Gaza Gets Creative

Where the is a will, there is a way........Due to the never ending siege on Gaza and the fact that Israel purposely bombed cement factories and any other facility that could remotely help Gazans rebuild after the Israeli genocide, some are becoming creative. Parts of the separation wall along with bombed remnants within Gaza will now be used to rebuild Gaza's water plant.

Bethlehem - Following the lead of Gazans and a new de facto government home building program the ICRC will repair and upgrade the water treatment center in Rafah with recycled cement from Gaza-war rubble and fragments of the Israeli border wall.

The only way to fix up the Rafah plant is to recycle existing materials, said ICRC staff. According to a news release the repairs will use components manufactured within the Strip and underground water pipes for the reconstruction. “The shortage of cement has been overcome by salvaging concrete segments of the old Rafah border wall that lay abandoned after its partial demolition in January 2008,” the statement said.

"It's a great challenge to carry out construction projects in the Strip, as building materials cannot be imported," said Marek Komarzynski, an ICRC engineer working in Gaza.

"Humanitarian organizations such as the ICRC are forced either to come up with alternative and creative ways of proceeding or to put essential projects on hold."

In the Gaza Strip, efforts to provide the population with even the most basic services, such as water and sanitation, are severely hampered by restrictions on imports of construction materials, fuel and electricity.source