Honoring Earth
Earth Day | April 22, 2019
With climate change and population growth, the resources of this precious planet we share grow scarcer and the health of the environment becomes more precarious.
In the dry climate of Palestine, water is a scarce resource, a problem that is exasperated by occupation. The health of both humans and the environment suffer from water shortages, climate change and pollution. Farm fields lay fallow. 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. Cramped conditions and a dearth of services push residents to dispose of their garbage in burn pits and on streets and beaches, putting people and the environment at risk.
In Gaza, fuel is perpetually in short supply, due to the blockade, which translates into electricity outages. Palestinians in Gaza often lack the power to purify water and power hospitals, clinics, schools and farming equipment.
On this Earth Day, we are reflecting on how Anera honors our planet by incorporating green practices into projects, from managing garbage and recyclables to reusing wastewater to installing solar panels and green spaces.
Afaf, resident of the Bekaa Valley, now sorts her trash and is happy to do it!
The ongoing Lebanon trash crisis has instigated a youth-led response in several communities where Anera works, from the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr El Bared in the north to the Bekaa Valley in the southeast, where Syrian refugees live in tents. Anera volunteers are promoting a culture of recycling and proper waste collection through environmental awareness sessions, distributing waste and recycling bins, planting trees and cleaning up littered beaches and roadways. Anera’s sorting and composting facilities prepare the waste for recycling.
Anera workers installed solar panels on the
roof of the Wounded Child Clinic, which
serves 6,000 Gaza residents.
In resource-strapped Gaza and the West Bank, sunlight is one thing in ample supply. Anera is harnessing the sun’s rays to power buildings across Palestine. We have installed solar panels on dozens of schools and community centers. In Gaza, the availability of electricity is hard to predict. This can have life or death implications in hospitals and health clinics, which is why Anera is prioritizing solar panel installations at these locations.
Naser Qadous, Anera's Agricultural Programs Manager, explains how the water reservoir behind him will be used for the irrigation of public parks and orchards.
Water is precious and scarce in the arid West Bank, but Palestinian municipalities discard wastewater every day, often paying a fee to Israel to do so. Anera has found a way to save and reuse wastewater. In Jenin, Anera helped farmers and the environment by building a wastewater irrigation system that nourishes fodder crops and fruit trees with treated wastewater. We are currently building a wastewater reuse system for the city of Ramallah for use in fire-fighting and irrigating city parks.
By The Numbers
With your support
80% of waste
was eliminated in the town of Mashha, Lebanon, thanks to a new recycling and composting facility.
63,000,000 gallons
of treated wastewater will be available annually in Ramallah for construction, firefighting, and irrigating parks.
21,000 patients
now benefit from the solar panels Anera installed on two Gaza clinics they rely on for medical services.
100s of Gaza farmers
are using wise and sustainable irrigation techniques that improve production while caring for the earth.
Spring has sprung!
Youths are playing soccer
On the 25 sports fields Anera has built across Lebanon, like this one in the Akkar region, young people are enjoying soccer and team spirit.
Farmers are planting crops
Palestinian farmers, in the hundreds of fields and greenhouses Anera has supported, from Jenin to Rafah, are planting and picking crops.
Families are gathering in parks
Children and their parents are gathering to spend time together and play in the 12 parks Anera built in Palestine over the past seven years.
Students are finishing school
Children at the 54 schools Anera has renovated or built in the past few years, from preschool through secondary, are starting to get spring fever.
Poppies appear everywhere across the West Bank in April. These are in Jenin.