As power cuts continue, Gaza turns to solar energy
Amid an electricity crisis that has led to increasingly long daily power cuts, some residents in the Gaza Strip are turning to solar energy systems.
Abir al-Hurqali got dressed and put on makeup as she prepared to leave her house in the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza City to attend her cousin's wedding. The ceremony was being held in a wedding hall in another part of the city. Hurqali was shocked when she tried to operate her electric wheelchair only to discover that the battery had died and needed recharging, which would take at least an hour.
When she tried to recharge the battery, Hurqali realized that the electricity was off. This left her frustrated, since she was the last person in her family to leave the house. She had to call one of her neighbors to give her a ride to the main street, where she could take a cab to the wedding. The side street leading to her home was not designed to accommodate cars, so cabs could not drive to her door.
Hurqali is one of Gaza's many physically disabled residents. She uses her electric wheelchair on a daily basis to go to university, where she is majoring in multimedia studies. Her movement, however, is often restrained by electricity outages. Every time she wants to go somewhere, she has to check whether the battery will last long enough to get her to her destination and then back home.
“I have struggled a lot with the continuous electricity outages,” Hurqali told Al-Monitor. “Frequently, I can't leave the house because the wheelchair battery is dead or doesn't have enough power for me to reach my destination.”
