[AnNahar] With Gazoo's supply of drinking water expected to dry up by 2020,
| ...time enough to plan an orderly removal of the population, though who would want them is a very good question... |
a Paleostinian engineer is pioneering a machine to make seawater potable for residents of the coastal territory.
Diaa Abu Assi, a 29-year-old father-of-two, has spent much of his spare time in the past 18 months developing the system, which he hopes will be instrumental in saving lives in the besieged enclave.
"In five years, there will be no drinkable water in Gazoo," Abu Assi says. "Water shortages are a real threat to life in Gazoo. The only solution is to filter water from the Mediterranean."
Funded by Gazoo's Islamic University -- which is linked with the enclave's rulers Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, -- in cooperation with an Omani research organization, the project uses nanotechnology to reduce the salinity in seawater to a drinkable level.
It pumps water at high speed through large iron pipes and filters made of nano-material to extract the saline. The water is then retreated with minerals that were removed during the desalination process.
| Needs frequent and persnickety maintenance, one imagines. |
The filter contains microscopic pores which are small enough to block the chlorine and sodium ions in seawater while allowing through the water molecules.
"The idea is to save Gazoo from the disaster that awaits it in the next five years by using the one resource we do have -- seawater," Abu Assi says.
| Y'all also have lots of sewage in poo ponds... |
Gazoo, home to 1.8 million Paleostinians, consumes 180 million cubic metres of water per year, half of which is used in agriculture and industry.
- Gazoo could be 'uninhabitable' -
The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
estimates that Gazoo's population will grow by almost another 500,000 people in the next five years,
| ...those Palestinians do like to exaggerate their baseline population numbers and birth rate, but likely there will be more Gazans then than there are now... |
which will push demand to an expected 260 million cubic metres of water annually.
Given Gazoo's current water resources, the territory would become "uninhabitable," according to Robert Turner, director of operations in Gazoo for the U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees (UNRWA).
Gazoo now depends on groundwater from its coastal aquifer for supplies, but the enclave's water authority says 97 percent of its resources are polluted due to over-extraction and sewage contamination. The World Health Organization has warned of the danger, noting that diarrhoea among children is on the rise.
The U.N. has warned the aquifer could become unusable as early as next year.
| Fascinating. So much for the orderly transfer of population. |
Abu Assi's machine can treat some 1,000 litres a day -- a drop in the ocean for now, but he and his partner, fellow engineer Ala al-Hindi, say they will not stop there.
Hindi says they are seeking $300 million (274 million euros) to build a water treatment plant that has a much greater capacity.
But given the reality in Gazoo, the two have struggled to raise funds.
"There's always a fear that projects will be destroyed in the next Israeli bombardment," Hindi says. |