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On February 24, activists from the Good Water Neighbors (GWN) partnering communities of Wadi Fuqin and Tzur Hadassah held an open evening to discuss ideas on launching a joint campaign to protest the construction of the Separation Barrier slated to be built between their communities. FoEME is preparing a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice against the planned construction of the Barrier, on the grounds that it will cause environmental destruction that will irreversibly damage the water springs in their area. 

In the framework of the Good Water Neighbors project, FoEME gathered 30 young leaders this past weekend from three schools in the Jordan Valley region (Kings Academy, Madaba Jordan; Terra Sancta, Jericho  Palestine; Geon Hayarden, Beit Shean Israel), to learn about the state of the Lower Jordan River and see its upstream origins. The unusually rainy weekend didn't stop the group from hiking in the mud, enjoying the river's natural beauty and visiting the ancient city of Biet Shean.

The tour was focused on empowering the youth for launching a campaign on the issue. A media workshop session followed the tour in which different tools for raising awareness were disscussed and the group created an action plan for filming a student film on the Lower Jordan River.  This will be followed up by a second meeting, in Jordan, to film on the Jordanian side.  We look forward to viewing their production!

The youth also worked together on developing an ecological garden, planting water saving plants and building eco-benches.  This activity was supported by the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute.

As part of a conference sponsored by the Ministry of Education, FoEME was offered an exceptional opportunity to expose our newly developed Neighbors Path in the Gilboa Regional council to hundreds of Heads of Educational Departments and Inspectors in the Northern Districts of Israel. 

The Good Water Neighbors project was active in Jordan this month too, with community youth helping to assemble a geodesic dome in the Sharhabil Bin Hassneh EcoPark. The dome was built at a previously chosen location in the Park where plans are being made to build an amphitheater. Here FoEME will implement ecological building techniques using recycled materials and mud for the amphitheater, and plant vines that will cover the dome to provide shade - creating an environmentally-friendly space for lectures and educational workshops to be given in the EcoPark. 

An alarming development by the Israeli Dead Sea Works this month included the Industry's request to establish an additional evaporation pond, "Pool 6", to boost their production rates. The Industry has dismissed the additional 2 cm. per year decline in water level that this will create, as "insignificant".   

After years of advocacy to remove the raw sewage and saline waters that currently makes up the majority of effluent in the Lower Jordan River, waste water treatment centers in Israel are scheduled to become operational within the next 18 months. While this is indeed an achievement, it also removes the majority of the Lower Jordan River's flow making regional efforts to return fresh water resources to the river extremely critical. 

This month FoEME's Jordan River Rehabilitation Project held a Regional Advisors Committee meeting in Jordan bringing together leading stakeholders and government representatives from Jordan, Israel, Palestine and the international community to discuss and share final comments on the project's economic and environmental flows studies and discuss the project's next steps. The Israeli government representatives also presented the Ministry of Environment's Terms of Reference for its plan to rehabilitate the Lower Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to Bezeq Stream for comments from the other regional representatives.  

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.

FoEME is pleased to announce the addition of a new chapter in our Climate Change Resource Guide. A new Chapter 7, "Palestinian Actions", now summarizes the first steps taken by the Palestinian National Authority to face the climate crisis. 

Based on work done for FoEME, Dr. David Brooks and Dr. Julie Trottier published an article this month in the Journal of Hydrology putting forth their approach as to what a future water agreement would look like between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Most treaties or agreements on water act as if water can be cut up like a pie, as if it were land. The approach taken here challenges this concept, and proposes a joint management structure that allows for ongoing conflict resolution concerning water demands and does so in a way that effectively de-nationalizes and de-securitizes water uses.