Pollution, Climate Change and Limited Resources
In the dry climate of Palestine and parts of Lebanon, water is a scarce resource. The health of both humans and the environment suffer from water shortages, climate change and pollution. Farm fields lay fallow. Trees are few. And families have to save up the little water they can access to survive.
Urban areas, like those in Gaza and Lebanon's refugee camps, grow more polluted as their populations increase. Trash is a big problem in Lebanon, especially in the restricted spaces of refugee camps, which push residents in streets and beaches, putting the residents and the environment at risk.
Innovation in Environmental Protection
ANERA incorporates green practices into a variety of projects, from building with recycled materials to irrigating with treated water.
Sustainable Agriculture
Many Palestinian families grow their own food and sell produce to make a living. ANERA helps farmers and the Palestine environment by irrigating crops with treated wastewater, teaching composting techniques and developing irrigation techniques that waste less water. In Jenin, our current recycled water project makes use of wastewater that would normally be discarded. Instead, it is put to use nourishing some 1,700 acres of fodder crops and fruit trees.
Waste Management
The Lebanon trash crisis is instigating a youth-led response in the northern Lebanese town of Mashha and the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr El Bared. ANERA is organizing a collective of youth volunteers to conduct environmental awareness sessions, distribute waste and recycling bins, plant trees and clean up the littered beaches. We even built a new sorting facility in the Masha municipality. The pilot project succeeded in promoting the culture of recycling and proper waste collection in poor areas with few resources.
Energy Efficiency
In Gaza and the West Bank, electricity is severely limited and cooking gas is hard to find. To help families feed themselves, ANERA distributed locally-built solar cookers to impoverished families. Now Gaza’s regular power cuts don’t prevent them from eating a meal. ANERA also distributed biogas stoves, benefiting families that aren’t able to afford cooking gas. In the West Bank, Bedouin families that used to make fires out of sticks can now cook with safer tools.
Trash clearing and recycling inspire volunteers to take control of a bad situation in Nahr El Bared, northern Lebanon.
