Rafah border crossing

Gaza’s River of Excrement

21 October 2011 by ST McNeil

From over-capacity cesspools to a contaminated aquifer, the water and sewage systems of the Gaza Strip are a living nightmare. “Personally I’ve never been so overwhelmed by a smell. You feel that there is something terribly wrong in the air,” said Karl Schembri, communications outreach officer for Oxfam International. There’s something toxic hitting you in the face. There’s no escaping it.” Schembri grimaced with his back to the river of raw sewage otherwise known as Wadi Gaza. “Around 30,000 cubic [...]

Categories: Clips, Middle East, News, PalestineIsrael • Tags: aquifer, Gaza, Gaza tunnels, Hamas, Mediterranean, palestine, Rafah border crossing, waste water, waste water treatment

Tunnel and Pilgrimage

21 July 2011 by ST McNeil

“Ya Hussam, inta baa’rif Rachel Corrie?” I asked the taxi driver last Sunday: Hussam, do you know Rachel Corrie? Sadly, he did not. Dropping the clutch to second gear, we pulled onto the main road running north-south along the coast of the Gaza Strip, from Rafah to Gaza. The sun had risen an hour earlier over historic Palestine and modern Israel. The heat and light was slight. The blue waters of The Middle White Sea, the Arabic translation for the [...]

Categories: Egypt, Middle East, PalestineIsrael • Tags: Gaza, Gaza tunnels, Philadelphi Strip, Rachel Corrie, Rafah border crossing

Palestine’s Coast

11 July 2011 by ST McNeil

Nagoua pulled up in an enormous SUV right at seven am. With reflexes slowed by a night spent drinking Egypt’s finest Stellas in the famous revolutionary hangout Hurreya, or Freedom, I hopped in the back and offered her a croissant. “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” she said, smiling while revving the engine. We drove down the street to pick up her two charges – Dutch filmmakers on their way to work on a documentary about the smuggling tunnels of Gaza. I [...]

Categories: Africa North, PalestineIsrael • Tags: Cairo, Gaza pollution, Gaza tunnels, palestine, Rafah border crossing, Suez Canal

ST McNeil

Environmental Convergence Journalist

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Gaza’s River of Excrement

Tunnel and Pilgrimage

Palestine’s Coast