Bassam Shalfoh has an unenviable job. Unlike his counterparts in other parts of the world working as power plant maintenance technicians who rush to repair faulty lines and restore electrical power to the people, his job is to do the opposite.
Wearing a pair of rubber gloves and a hard hat, he does the rounds across Gaza in a van, going from pylon to pylon according to schedule to cut off entire neighbourhoods for stretches of eight hours a day.
With limited supplies of fuel reaching Gaza, the power plant has to operate on one turbine instead of four, forcing it to switch off entire parts of the coastal strip to keep other parts going. Bassam and his colleagues from the Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation (GEDCO) have to do it manually, climbing pylons and cutting them off from the grid.
“It’s a thankless job,” the 27-year-old technician tells me as we stop in central Gaza City to cut off part of it for the next eight hours. As soon as he gets out of the van, a motorist offends him in what turns out to be a daily occurrence for poor Bassam and his colleagues.
The frustration is understandable, although misdirected. While Gaza is gripped by the cold winter spell, Bassam and his colleagues are the only ones to be seen plunging the strip into darkness every day.
He tells me they had incidents where people would just climb the pylons to switch on their area again – at great risk of electrocution – forcing him to go back to switch if off again and to lock the switch box with chains and padlocks.
Israel allows the transfer of only 2.2 million litres of industrial diesel every week for Gaza’s power plant, allowing it to use only two out of its four available turbines and leaving up to 28% of demand uncovered with 32 hours of weekly electricity cuts spread over Gaza.
The problem got much worse since the European Union stopped funding the weekly supply of fuel to the Gaza power plant at the end of last year. Fuel supplies covered by the Palestinian Authority have remained irregular, leaving the power plant operating on one turbine. Only yesterday, the power plant warned it was about to shut off completely as its fuel supply was running out.
At the moment, the plant cannot meet up to 40% of electricity demand, forcing it to cut off power for up to 56 hours weekly, with each area getting eight-hour cuts every day.
Even if applied fairly, the cuts do not discriminate according to need, affecting essential services such as hospitals.
“We don’t have dedicated lines to hospitals and schools, so when we cut off an area everyone is affected,” Jamal El Derdisawi, a spokesman for GEDCO says.
In the current situation, the market of portable generators imported from the tunnels has flourished as households equip themselves to provide their own share of energy. Fuel for these generators also comes through the tunnels – an option that is not available for the power plant given the official nature of the PA’s contractual agreements. Yet the power of these generators is too weak to provide for heating in the current freezing temperatures, or even to keep fridges going. In houses, people mainly use it for lighting, charging mobile phones and watching TV.
The widespread use of generators in households has also proved tragic in the last weeks. At the end of January, three children died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their sleep and two others were hospitalised after a generator was left running outside their bedroom. Faulty generators have also caused deadly fires in homes, most of which have amounts of fuel stored unsafely. The most recent fire claimed the life of a wheelchair-bound person and left two young people seriously injured.
Unless the Ramallah-based Finance Ministry buys and transfers the fuel to GEDCO, the situation is bound go get worse. Around 70% of users have not paid their bills since 2000 in what is estimated to amount to around $2.7 billion in due bills. The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human rights criticised the EU’s aid method for encouraging “thousands of civilians not to pay their power bills”. On its part, the PA found it more expedient to give a 5% salary increase to its employees than to put Gaza’s energy needs on its priorities.
“It’s a difficult land,” Bassam says, as he climbs down another pylon. He has been doing this job for the last five years, and now it seems to be only getting worse. “Our abnormal situation has become everyday life.” source
4 years ago
SaladinQB 58p · 784 weeks ago
I dont know did you watched it,but it was pretty discusting....
I4P 42p · 784 weeks ago
Poor Israel and England the victims of oppression, mi arse:)
SaladinQB 58p · 784 weeks ago
Yes of course,there is no need to discus how the cnn is rubish television on which they lie every day and shamefuly hide the truth from the people.Ok sorry i wrote this stupidly,you canot hide the truth,the truth is only hiden if the people dont want to find it.And generaly they dont wont to.But the cnn is a very big problem in the world Irish for sure.Why?Because basicly what they say there,all other pathetic states in the world,including my own,just repeat on their news what the americans said.And there we have it,the mass manipulation of people in the world.Lets just say like this(if you have time you can tell me do you agree about this):Regarding this kind of news,50% of the world population dont give a damm,40% folow this kind of news through television on which are all lies and manipulation,10% knows the real truth through the internet.So 10% knows the truth,90%dont or they dont give a damm,so how we expect that anything changes in the future?If only people want to know the truth the world would be a better place.....
Regarding that from yesterday,i acidently came across to that while i was swiching the chanels,but time to time i want to watch the cnn and haretz online for ex.because to know the future dangerous and to get the full picture of the evil people you need to folow what they do and say.Its hard to watch that crap,many times i wanted to smash my tv while i was watching cnn........
The wold today is a very sad place,the victims are terorist,the terorist are victims.....
In the end i am happy that we are ok again,that makes we realy happy,i missed talking to you:)
see yaa....
SaladinQB 58p · 784 weeks ago
Also its a very good thing that the syrians will back up lebanon in the case if zionist try to again comit the massacre against the lebanese people.If only we have more countries in arab world like lebanon and syria.Iran also of course,ok they are persians not arabs so somebody dont get ofended,but basicly the same thing.If only the rest of them are not toaly owned by usa and israel the palestinians will get a state years ago.,....
I4P 42p · 784 weeks ago
I4P 42p · 784 weeks ago
SaladinQB 58p · 784 weeks ago
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=2...
SaladinQB 58p · 784 weeks ago
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=2...
I dont like this at all,only when all hamas suporters are freed from the w.b. cells and people from the hamas party can frely do their jobs there then its logical to try to create an atmosphere for the signing of agrement and all other things,i odnt know if this is a step in a right direction by hamas,i am litle woried about this,gota say...
Dont get cought in a trap hamas!