Environmentalists urge closure of Jordan River baptism site over poor water quality
FoEME says Israel, Syria and Jordan are diverting 98% the Jordan and are discharging untreated sewage, agricultural run-off, saline water and fish pond effluent into it.
By DPA Tags: Israel news Jordan RiverAn environmental group Wednesday urged the Israeli government to close down a baptism site at the lower Jordan River until water quality standards for tourists and pilgrims bathing at the holy site were met.
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The southern Jordan River. Friends of the Earth reports a 98 percent reduction in flow. |
| Photo by: Yaron Kaminsky |
"The Lower Jordan River is arguably the most famous river in the world, of international significance to more than half of humanity due to its rich natural and cultural heritage and its symbolic value and importance to the three monotheistic religions," Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) said in a statement from Tel Aviv.
"Sadly, the lower Jordan River has long suffered from severe mismanagement," it added.
Israel, Syria and Jordan were diverting 98 per cent of its water and were discharging untreated sewage, agricultural run-off, saline water and fish pond effluent into it, FoEME said.
The highly polluted water caused a serious health risk, it said.
Gidon Bromberg, FoEME's Israel Director, also accuses the Tourism Ministry and Nature and Parks Authority of attempting to lower health standards in order to keep the baptism site open.
Located near the Biblical city of Jericho, located in the Jordan Valley on the occupied West Bank, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Holy Land.
More than 100,000 tourists visit it each year.
The Health Ministry told the German Press Agency dpa that no final decision had yet been taken, because the results of samples it had ordered the Nature and Parks Authority to take had yet to come back.
It would not changes its existing guidelines, which allow bathing at the site, until that decision was taken, it said.
Friends of the Earth called on both Israel and Jordan to work on rehabilitating the river, whose poor state it warned was also harming the livelihood of the some 250,00 Jordanians, 60,000 Palestinians and 30,000 Israeli settlers living in the Jordan Valley on either side of the border.
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Liquidate the river! Liquidate the river! :)
The southern part of the Jordan has been a waste dump for decades, in fact the somewhat salty water from Tabgha has been shunted from the northern sea of Galilee to the south where it is dumped into the Jordan lest we be forced to bathe or drink it. This is a health issue and has nothing to do religion. Anyone thinking otherwise I invite to drink a liter or two of it and get back to me.
Nothing whatever to do with the 100,000 visitors a year who go away with lasting impressions of Arab hospitality and friendliness. If this water is polluted - blame Israel. It was alright until they came along.
There are too many people in Jordan. Move the Palestinians out and I'll bet this problem goes away.
What a terrible shame, a sin actually, to allow the damage to this precious body of water with such historical and religious significance.
Take more of Jordan and Syria. It will belong to Israel sooner or later anyway.
Lets slow down on the racists remarks, the Jorden river is polluted and needs to be clean up,point. so its darn right darf what some talkbacks are saying,its not about "christians" its about cleaning the water and even more ignorantis Ivor talking about some of the neighboring counties pissing into the river.wow.
Israel should take a look at what has been done here in Florida to clean the water entering the Everglades. We are using algae to clean the water before it is pumped into the Everglades. These are reclaimed Agriculture fields called Stormwater treatment Areas or STA's and are used to process the water coming from thousands of arces of active agriculture such as sugercane using primarily blue-green algae.
taking place. Particularly for those who want to go to where the bible states Jesus was baptised. Which I understand is a deeply spiritual experience. Israeli Jews are attacking the very basis of Christianity in Israel and they must be exposed for denying billions of people their heritage.
so your anti-Israel remarks are just mean nonsense. Christian tourists have always been welcome and millions of these come to Israel. Do not forget that water is scarcer than oil in this region and is shared between these countries, used and reused till it is too polluted for swimming. I too, think it should be purified upstream from tourist sites.
"Israeli Jews are attacking the ve" What's with the idea of marking a single ethnic group of a single country out of THREE countries that control the river to some degree each?
An attempt to ban Christianity or an attempt to prevent the tourists from getting hookworm from raw sewage?
You don't get people more stupid & with lack of minimal knowledge about the state of the Jordan River these days, than this Ivor,,,,,,,If the Syrians,Jordanians & Palestinians were to stop pissing in the river,the river would be pure & even drinkable, Just as it was once. One thing is sure,you never visited Israel & your knowledge is O
the Friends of the Earth Middle East is a coalition between palestinians, jordanians and israelis smartguy. it is the israeli govt that is trying to keep the site open for tourism reasons so in essence your argument is completely backwards