nearly all of whom have been displaced at least once.
The humanitarian organisation has calculated that “Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.”
Consequently, in devastated Gaza, where every drop of water is invaluable, Inas al-Ghul’s makeshift solar-powered water filtration system has become a vital lifeline for Palestinians enduring relentless bombardment and extreme heat.
Utilising wood from the scarce aid pallets that manage to enter Gaza, alongside window panes salvaged from abandoned buildings after ten months of Israeli brutality, the 50-year-old agricultural engineer constructed a glass-covered trough. She harnesses the greenhouse effect generated by the glass panes to evaporate saltwater from the trough, allowing the water to distill, leaving the salt behind.
From there, a long black hose channels the evaporated water to additional containers filled with activated charcoal to further purify the water.
“It is a very simple device, it’s very simple to use and to build,” Ghul explained after taking a long drink from a glass of filtered water in her home in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip.
Ghul’s invention “doesn’t require electricity, filters, or solar panels; it operates solely on solar energy,” an abundant resource in Gaza, which enjoys 14 hours of sunshine per day in summer and eight hours in winter. This innovation has proven particularly crucial at a time when Gaza’s only power plant is offline, and electricity supplies from Israel have been cut off for months. With fuel also in short supply, Gaza’s undamaged desalination plants have been operating at a drastically reduced capacity.
Mohammad Abu Daoud, a displaced Gazan sweating under the midday sun, remarked that Ghul’s invention “comes exactly at the right time.”
“For about two months, we have relied on it entirely,” he said.
This invention provides essential relief to those who benefit from it, as the available water for Gazans currently averages 4.74 liters per day, “under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies,” Oxfam reported in July.
This amount represents “less than a single toilet flush,” the aid organization highlighted in a report, estimating that the available water per person per day in the Gaza Strip has plummeted by 94 percent since the conflict began. Water was already scarce before the conflict, and most of it was undrinkable. The 2.4 million residents primarily rely on an increasingly polluted and depleted aquifer, according to humanitarian agencies.
At the school-turned-shelter where Abu Daoud resides, near Ghul’s home, other displaced families have also come to depend on the water filtration system to fill their bottles.
The 250- litre tank storing the clean water empties quickly.
The lack of clean water has had devastating effects on the population, with “26 percent of Gaza’s population falling severely ill from easily preventable diseases,” according to an Oxfam report.
Aware of the urgent need for her invention and the ever-present danger of airstrikes, Ghul frequently climbs to her terrace to monitor her creation and to carefully manage the flow of precious water.
The resilience, courage, and unyielding spirit of the Gazans serve as a powerful inspiration to us all.
Amid these dark and incredibly testing times, the unwavering positivity of Gazans such Inas has fuelled their remarkable resourcefulness. Their ability to find innovative solutions, even in the face of overwhelming adversity, is a testament to their strength and determination. This resilience continues to transform hardship into an opportunity for creativity, hope and resistance.
