Study: West Bank pollution threatening Israeli groundwater - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Mon., December 17, 2007 Tevet 8, 5768

Israel Time: 00:21 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Hanukkah

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Last update - 03:47 16/12/2007

Study: West Bank pollution threatening Israeli groundwater

By Zafrir Rinat

Tags: pollution, Israel

For several years now, a white river has run through the Hebron Hills. The color comes from pollution - waste from a sawmill near Hebron. And according to a recent Israeli-Palestinian study, pollution from this river and others like it is threatening the groundwater inside Israel, and is impeding attempts to rehabilitate Israel's rivers.

Israel has tried to deal with the problem by collecting and purifying the waste at the Green Line, the boundary between Israel and the West Bank. But that is insufficient, because much pollution enters the groundwater in the West Bank and spreads to Israel underground.

T

	Advertisement

he two-year study was conducted by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University and the Palestinian Water and Environmental Development Organization. It focused on the Alexander River, which runs from Nablus to the Mediterranean north of Netanya, and the Basor River, which runs from near Hebron to the Gaza Strip. Major investments have been made in rehabilitating both rivers in recent years, including by establishing waste treatment plants along them.

However, the study found, the Basor is now full of both municipal waste and toxins emitted by the stone- and leather-working industries around Hebron. It estimated that anywhere from 45 to 90 percent of the pollution seeps into the ground before the river reaches the Israeli treatment plant, thereby endangering the groundwater. Moreover, some of this underground waste then reenters the river downstream of the treatment plant.

The study found that faulty sewage systems in Israel also pollute the river.

While the Alexander River has improved substantially, the study said, it still is being polluted by municipal waste and the olive oil industries around Nablus and Tul Karm, as well as various sources within Israel, such as fertilizer and insecticides from nearby farms. In this case, too, about half of the pollution on the Palestinian side seeps into the groundwater before reaching the Green Line.

Amos Brandeis, chief planner of the project to rehabilitate the Alexander, noted that the German government plans to build waste treatment plants for Nablus and Tul Karm, but they will not be operational for several years. He also noted that the amount of municipal waste on the Palestinian side has grown, due to population growth and because many more houses have been connected to the sewage system in recent years - and this system flows directly into the river, rather than to a treatment plant.

Hydrologists Lior Assaf and Hila Ackerman of the Arava Institute said that more could also be done on the Israeli side - for instance, said Assaf, "planting buffer zones of vegetation along the river banks, which would help prevent pollution from entering the river."

Professor Alon Tal of the Blaustein Institute, in his summary of the research, noted that Israelis and Palestinians had managed to work together to reduce pollution despite the political tensions. "Nevertheless, what has been done to date is only the first stage," he wrote.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Groundbreaking discovery
	Israeli research is among '50 most significant scientific breakthroughs in 2007.'


	Floating the PA
	International donors pledged $7.4 billion to help boost the PA economy .




1.	One State: This shows that nothing happens in a vacuum	04:05	\|	Man on a tree	16/12/07

2.	And the left claims to be "green" - environmental terrorism	07:35	\|	Binyamin Dissen	16/12/07

3.	Shared land, shared responsibility	08:51	\|	JW	16/12/07

4.	#1 up a tree with no brain and ignorance	08:56	\|	victor hardman	16/12/07

5.	Why did Israel build no sewage facilities while they were	11:02	\|	Andreas	16/12/07

6.	Tulkarem	11:21	\|	Erik	16/12/07

7.	Mutual	11:54	\|	Esther	16/12/07

8.	Nature...	23:11	\|	Maureen Ann	16/12/07

9.	More reason to expell the violent Arabs occupying Judea	06:23	\|	David	17/12/07

10.	Re Man#1	11:21	\|	Esther	17/12/07

11.	who benefits?	22:31	\|	Gus	17/12/07

Today Online


	Ron Breiman: Greater Israel - Not Peace Now but Zionism Now
	Responses: 164


	'Hava Nagila' enters race for Christmas No. 1 in Britain
	Responses: 107


	FM Livni: Israel is committed to creating Palestinian state
	Responses: 162


	Israelis appear twice in 50 top scientific breakthroughs
	Responses: 143


	Moshe Arens: The IDF must move into Gaza to curb Qassams
	Responses: 80

Rosner's Domain

Guest: The leader of the Zionist Organization of America on the Mideast post Annapolis

Without the Reform movement in Israel, there's no Reform movement

So, Should American Jews have a voice in shaping Israel's policies?

Fewer Israelis say peace personally important (What to Read)

More Headlines
00:12 Senior Islamic Jihad commander dies in IAF strike in Gaza City


23:39 Officials: Israel to allow construction in existing W. Bank settlements


21:41 French FM: Int'l donors pledge $7.4 billion to boost PA economy


23:57 Newly appointed U.S. Mideast envoy to visit Israel Tuesday


15:32 'Hava Nagila' enters race for Christmas No. 1 in Britain


20:43 Itzik urges Assad to transfer Eli Cohen's remains to Israel


20:37 Bush says supports Russian shipment of enriched uranium to Iran


20:50 South Korea chooses Israeli-made unmanned surveillance plane


18:07 Conductor Barenboim slams Israel after musician barred from entering Gaza


17:58 Poll: Support for Hamas stable despite worsening conditions in Gaza