UN Hopes to Save Gaza Valley

A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
TT

UN Hopes to Save Gaza Valley

A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo

The United Nations is set to begin the restoration of a historic valley in the Palestinian Gaza Strip next month, hoping to transform it from a landfill and sewage dump into a vibrant nature reserve in a planned $66 million project.

The Gaza Valley, home to a variety of plants and animals, is one of the largest wetland areas in the territory.

It stretches 105 kms (65 miles) from the Israeli Negev desert up to southern Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and for nine kms (5.5 miles) across the Gaza Strip to the Mediterranean sea.

But over the past few decades, despite the Palestinians proclaiming the valley a nature reserve in the 1990s, it has become badly polluted. With rubbish piling up and the stench of sewage flowing through it, residents have kept away.

In an attempt to save it, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has put together the $66 million project plan, though it has not yet secured the entire funding.

"It is a full project to develop this site and to turn it from an unhealthy wastewater dump into a place people of Gaza can visit and into a tourist site," Reuters quoted Mohammed Abu Shaaban, the UNDP's project coordinator, as saying.

The two-phase project will take several years to complete, said Abu Shaaban. The first funds to come through, $1.3 million from Belgium, will go towards the initial cleanup which is expected to take around four months.

"In March we will start removing the solid waste and the concrete and debris in the Wadi (valley), opening the route, doing the soil reclamation and planting many trees," said Abu Shaaban.

For the past few months, a new water treatment station in central Gaza has allowed treated water to flow into the valley, improving the habitat of dozens of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

In the longer term, the restoration also aims to benefit the people of Gaza, with camping sites, cafes and educational and recreational centers along the valley route.

"Several tourist and economic centers will be built and will provide jobs for unemployed people," said Marwan Hamad, head of Zahra City Council, whose office is involved in the development.

On Sunday, 40 activists visited the site in support of the project. "We came from all over the Gaza Strip to tell the people that Gaza valley is being transformed and it will be restored as a nature reserve," said Mohammad Aburjaila, 26.



Scientists: Melting Sea Ice in Antarctica Causes Ocean Storms

Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
TT

Scientists: Melting Sea Ice in Antarctica Causes Ocean Storms

Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP

The record-breaking retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2023 has led to more frequent storms over newly exposed parts of the Southern Ocean, according to a study published Wednesday.
Scientists know that the loss of Antarctic sea ice can diminish penguin numbers, cause ice shelves to melt in warmer waters, and impede the Southern Ocean from absorbing carbon dioxide, AFP reported.
But this new research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, explores another consequence: increased heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere, and an associated rise in storms.
Since 2016 there has been a large-scale reduction in Antarctic sea ice, but nothing like 2023 when a record amount failed to reform over the winter.
For this study, Simon Josey of the UK's National Oceanography Center and colleagues focused on three regions that experienced unusually high levels of sea-ice retreat that year.
Using satellite imagery, ocean and atmospheric data, and wind and temperature measurements, they found some newly ice-free areas experienced double the heat loss compared to a stabler period before 2015.
This was accompanied by "increases in atmospheric-storm frequency" over previously ice-covered regions, the authors found.
"In the sea-ice-decline regions, the June–July storm frequency has increased by up to 7days per month in 2023 relative to 1990–2015."
The loss of heat caused by reduced sea ice could have implications for how the ocean circulates and the wider climate system, the study added.
Oceans are a crucial climate regulator and carbon sink, storing more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped near Earth's surface by greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, sea-ice retreat could mean changes in how a deeper layer of cold, dense Antarctic bottom water absorbs and stores heat.
The authors said further in-depth analysis of possible climate impacts were needed, including if sea-ice retreat could have even further-reaching consequences.
"Repeated low ice-cover conditions in subsequent winters will strengthen these impacts and are also likely to lead to profound changes further afield, including the tropics and the Northern Hemisphere," it said.