NEWS ALERT
Good News for the Lower Jordan River
It has taken a decade of really hard work but concrete change is finally taking place in the River Jordan.
Though there is so much more still to do, and great opportunities ahead, it is important to celebrate the success and say Thank You along the way: to FoEME staff, to the mayors and communities of the "Good Water Neighbours" project, to members of Parliament / Knesset and to our funders over the many years - the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, USAID, SIDA, the European Union, the Osprey Fund, Global Nature Fund and the Merz Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the Belgium, British and Finnish Embassies and other private donors....
See below:
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HAARETZ
Friday, May 17th, 2013
by Zafrir Rinat
The Israel Water Authority will shortly begin, for the first time, to pump water regularly from Lake Kinneret into the southern Jordan River in an effort to ecologically rehabilitate the river, the authority announced Thursday.
During the first stage, 1,000 cubic meters an hour will be pumped from the lake into the river. At a later stage, the plan is to pump 30 million cubic meters a year into the river.
The plan to shore up the southern Jordan was presented Thursday at a conference organized by the Southern Jordan Streams and Drainage Authority, and it is a comprehensive plan that includes enhancing the water quality and developing projects to encourage tourism in the area.
In recent decades the water level of the southern Jordan River has dropped dramatically, because the flow of water into in from the Kinneret and the Yarmuk River has been almost totally blocked by dams. The quality of the water has seriously deteriorated, because the sewage of all the communities along the river has been flowing into it. Water from the Kinneret now only reaches the southern Jordan River if the lake’s level rises above the upper red line, at which point, to prevent flooding, the dams are opened to let water flow into the river. One of the major components of this rehabilitation plan is stopping the flow of sewage into the river and pumping clean Kinneret water into the river instead. Water Authority head Alex Kushnir told the conference that by the end of this month thousands of cubic meters of water would be flowing from the Kinneret every day.
“Within two years we will increase the quantity and it will reach 30 million cubic meters a year,” said Kushnir. “I know that’s not enough, but that’s what we can manage now. We won’t be able to restore the river to its historic flow levels of the past.
”The improvement will be primarily in the quality of the water. According to Kushnir, by the end of this year a waste treatment plant will be treating the sewage that now flows into the river. Next year, the plant will be upgraded and the treated wastewater will be suitable for agricultural use.
In addition, small desalination installations will be built to desalinate the saline water from the Kinneret springs that now flow into the Jordan, and some of the water will be allowed to continue into the river after treatment. Thus, the salinity level of the lower Jordan’s water will also be reduced.
All these activities are being conducted with the agreement in coordination with the Kingdom of Jordan. Sa’ad Abu Hamour, the Jordanian representative to the joint Israeli-Jordanian Water Committee, attended Thursday’s conference. He said that his country also wants the river’s water quality to improve, but that at this stage this was a solely Israeli-funded project.
The Palestinians are currently not involved. Gideon Bromberg, the Israeli director of the Friends of the Earth-Middle East environmental group criticized the officials promoting this plan for not soliciting Palestinian cooperation. “We can’t deal with the political issues right now,” responded Kushnir. “If we do, it will delay the efforts we are already making.” Abu Hamour noted, however, that because the Palestinians aren’t being included, the river will be cleaner in the area closer to the Kinneret but will remain polluted in its southernmost section, near the Dead Sea.
According to the Southern Jordan Streams and Drainage Authority, during the coming summer the National Mine-Clearance Authority will start removing mines and the fence along a 30-kilometer stretch of the river. This will eventually allow public access to parts of the river that are currently closed off.
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JERUSALEM POST
Friday, May 17th, 2013
by Sharon Udasin
Next month the Water Authority will allow the discharge of 1,000 cubic meters of water per hour from the Kinneret basin into the the Jordan River, with the ultimate goal of letting in 30 million cubic meters of water flow past the Deganiya Dam annually, the Jordan Rehabilitation Administration announced on Thursday.
Water has not been released on a large scale in years from the Kinneret basin into the Jordan, whose flow has dropped to a standstill as the level of the river dwindled and it has boasted only high levels of pollution.
Replenishing the flow of the river will only be the first stage in its rehabilitation, stressed Water Authority Commissioner Alexander Kushnir, to representatives of the Israeli and Jordanian governments gathered at a seminar in Tel Aviv on Thursday – organized by the Southern Jordan River Drainage Authority.
A collaboration of many bodies including the Drainage Authority, the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Water Authority, the Emek Hamayanot Regional Council, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, the Jordan Rehabilitation Administration was established in 2009 with the purpose of removing the river’s contaminants and restoring its natural value.
Although the Water Authority will begin next month by pumping 1,000 cubic meters per hour, in the future the government will be able to consider boosting the stream with additional water flow, Kushnir explained.
Meanwhile, within two years, a sewage treatment facility will begin to operate in the region, capable of conserving the water level and maintaining quality, he said. The facility will ensure that chlorine levels in the treated water drop from 3,000 milligrams per liter to 1,000 milligrams per liter, and will solve the issue of waste-water penetrating the riverbed, Kushnir said.
All of these improvements in water quality will translate into an ecological restoration process that will increase biodiversity and protect endangered species in the region, he added.
In addition, the Jordan Rehabilitation Administration will clear land mines this summer that extend along 30 kilometers of the river’s perimeter, so that the river can become more accessible to visitors, said Inbal Abraham, project manager on behalf of the Drainage Authority.
The ultimate purpose of the project is to restore historically valuable ecological habitats and agricultural spaces while leveraging peace and cooperation along the way, said Ramon Ben- Ari, CEO of the Drainage Authority.
Saad Abu Hammour, head of the Jordan Valley Authority on the Jordanian side, welcomed the project and said that a Jordanian team was working in conjunction with the Israeli group.
Although in favor of recharging the Jordan River with a clean and stable water supply, regional environmental organization Friends of the Earth Middle East has repeatedly said that the 30 million cubic meters promised by Israel will not be sufficient. Between 400 and 600 million cubic meters of water is needed to replenish the Lower Jordan, and Israel should be allocating at least 220 million cubic meters, Friends of the Earth said. | 
