Thousands have blown down in storms and tents from China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia found to be not waterproof

Thousands of tents supplied by China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to shelter displaced Palestinians in Gaza offer only limited protection against rain and wind, an assessment compiled by shelter specialists in the devastated territory has revealed.

The assessment will undermine claims that Palestinians in Gaza are being supplied with adequate shelter. Fierce storms in recent weeks blew down or damaged thousands of tents, affecting at least 235,000 people, according to UN estimates.

Prepared by the Palestine Shelter Cluster, which coordinates the activities of nearly 700 non-government organisations in Palestine and is jointly chaired by the Red Cross and the UN, the assessment found that newly delivered tents housing hundreds of thousands of people would “likely need to be replaced”.

"The fabric [of the Egyptian tents] tears easily as sewing quality is poor,” it reported. “The fabric is not waterproof. Other issues include small windows, weak structure, no flooring, the roof collects water due to the design of the tent, and no mesh for openings.”

  • ParagoneEnglish
    3·
    13 days ago

    I’ve racked-up 7+ years of outright homelessness, & 1/3-decade of homeless-in-the-Canadian-bush:

    IF you want to survive cold in a tent, THEN you require:

    double-walled-tent is better than single-walled: the more walls, the more dead-air-space insulating you.

    Tyvek-type-stuff works well, breathes sufficiently ( you’ll be full of mould if you just use polyethylene ), & may be cheaper when bought in big rolls, for making framed multi-layer tents for families.

    You want the roof to be steeper than 45-degrees, for shedding snow, or flatter, for holding it: 45-degrees is the it-can’t-make-up-its-mind angle, & be aware that ice sticks to tent-materials, so snow BUILDS on tents, if that’s happening, there.

    Stick tarps over, or string fabric inside, parallel to the tent-walls, to improve the insulation ( improve, not make-perfect-for-some-arbitrary-degree-of-cold ).

    Fleece is the best insulation I know-of for wearing, for long-term blankets or sleeping-bags ( doesn’t waterlog, the way flannel or even wool does, when you’re sleeping in it every night ), & you need about 1/2-metre for -30C sleeping if your metabolism is strong, but that same insulation will only be sufficient for about -10C if you’re old & frail.

    Propane for cooking is required, also for melting ice, to drink ( the smog from wood fire will drastically shorten one’s life, unless one has a properly-chimneyed wood-cook-stove )

    Maslow’s hierarchy-of-needs: protect-the-life-1st, when everybody’s life is secure, then begin working on the next-level-up of the hierarchy.

    Hot-water bottles are a real boon, in deep cold, for keeping you warm longer, at night, in your sleeping-sack.

    You probably want giant ( 2" ) bulldog-clips if you are using blankets, to stop them from all sneaking off-of you, once you begin sleeping: clip the edges together, to keep them on you.

    May this help save someone’s life in some such situation, somewhere: I survived my homeless accumulated-years, but many don’t.

    I want needless wasting-of-our-lives pushed-back.

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