[env-trinity] Dead Sea, Jordon River Diaster

[Patrick Truman]

      Dead Sea, Jordan River valley face ecological disaster
      Christopher Allbritton, Chronicle Foreign Service

      Sunday, August 12, 2007

         
      (08-12) 04:00 PDT Jordan River Valley, Jordan -- 

      Abdel Rahman Sultan walked along a modern bridge over a small wadi flowing into the Dead Sea, about 300 yards away. On the other side of the salty lake, he could see the West Bank, the ancestral home that his family fled after Israel captured the area in 1967. 

      "Three years ago, I used to bring kids from different schools to clean up this wadi bed," he said. "There used to be fish here, small little fish. ... Now, there are no fish here, there is no water. And no reason to keep it clean."

      Sultan is a project manager of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to preserving the Jordan River valley and the Dead Sea basin, an integrated ecosystem that is smack in the middle of the world's most contentious land dispute - the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

      The Jordan River Valley is one of the most famous spots on Earth, full of religious significance, historical interest and environmental richness. The Israelites crossed it to enter the promised land; Christ was baptized in its waters, and several of the prophet Muhammad's companions are buried near its banks. 

      The sole source of water for the Dead Sea - the lowest place on Earth at 1,378 feet below sea level - is the Jordan River, which travels from north of the Sea of Galilee before draining into this deep hole of a saline lake. As a result, the sea is 8.6 times saltier than oceans - and people bob like corks when swimming in its waters. The minerals in its mud are also prized for their rejuvenating effects on skin. The Jordan River Valley is also a rich wetland ecosystem and an important migratory pathway for more than 500 million birds. 

      But both the river and sea are dying.

      Israel, Jordan and Syria divert more than 90 percent of the 1.3 billion cubic meters of Jordan River water annually for drinking and irrigation that should flow into the Dead Sea. The siphoning of water has caused the Dead Sea to shrink by 30 percent over the last 20 years, according to FOEME. Dams, pumping stations and canals suck the basin dry, while wastewater is dumped into the sea. The water flowing past Christ's baptismal site, just north of the Dead Sea, is mostly sewage.

      In June, the World Monuments Fund added the Jordan River Valley to its list of 100 most endangered sites.

      But since much of the valley is an off-limits military zone because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the environmental problem is not well known.

      Last month, about a dozen Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian mayors from towns and settlements along the river met at the confluence of the Jordan and the Yarmouk rivers to call attention to the situation by swimming in one of the only remaining spots still considered safe for bathing. 

      "There are people who use the water without considering the needs of others," said Mamoun Alouneh, mayor of the Jordanian town of Tabket Fahal. 

      FOEME has urged Jordanian farmers to diversify their crops, planting date trees that use less water, rather than traditional banana and citrus fruits - all water guzzlers. "Their response often is, 'You want me to change what my great-great-grandfather started?' " said Mehyar. "You're talking about a tribal mentality."

      But like many other Mideast problems, toxic politics are never far away. 

      Under Article 18 of the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the two sides pledged to manage and rehabilitate the Jordan River Valley. But both governments blame the other for water mismanagement. 

      Muneth Mehyar, chairman of the Jordanian chapter of FOEME, says a Syrian dam across the Yarmouk River, Jordan's main tributary, has reduced that river's flow to a trickle. Under an agreement between the two nations, Mehyar says, Jordan should receive 700,000 liters per second from Syria. Instead, it receives just 700 liters.

      The peace treaty also calls on Jordan to supply Israel with 25 million cubic meters of water every year, Mehyar said. But by cutting the flow of the Yarmouk, the Syrians have forced the Jordanians to draw more water from the Jordan River for their own use. 

      FOEME believes only a comprehensive political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis would make regional cooperation possible and solve the environmental problems.

      Because Syria bans nongovernmental organizations it can't control, FOEME has yet to talk to Syrian officials, whose water ministry appears more interested in punishing Jordan for its peace treaty with Israel than enacting sound environmental policies. 

      "A lot of people in Jordan criticize us for talking to Israel," said Mehyar. "People still call us traitors."

      Yet there is some movement to save the Dead Sea. 

      In 2005, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement to study the feasibility of a 110-mile canal between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. A "Red-Dead" canal would pump up to 850 million cubic meters of seawater from the Gulf of Aqaba about 110 miles south of the Dead Sea. The $5 billion project, which is favored by the World Bank, is also expected to provide jobs and about 190 megawatts of electricity for the three parties.

      FOEME, however, opposes the canal, arguing that protecting the Jordan River Valley is a better solution than pumping water from elsewhere. They note that the less- salty Red Sea waters are chemically different from the Dead Sea, which, when mixed, might change the sea's unique properties. Instead, Mehyar proposes changing consumption habits of Jews and Arabs, peace parks and eco- and religious tourism as better ways to preserve the valley.

      "If we solved this water thing, we could solve 50 percent of the political issues," Mehyar said. "I am sure people will come to their senses."
     
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