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| October 2009 |
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FoEME is pleased to bring to the attention of our readers a special mention of our "Good Water Neighbors" project in one of the  leading Israeli Newspapers, Ha'aretz.
The article, entitled Israelis, Palestinians work together in bid to solve local water shortage, describes the history and challenges facing the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, but also about cooperative efforts between the 2 GWN partnering communities of Wadi Fukin and Tzur Hadassah that are "working together to preserve the valley and protect it from the blights of the large settlement." Journalist Akiva Elder also mentions the use of the WaterCare book that FoEME is promoting in all its GWN communities: "So it is that while politicians speak loftily about 'normalization,' in Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian schools they are studying from the same 'Water Book,' which was written in Hebrew and Arabic." | |
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To take advantage of the festive holiday mood at the end of the Ramadan and Jewish New Year weekend, 173 people from the GWN community of Baka el Gharbia participated in 2 separate Neighbors Paths tours; one to the Eshkol Regional Council and the other to the Tamar Regional Council. Residents of Baka Gharbia were given insights as to the environmental issues, and in particular, the water stories of these other GWN communities, giving them a better understanding of the shared water resources in the region.
The Good Water Neighbors project is supported by USAID, SIDA and the Belgium Foreign Ministry’s Peace Building Desk. | |
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Earlier this month the CGIS project undertook environmental hazard tours with 20 pupils each from the Jordan Valley and Tamar Regional Councils in order to identify potential groundwater and stream pollutants in their areas. The hazards identified will be mapped by the pupils using Geographical Information System (GIS) and uploaded to Google Earth with the other 15 communities' findings. Also, a GIS software workshop was held in Wadi Fukin for exceptional high school level kids active in all the Palestinian communities.
The CGIS project aims to create a comprehensive picture whereby people can gain a true sense in a single, easy-to-use way, of the extent of the environmental and health issues they face.
The Community GIS project is supported by the European Union's Partnership for Peace program.
FoEME is recruiting an intern with GIS training to be based in our Bethlehem office beginning January 2010. Please see our internship page for details. | |
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Following successful public pressure led by the GWN communities, last month earth was broken for the construction of a Waste Water Treatment Plant in the Jordan Valley Regional Council that will treat sewage from the city of Tiberias and the Jordan Valley communities, today dumped untreated into the Lower Jordan River. The treatment plant, slated to be finished in 18 months, will purify 14 million m3 of sewage, signifying the first stage of the rehabilitation of the Lower Jordan River.
However, with the treated sewage slated to be redirected for agriculture, and in the absence of other fresh water sources identified to flow in its place, the head of the Lower Jordan River will run dry. With this precise scenario in mind, FoEME launched its current Jordan River Rehabilitation project and will publish by year's end, its research findings suggesting a range of environmental flows necessary to rehabilitate the River Jordan, as well as identification of existing and possible opportunities to transfer fresh water resources to the River.
The Jordan River Rehabilitation Project is supported by USAID, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Green Environment Fund and the Global Nature Fund/ Ursula Merz Foundation. | |
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Several of FoEME's GWN communities in Jordan, Israel and Palestine were involved in the filming of a documentary, "Eye of the Future II", produced by Eikosphere Productions, that will feature global climate policy scenarios in the context of a multi-media production. The project will culminate with a screening at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, December 2009.
Further to our efforts for raising awareness on Climate Change issues, FoEME invites you to participate in a global day of action on October 24 entitled "350.org" that will take place on the three shores of the Dead Sea - Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli - to demand strong, science-based solutions to climate change! For more information, see our 350 events page.
FoEME's Climate Change project is supported by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Tel Aviv. | |
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