Tag Archives: River Jordan

Israel sees desalination as Sea of Galilee’s savior

A man walks towards an island that has materialized at the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

By Dan Williams

DEGANIA DAM, Israel (Reuters) – Some 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked across the Sea of Galilee, according to the Bible. Today, that doesn’t require a miracle.

Long periods of drought and over-pumping have brought the lake low. A reedy island has materialized at its southern edge, and will soon be a peninsula. Holiday-makers and fishermen teeter over expanding boggy beaches to reach the waterline.

The depletion imperils Israel’s biggest reservoir, starving the River Jordan and Dead Sea. It also diminishes a landmark that rivals Jerusalem as a major draw for Christian pilgrims.

Israel sees a solution in desalination, in which it is a world leader. It plans to double the amount of Mediterranean seawater it processes and pipe half of it 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the Galilee.

Rocks are seen above the low-water level of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Rocks are seen above the low-water level of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

“We are doing this in order to save our nature, to fight global warming, to prevent the effect, the devastating effect, of global warming on the Sea of Galilee, and also to create a very significant water storage for the State of Israel,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who holds the cabinet water portfolio, told Reuters.

Noting the lake’s significance to Christians given the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracle-working there, Steinitz joked: “If he is coming back, we will make sure that he will have to make a real effort to walk on the water once more.”

Environmentalists welcome the move. Last full in 2004, the Galilee has dropped six meters (18 feet). It may be just weeks away from hitting a “black line” – 214.87 meters below global sea level – where it risk permanent contamination and pressure change from sediment.

Israelis hope winter rains will hold that off until the first desalinated water is piped in, next year.

PRESSURE

Preserving the lake would free Israel to offer Jordan more water under a 1994 peace treaty.

“If there is irreversible damage done to the Sea of Galilee, to the Jordan, to this whole ecosystem, Israel’s enemies could use it against her,” said David Parsons, vice president of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which oversees evangelical outreach to Israel.

“It could also affect Christian tourism to the land. It’s very good to see Israel taking responsible steps now to address this, finally.”

People cool off in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

People cool off in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israel’s plan provides for piping in 120 million cubic meters annually. Steinitz hopes to see that almost tripled in a cabinet vote next month. Such capacity, he said, would replenish the Galilee by 2026.

He predicted a small bump to consumers’ water tariffs, to help defray the $622 million infrastructure cost.

Still, with a national election due in 2019 and an unusually wet winter looming, some worry the Galilee could be again neglected.

“The vulnerability of this program is that the Water Authority has to continue to commit to maximizing desalination production,” said Gidon Bromberg, Israel director for the environmental group EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East. “And that is a commitment that could change every year.”

The authority’s director, Giora Shaham, sounded reassuring.

“We need this water, not only for us but also for the Jordanians, because they are in very, very tough conditions now from the water problem point of view,” he said.

(The story restores missing word in 10th paragraph.)

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Jeffrey Heller, Larry King)

Landmine clearing near Jordan River baptism site begins before Easter

By Eli Berlzon

QASR AL-YAHUD, West Bank (Reuters) – On the western bank of the River Jordan, not far from the spot where Christians believe Jesus was baptized, experts have begun clearing thousands of mines from the ruins of eight churches and surrounding land deserted more than 50 years ago.

Once the anti-tank mines and other explosives are removed, the compounds containing a Roman Catholic church and seven Eastern Orthodox churches abandoned after the 1967 Middle East war can be re-opened, said HALO Trust, a Scottish-based charity organizing the endeavor together with Israel.

The mined area, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is about a kilometer (half-mile) from Qasr al-Yahud, the baptism site which HALO said was visited by around 570,000 Christian pilgrims last year.

A team of Israeli, Palestinian and Georgian experts, using hand-held mine detectors and armored mechanical diggers, began clearing the church compounds and the surrounding desert shrubland shortly before the Christian Holy Week that precedes Easter.

A sign warning from land mines is seen on a fence near Qasr Al-Yahud, a traditional baptism site along the Jordan River, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, March 29, 2018

A sign warning from land mines is seen on a fence near Qasr Al-Yahud, a traditional baptism site along the Jordan River, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Rusting barbed wire fences, with signs warning “Danger Mines!” in Hebrew, English and Arabic, run along a dusty road leading to the 100-hectare (27 acre) area. HALO says the land contains around 2,600 mines and an unknown number of other unexploded ordnance.

Some of the churches may be boobytrapped, the charity says.

In a safe zone at the riverside on Thursday, a family from Spain wearing white baptismal robes stepped into the water.

HALO has been raising funds for the project over several years and said in a statement it intends to complete work at the site by Christmas.

Israel’s Defence Ministry and its Israel National Mine Action Authority have contributed at least half the funding for the project, a ministry spokeswoman said.

HALO described the project as a rare example of multi-faith collaboration in the Middle East, involving Israel and the Palestinian Authority that administers limited self-rule in the West Bank, which welcomed the efforts.

The river area was once a war zone between Israel and Jordan. The two neighbors made peace in 1994 but it took many years before some mine clearing began.

Both claim that the site where John the Baptist and Jesus met is on their side of the biblical river. The Gospel of John refers to “Bethany beyond the Jordan” without further details.

In 2002, Jordan opened its site, showing remains of ancient churches and writings of pilgrims down the centuries to bolster its claim. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2015.

A sapper belonging to the HALO Trust, an international landmine clearance charity, looks for old mines in an abandoned church property complex near Qasr Al-Yahud, a traditional baptism site along the Jordan River, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, March 29, 2018.

A sapper belonging to the HALO Trust, an international landmine clearance charity, looks for old mines in an abandoned church property complex near Qasr Al-Yahud, a traditional baptism site along the Jordan River, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israel opened the baptism area on the western bank of the river in 2011. It has a modern visitor center and stairs for pilgrims to descend into the muddy water.

HALO, which has cleared landmines all over the world and was once sponsored by the late Princess Diana, said on Thursday that three of their staff members were killed and two injured by the accidental detonation of an anti-tank mine in Nagorno Karabakh.

The group were in a vehicle conducting a minefield survey when the explosion occurred in the separatist region in Azerbaijan.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)