 |
"What you need is 15 cement bricks, mud mixed with straw and two sheets of glass," said Abu Tawahina. |
Mud, straw, cement bricks, two sheets of glass, and the rays of the Gazan Sun. These are the needed ingredients to cook a meal of meat, rice, beans or macaroni for siege-stricken Palestinian families.
An oven that uses the Sun's heat to cook food is the latest invention to come out of Israel's 17-month-old siege of Gaza which has deprived the coastal territory of fuel and natural gas by closing off Gaza's border crossings. Earlier this year, a Gazan engineer showed off his electric-powered car which he converted away from running on fuel.
According to Yousef Abu Tawahina, the idea behind the oven was pretty simple and easy to apply.
"What you need is 15 cement bricks, mud mixed with straw and two sheets of glass," he told IslamOnline.net. "One sheet is incorporated into the top part of the oven and the other into the front side, and finally a metal sheet is placed at the base of the oven on the inside," he said while standing near his oven in his house-garden in Deir Elbalah in central Gaza Strip.
Cooking a Solar Meal
| "This oven does not need any natural gas and this was the purpose behind the invention." |
Abu Tawahina further explained that the two sheets of glass absorb the Sun's heat and heat up the oven from the inside, heating it to approximately 100° C. To boost the heat up another 80 degrees, a special transistor is added to the metal sheet stuck inside the oven's base.
"Every half hour the transistor starts working automatically for 7 or 8 minutes and the heat it produces, along with the sun-produced heat, can cook any meal with no need to stir the food."
"This oven is eco-friendly and the food cooked in it can be served thoroughly cooked within one to one and a half hours," continued Abu Tawahina.
"Also, this oven does not need any natural gas and this was the purpose behind the invention," he pointed out.
About eight months ago, the idea for the solar oven came to Abu Tawahina's friend, Khaled Bashir, when the cooking gas shortage was greatly affecting the population of the Gaza Strip, with Israel reducing the incoming supply of natural gas on a daily basis.
According to petroleum officials in Gaza, the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents need at least 300 to 400 tons of cooking gas on a daily basis, but with the Israeli restrictions over the past several months, the current cooking gas crisis has been intensifying.
According to Abu Tawahina, in the central Gaza Strip areas, where the oven was first assembled, there are now 40 to 45 Palestinian households currently using the solar oven. These families are concentrated in the rural areas of Deir Al-Balah and Al-Zawayda.
An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was signed by Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance factions in June 2008 and, although Israel had then agreed to allow in greater supplies natural gas to the coastal Strip, the population still suffers from a gas shortage.
Complicated Situation
|
| "This oven is eco-friendly and the food cooked in it can be served thoroughly cooked within one to one and a half hours." |
Jamal Assalahat, a major local natural gas supplier, confirmed that his customers have been waiting for their shares of natural gas cylinders for the past 18 days.
"In the past, before the natural gas problem emerged, I used to supply my customers with their natural gas shares almost on a daily basis," he told IslamOnline.net. "But nowadays, as you see, sometimes we remain without work for one, two, or even three weeks at a time."
"This situation is really difficult, both for me and my customers," Assalahat explained as a van was carrying his gas cylinders en-route to a nearby gas station.
Currently, some Palestinians have been bringing in natural gas cylinders from neighboring Egypt through underground tunnels dug across the Egyptian-Gaza border in southern Gaza. Although illegal, Palestinians see this as justified means against the 'illegitimate' closure of their border.
While placing gas cylinders inside a van in front of his tunnel's tent, Abu Yasser, one of the Palestinians involved in the tunnel activities told IslamOnline.net that, "Every day, we transport about 300 to 400 gas cylinders from inside the Egyptian territories with the help of some Egyptian brothers on the Egyptian side of the border."
"Although each cylinder costs 100 US dollars, it is still much better than totally lacking natural gas. At least now we can make bread, and we can cook, despite the relatively high prices."
Over the past two weeks, the Israeli military has been closing off Gaza's commercial crossings at Karni, Kissufim, Sofa and Nahal Auaz. Fuel and electricity officials in Gaza announced that as a result of these actions, Gaza now suffers from a 50 percent shortage of these essentials and that Gaza's only power plant is about to shut down.
As Israel continues to find excuses for its measures against Gaza Strip residents, besieged Gazans such as Yousef and Khaled will continue to come up with creative means to fight their increasingly harsh living conditions.
|
