Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

Clean Energy - Solar Powered Glass Boats

The desert, is where I was brought up, live and love. It has unspoken stories and its own magic. You feel nature at its harshest then you learn to live in the generosity of the desert, the badjada, the air-current corridors, the nature habitats and even its water.


My work in the south brought close to my heart more than one dream, it’s hard to choose, I worked in reclaimed water reuse for agriculture, industry and landscaping, I worked with the car mechanics sectors, the farmers and their excess tomatoes produce, their top-of-the hill gravity based water reservoir for irrigation. I helped small business, brokers, and sustainable projects.
My choice rested on: ‘empowering social economy in the south of Jordan’ I suggest 2 challenges, and will introduce briefly:


The situation down south is harsh, with high unemployment, facing such challenges as turning wondering nomads into farmers, educating them, enrolling their kids at schools. Working women in Jordan are 12 to 25% (at the most optimistic statistic), as you steer away from the capital this decreases.
Challenge 1: converting more than 120 glass boats in the gulf of Aqaba to solar-powered ones, saving on fuel, pollution to the red sea coral and sea-life, cleaner beaches and lower cost boats.
Glass boats are regular old-fashioned wooden boats with a glass bottom so tourist can see the red sea life and corals.


What I did so far: I communicated with senior retired Dutch citizens to help me, through a Dutch backed up funding, I operated more than 60 missions on various sectors, the glass boats was among them. Joop Bennebroek, Hans Zaadnoordijk, Bob Geudeker, Ir. Niek van Dam and Piet Nieuwenhuizen were among the volunteers experts who came. Together, we covered these areas, produced reports and studies:
What are the problems of this sector:


The fishermen, denied the space of fishing due to politics imposed by 4 nations over one gulf: jordan, Saudi, Egypt and Israel, found out they were jobless and turned to the already problematic glass boats sector. We studied their problems and found out:


- Low knowledge in English, business / tourism English, how to talk to the tourists, how to organize their rounds, promote their trade, fluctuate according to season to secure steady income, record accounting ledger and calculate loss and profit, fix their engines, fix their boats, preserve the sea life and clean beaches, and finally how to build a future fibreglass lighter boat, at lower cost, and operate it by solar energy


We effected each mission in turn, we worked with the glass boats association (Aqaba Cooperative Maritime Tourism Society For Glass Boats), copied the government officials and all those concerned: Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), vocational training, JREDs – Jordan’s diving association..etc

Finally, the last 2 missions were to make a study on supplying 20 solar batteries but we need to build the boats locally, from fiber glass. The normal cost for a wooden boat is $ 10,000 without the engine and running cost of fuel, not to mention the spills and pollution. Fibreglass is lighter and will cost half this amount. If subsidized by the government, the operators can pay by instalments. We are facing two challenges: to convince the government officials to help us, and to believe in finding an alternative cleaner energy, and for them to help us with the cost of the mold and back us up to build the first few boats.
If I had one thousand, I’d use it to bring Hans Zaadnoordijk (fiber glass boats buildner) and Ir. Niek van Dam, a genius in solar energy to visit Aqaba and together update our study and make a presentation to the government – the new government team (the old team left) and try to employ solar energy, not just for the boats, but for the tourists camps and bathrooms.




Photo Niek Van Dam Feb 2007


Views: 390

Comment by Abby Krieger on May 19, 2010 at 8:55pm
What an excellent project. Good luck!
Comment by sunnydupree on May 19, 2010 at 9:29pm
awesome idea!
Comment by Reem N Bsaiso on May 20, 2010 at 4:14am
Thank you Abby, Thank you Sunny....
Comment by Thys van der Veer on July 22, 2010 at 7:37pm
Perfect. How can i contribute?
Comment by Reem N Bsaiso on July 24, 2010 at 7:18am
Thank you Thys, there are two elements here:
1. We have a good source of where to buy a mold to make fiberglass boats locally, because the solar bataries power need a light boat, not the heavy wooden ones they are using now. then, as I heard from the expert in the Netherlands, the cost of the solar pannels or batteries is down, we also need a good source. My idea is to at least have one boat operating and running, and gathering sponsors (sponsor from the GoJ) so as to make this project reach the rest of the glass boats owners.
Comment by Buffy B on July 26, 2010 at 5:49pm
Huge congratulations on having your Evokation selected, awesome idea could be used in many of the tourist destination countries!
Comment by Reem N Bsaiso on July 30, 2010 at 1:04am
Thank you Buffy....

Comment

You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!

Join Urgent Evoke

Latest Activity

Ning Admin is now a member of Urgent Evoke
May 17, 2023
N updated their profile
Sep 25, 2020
Sophie C. commented on Asger Jon Vistisen's blog post Stinging Nettle
"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
Aug 19, 2020
Meghan Mulvey posted a blog post

Fourth of July on the Lake

This past weekend was the annual celebration at the lake house in Connecticut. It is amazing that the lake is still so clear and beautiful after all these years. The watershed association has done a wonderful job protecting these waters from the damaging effects of development.The wood grill was finally ready to cook on, so we didn't miss the propane tank fueled grill anymore. The food actually tasted fresher than in the past and was easy to keep fueled.Dad was very proud of the solar hybrid…See More
Jul 6, 2020
Asger Jon Vistisen posted a blog post

Stinging Nettle

In this blog post I will focus on a plant that is abundant in our nature, and which is immensely nutritious. It's of course the Stinging Nettle. Let's start with the chemical constituents of this plant:37 % Non-Nitrogen-Extracts19 - 29 % Ash9 - 21 % Fiber4 % Fat22 % ProteinOnce the leaves are drid, their protein content can reach an astounding 40 %, which is much higher than beef, which even under the best of circ**stances can never exceed 31 % protein. In addition the Stinging Nettle consists…See More
Apr 13, 2020
Jonathon McCallum posted a blog post

The meal

It is 7'oclock, I was late home from work due to an assignment that i wanted to get ahead on. By the time I get home I am feeling extremley tired and I cannot be bothered to make a proper meal. I walk to the fridge and open it to see what there is for me to eat. All of the out of date foodstuffs have been automaticaly thrown away by the fridge, they will be recycled tomorrow as animal feed or something. I see i have organic local eggs and some local cheese. Foods are vacc** sealded for easy…See More
Mar 10, 2020
Jean Paul Galea shared a profile on Facebook
Mar 1, 2020
Kevin posted a blog post

Future

FutureToday is 2020/1/1. It is just like yesterday. The war is still continuing. It has started since 2010. In 2010, that year was a horrible year. Almost every energy ran out. Every country’s governments were crushed down at the same time. There were riots everywhere. All of the big company’s bosses were killed xdeadx in the riots. Troops fought each other everywhere. Food was bought up xawayx at once. There were no more food supplies in any shops. The economy was all crushed down. All the…See More
Jan 1, 2020
Namwaka Mooto posted blog posts
Jan 13, 2016
T D updated their profile
Sep 3, 2015
Brook Warner posted blog posts
Aug 25, 2015
Santiago Vega posted blog posts
May 5, 2015
Santiago Vega commented on Santiago Vega's blog post Act 8
May 5, 2015
Santiago Vega posted photos
May 5, 2015
Rico Angel Rodriguez posted blog posts
May 2, 2015
Rico Angel Rodriguez posted a photo

public servants

The exchange works directly for state and public workers and servants. It gives them credit in exchange for the amount of public work they contribute to the community. The more constructive they are based off a base rate the more credit they recieve.
May 2, 2015

Follow EVOKE on Twitter




Official EVOKE Facebook Page




EVOKE RSS Activity Feed










© 2024   Created by Alchemy.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service