Clean waters
Jordan Times
Listing Jordan River among the top most endangered cultural heritage sites
in the world comes as no surprise.
The Friends of the Earth Middle East Society and the World Monument Fund,
the renowned international watchdog of cultural heritages worldwide, have
sounded the alarm about the inevitable demise of the river and showed what
protecting it from becoming altogether extinct entails.
The guilty parties are Israel, Jordan and Syria, which continue to divert
the already limited water flow for their agricultural needs.
Moreover, instead of protecting this precious body of water, safeguarding
its biodiversity and helping its ecological rehabilitation, the riparian states
treat the river as a dumping ground for their waste.
Protecting the Baptism Site because it is a praised tourist place is fine,
but not enough. More is needed, from all the countries along the river banks.
Even though Article 18 of the Jordan-Israeli Peace Treaty calls on the two
sides to conserve the river, they are not fulfilling this commitment and therefore
are not living up to their treaty obligations.
Lest it should be forgotten, the fast evaporation of Dead Sea water has a
lot to do with the diversion of the Jordan River water for farming purposes. The
Dead Sea has become a casualty of ill-conceived farming policies and is on the
road to extinction as well.
All sides have the duty to exert efforts, joined if needed, to breathe new
life into the river. That entails halting water diversions and stopping dumping
waste and sewage into it. And the international community should also lend a
helping hand.
This sacred river, part of the world heritage, deserves to be preserved.
That is not to say that other threatened life-giving bodies of water, and they are
many, should be ignored.
Deforestation, greenhouse gas emission, all man-induced despoiling of nature
already show what the devil-may-care attitude of few generations can result
in.
We owe it to our children to leave unspoiled the gifts entrusted by the
bountiful nature upon us. Steps can be taken, before it is too late.