Zaatari camp, Jordan: Electricity
- 1/15
At night the spaghetti-style bundles of wires stretching out from street lights can be seen the clearest. They are used to power fans, lights and TVs in the refugees’ tents. They are also used to light the small shops and stalls clustered along the main street. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 2/15
Here a new 250KW transformer is hoisted into place to replace a 100KW one that was regularly being overloaded by 160 per cent. The power enables refugees to get news of what their families and friends are facing back home in Syria. This man is helping to unravel the cables that feed off the unit. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 3/15
In sandals and next to a sign warning of death by electrocution a refugee ensures that the wires that run off to the tents are not damaged. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 4/15
Wherever anything marginally out of the ordinary happens, children are sure to gather round to see what is going on. Of the 120,000 refugees in the camp, 60,000 are children. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 5/15
A child helps one of the workers to unravel the illegal connections. There are estimated to be 10,000 across the camp covering a distance of 186miles. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 6/15
Three boys yank up the cables that have been partially buried under the ground. Many simply lie on the desert surface. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 7/15
Two boys carry away cables that will be reused elsewhere. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 8/15
The crew prepares to hoist the new transformer into place. In the foreground three connections dangle – waiting to be reconnected. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 9/15
The zig-zag line in the earth marks out the route of a cable before it was pulled up ahead of the new transformer being brought in. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 10/15
UN contractor John Simpson, an electrical engineer from Australia, checks out how the installation is progressing. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 11/15
The transformer is hoisted into place as, left, a ‘dust devil’ is whipped up and heads across the camp. The fragile desert earth turns to a fine dust when broken up by vehicles as well as large numbers of people walking over it. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 12/15
As a worker from a Jordanian company makes checks to the installation a refugee shins up a cable to check the illegal connections. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 13/15
With remarkable skill a refugee ‘walks’ straight up the light pole to begin work attaching another home-made cable. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 14/15
With no safety equipment he wraps his legs around the pole for balance and he goes about his task. (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
- 15/15
A cable stretches out towards a cluster of tents. Most families in the tents are estimated to be using 200W a day - four per cent of the amount an average Western home would use (5,000W). (Photo by Jared J. Kohler)
Updated
Look up, and wrapped around the street lights dotted throughout Zaatari you see spaghetti-style bundles of wires. Look down, and you will see those same slender wires cascading to the ground and then running off in a myriad of directions. Welcome to the electrical grid – the unofficial version – of the largest refugee camp in the Middle East. There are an estimated 10,000 illegal connections which feed off Zaatari’s power supply – or 186miles of tiny threads criss-crossing the camp.