Off the Grid, In Dahab...

  Not quite as bad as Mad Max: Fury Road, but...

Off the grid, in Dahab...

So, we had experienced problems with the plumbing here shortly after we had arrived in our apartment here which left us without running water for close to 72 hours.

Then yesterday, we had a power outage which also meant water could not be pumped from the water tank into the taps and the toilet. Luckily, this was quickly resolved by our land lord Sam who came over and called an electrician.

While we both waited outside for the electrician to turn up, me and Sam started to talk about the problems Dahab has with internet connections, the (rationed) water systems and the electrical grid.

He said that recently many people have had problems with all three, both Egyptian and expats a like. I asked him why was this such a massive issue in Dahab and he explained it to me.

Basically, the problem stems from when Israel occupied much of the Sinai (after the "6-Day War") from 1967 until 1982 when a peace treaty was finally signed and Israeli forces and civilians were removed.

During this time there was very little town planning, and houses were built haphazardly without much thought to planning. But this problem became even worse after Israeli forces pulled out and the Egyptian central government said they would give the Bedouin people here complete autonomy over Dahab and the other towns on the Sinai peninsular.

The trouble was that the Bedouin moved back into Dahab and had absolutely no planning regulations whatsoever, so more and more houses continued to be built in a chaotic way. And the electrical cables and water pipes were laid in the ground in the very same manner.

So even today this is causing some major problems: The central Egyptian government have been accused of not helping the Sinai develop and provide little funding to help the region with resource allocation and employment, amongst other issues.
But others believe that the Egyptian government just doesn't want to get involved with the Sinai region because it doesn't want to aggravate tension with the Bedouin people any more than they have in the past.

So regardless of the reasons, this has lead to Dahab to continue to suffer with grid problems. For example, yesterday I watched the electrician fix the problem and I was quite shocked to see an incredibly dangerous mishmash of cables and wires down in the electrical box.

I asked Sam what the electrician said the problem was and he said that for some reason one of the three fuses was not working and that some of the wires and cables had burnt out causing the other two to fail. He then said that this is pretty typical for Dahab and told me the story about the Israeli occupation.

Eventually after some very quick soldering and cutting of various wires we had the power and water back, and Sam apologised profusely before leaving. I said no problem, thanks for getting on it so quickly and I said that I understood now this is just the way it is in Dahab.

So now I also get why the water here is rationed too and it's much easier to stomach now that I know it's a problem not just in Dahab but all of the Sinai. And in some ways it's basically forced us to live in way as if we were living partly off the grid.

Basically, we – like virtually all the other people in Dahab – have a water tank behind the apartment that holds around 1000-2000 litres of water. This is filled up twice per week on Saturdays and Wednesdays by the government, so we have to ration the water and be extra mindful about things like leaving taps on, how long we shower for, and only using running water when absolutely necessary.
1000-2000 litres is less than it actually sounds for 2 people, but by just being mindful of this fact we have not run out of running water.

Many hotels and guesthouses down by the beach will actually just pump salt water into bathrooms for sinks and showers, so guests will have to shower and brush their teeth with saline water. This is understandable when you consider that the economy here is not-so-healthy since the "Arab-Spring" revolutions that tore through North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. Plus, the subsequent terrorist attacks elsewhere on the Sinai peninsular over the last 6 years have put many people off visiting.

The price of the two government refills per week is subsidised so it is very cheap, but any more than this 1000-2000 litre supply of 'fresh water' (but definitely not suitable for drinking as it comes out yellow with sand when first poured!) and guesthouses and hotels would have to pay for a private company to keep this refilled, which is very expensive since this is a desert and water is very scare as it is.

So there we have it. These are the reasons why water, power and internet connections here are at the best of times very sketchy. But to give locals in Dahab credit, they are very aware of trash problems especially on beaches and in the oceans, and they do respect the fact the oceans themselves around Dahab are marine parks and are illegal to fish in.

They are also aware that to keep coral reefs here healthy is of the utmost importance because diving and snorkelling is so popular and a huge source of revenue, which is a refreshing view when you look at places like Zanzibar and parts of Thailand with the major trash problems they have there on beaches.

I actually think that Dahab would benefit from simply embracing their autonomy and relative marginalisation and try and become an off-grid community.
After all, year-round power generation should not be a problem in a place where you have 365 days a year of sunshine and a more or less constant wind for 300 days more near the coast. Integrated solar and turbine systems are becoming cheaper and cheaper and would pay for themselves quite quickly.

This would end the dependence on a central authority that is unwilling to invest in the region for electricity. In fact, all homes could still be connected to the central grid system and could sell excess energy collected back into the grid for other regions in Egypt to use.

This still leaves water being a problem; But in a desert region there is little you can do about that aside from irrigation projects and wells. But at least Dahab could become power-independent in the mean time, which is surely better than the problems it's facing now...?