Crocodile found hiding in a sewage pool in Beit Lahia A crocodile has been found hiding in a sewage pool in the town of Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza strip. Local authorities insist on the animal being captured alive so it can be given to a zoo, but all attempts to catch the animal have failed. Meanwhile, some locals have suggested that the sewage pool be turned into a natural reservation.
A Gaza source said Saturday that fishermen succeeded in catching the crocodile twice, only for the best to escape their nets, taking advantage of the slimy ground on the edges of the sewage pool. “The last time was three days ago,” the source said.
Witnesses said they saw the crocodile hiding in the sewage pool and that it comes out occasionally in search for food, only to return once more.
A Palestinian farmer said that the crocodile ate two of his goats as he herded them near the sewage pools.
The manager of the North Gaza sewage station Ragab al-Anqah confirmed that the crocodile has lived in the eight pools for over two years, explaining that the reptile arrived here as a hatch-ling and is now around 1.7 metres. Al Anqah also warned that the the longer the crocodile gets, the more of a threat it becomes for the townspeople. He also said that he believes the animal escaped from one of the nearby theme parks.
Essam Gouda, Head of the Gebalyet el-Nazla Local Authority, saw the crocodile struggle in the fishermen’s nets before escaping twice in under two hours. He told local journal Palestine as he watched the fishermen’s movements that the crocodile “Is not yet threatening people’s lives, but it will definitely become a hazard if we left it there any longer.”
“The crocodile will just keep getting bigger day in and day out,” he added, “and sewage ponds are not its natural habitat.” Gouda also expressed concern for the welfare of sewage workers, saying that the numbers tending to the pools “will increase in winter” and also that “the relief agency will be fencing in one of the ponds, and the presence of the crocodile would definitely endanger their lives.”
Responding the Ministry of Agriculture’s denial of the existence of a crocodile in the sewage pools, Gouda said “I am about to call the minister to tell him that I've seen the crocodile with my own eyes and that attempts to capture it continue apace.”