In Gaza’s scrapyards, batteries keep piling up

In Gaza’s scrapyards, batteries keep piling up

Reuters /Gaza

In a scrapyard near Gaza’s fence with Israel, thousands of old batteries are piling up — one of several such sites in the enclave set up to mitigate the environmental repercussions of the blackouts that are a feature of daily life.

The batteries — stacked outside and slowly degrading — are from defunct solar power and UPS emergency backup power systems, relics of the costly workarounds that Gazans use whenever the power cuts kick in.

To minimise the impact of the thousands of tonnes of old batteries that have built up after 15 years of blockade, environment officials have set up five storage sites away from heavily populated areas.

But some pollutant leakage is inevitable, adding to mounting problems in the strip, where some 2.3mn people live in a narrow coastal area isolated by border controls imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007.

“Keeping batteries exposed to the environment is certainly dangerous,” said Ahmed al-Manama, of the Water and Quality Environment Authority. “Lead can get into drinking water reserves and dust from the batteries can blow away and pollute plants, trees and the soil.”

For the enclave’s ever-inventive scrap dealers, however, they provide an opportunity, and scavengers tour the streets in