01-07 October 2012 - orsam
01-07 October 2012 - orsam
01-07 October 2012 - orsam
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Israel, Jordan taking steps to clean up Jordan River water<br />
Friends of the Earth-Middle East, consisting of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, has successfully<br />
pressured their governments into acting to save the river<br />
The water of the Jordan River, debilitated by waste and intensely utilized for agriculture, may finally<br />
become cleaner thanks to steps now being taken by the governments of Israel and Jordan.<br />
The Environmental Protection Ministry and the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and<br />
Galilee are expected within weeks to submit a plan to the cabinet to allocate NIS 99 million to that<br />
very goal.<br />
There has recently been a breakthrough in terms of regional cooperation on improving the Jordan's<br />
water, according to Gidon Bromberg, director of Friends of the Earth-Middle East. The group,<br />
consisting of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, has successfully pressured their governments into<br />
acting to save the river.<br />
Only 4 percent of the amount of water that flowed through the southern Jordan River 80 years ago<br />
still flows through it after Israel built a dam to hold back Kinneret water to benefit the National<br />
Water Carrier. Jordan and Syria, for their part, have built dams in recent years on the Yarmouk River,<br />
the Jordan's main tributary.<br />
Waste flows into the river from nearby communities and farms on both the Israeli and the Jordanian<br />
sides. A channel carrying saline water from springs in the Kinneret lake bed also leads to the Jordan.<br />
As a result, the Jordan has become polluted and sometimes has run nearly dry. This has damaged<br />
flora and fauna and threatens to ruin the traditional baptismal site of Kasr al-Yehud east of Jericho.<br />
Initiatives to change this picture are coming from local bodies such as the Southern Jordan Drainage<br />
Authority and the Emek Hama'ayanot Regional Council in the Beit She'an area. These two agencies<br />
recently invited area residents to a public hearing where they presented their master plan for the<br />
river's rehabilitation.<br />
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