Inventive Gaza fisherman’s necessity turns plastic bottles into boat that lands a catch
In the middle of a crippling siege in Gaza, one man is using the enclave’s rubbish to earn himself a living.
Fisherman Mouath Abu Zeid is the owner of a floating craft built with 700 discarded plastic bottles. The boat allows him and his fellow Gazans to trawl the territory’s Mediterranean coastline.
Mr Abu Zeid, 35, used to work as a house painter, but as Israel closes Gaza’s goods crossing and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank cuts salaries and jobs, he has had to look for other means to feed his four children.
“I surfed the internet and found on YouTube how to make a boat from simple materials and, because I don’t have enough money to start any other business, I started to search how to build a boat from empty plastic bottles,” he told The National from the southern city of Rafah.
Using thread from damaged fishing nets and the scores of bottles, Mr Abu Zeid spent 20 days building the craft at a cost of $40 (Dh146). He picked out containers that are similar in size for balance.
The boat, on which a brown wooden board has been placed, can sail far enough out to sea to catch a kilogram or two of various kinds of fish – mostly tuna, crabs and mullet – each day. He uses rods and nets.
“I can’t go more than two kilometres out to sea because I propel the boat by using oars, and it’s so heavy and hard for me,” Mr Abu Zeid said.
He and his brothers, Mohammad and Ashraf, then cook the catch for their families or sell it to passers-by on the Gaza Corniche, making up to $10 on a good day.
“This boat is a source of income for four families,” Mohammad said. “If you want to live in Gaza you have to be a creator and a fighter.”
Three or four people can work on the boat but it can carry eight people to sea.
Mr Abu Zeid has plans to develop the plastic skiff so that it can travel another kilometre out to sea, using a generator that will convert the vessel into a motorboat.
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza’s coastline, restricting the fishing zone to six nautical miles (11kilometres) but allowing it to extend to nine nautical miles for the spring fishing season.
While the boat cannot travel that far, Mohammad said he and his brothers are prepared for the worst at sea. “We are good swimmers in case something happens to the boat. It is not so safe, especially with the high waves and variability of the sea,” he said. “But we are trying to do something from nothing.”