MIDEASTENVIRONET - The Middle East Environmental Network

The Daily Star

July 25, 2007

By John Ehab
Special to The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The non-governmental organization Bahr Loubnan urged the Environment Ministry on Tuesday to remove polluted sand accumulated along Lebanon's shores during efforts to clean up an oil spill cause by an Israeli attack in 2006. An Israeli air strike on the Jiyyeh power plant during last summer's war spilled over 15,000 tons of crude oil into the Mediterranean, polluting much of Lebanon's coast.

"Sadly, crude oil still ... remains along the shore," said president of the Lebanese Union of Professional Divers Mohammad Sarji on behalf of Bahr Loubnan. "The ministry is refusing any local solution and insists on transferring the [accumulated] remains out of Lebanon at a high cost."

However, Ali Darwish, the president of the environmental NGO Green Line, says the Environment Ministry is not solely responsible for the removal of the polluted sand.

"The Public Works Ministry is also responsible for the Lebanese shores," he added. "But they haven't" approached the problem since it began.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

The Directorate General of Maritime and Land Transport, a department under the Public Works Ministry, has shown no signs of trying to solve the problem, Darwish said, adding that the group has never been involved in addressing envi-ronmental crises along Lebanon's shores.

"Even the Lebanese government has never mentioned the oil spill or any of the environmental disasters," he said.

Also attending Tuesday's meeting was American ecology professor Rick Steiner, who is visiting Lebanon to assess the Lebanese beaches one year after the crisis began. Steiner aided in the environmental assessment of 1989's Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

The UN General Assembly called on Israel in February to compensate the Lebanese government for the costs of environmental damage. The cost of treating the oil spill was estimated by the Environment Ministry at approximately $200 million.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=84062#

Posted by MEEF at 01:58 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 23, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

Residents in Arab and Jewish communities near the Hilazon Stream in the Galilee are fed up with its sewage problem. Last week, they decided to share their troubles with National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, sending him a petition describing how fecal sewage flows undisturbed into the stream, endangering their children's health. They demanded that Ben-Eliezer order the national sewage authority to immediately address the problem.

Galilee streams have become sewage carriers in recent years, and the region of lovely landscape that is supposed to attract tourists is rapidly filling up with sites hazardous to everyone's health. The catalyst is population growth and the inability of local authorities to maintain and operate waste treatment systems. The most serious case is the pollution of Kziv Stream by sewage originating primarily in Beit Jann, which led to the contamination of springs used for drinking water.

Residents of communities in the Misgav Regional Council and Arab locales, such as Sakhnin, Dir Hana and Arabeh, recently formed the Committee to Save the Hilazon Stream. In a petition addressed to Ben-Eliezer, they said that the river is being inundated with sewage from places where 20,000 people live.

"After years of neglect and following repeated applications to the national sewage authority and all channels in your ministry, we were informed two years ago that a solution exists and it is laying a kilometer-long sewage pipeline to be connected to an orderly sewage grid," the residents wrote. "Unfortunately, for two years, the authorities handling this under your responsibility have not met their obligations and are stalling on dealing with this even today."

Sewage is also flowing into the streams from the direction of the town of Tamra and the community of Zarzir, endangering drilling for drinking water, according to Sigal Blumenfeld of the northern district at the Environment Ministry. In the case of Tamra, there is a plan to connect the town to the new waste treatment facility to be opened near Acre. At Beit Jann, by contrast, the dysfunctional sewage system is supposed to be connected to a new facility that does not fall under the jurisdiction of the local council, but that facility is only in the planning stage.

Blumenfeld says there is a vicious cycle at work in the Galilee: local authorities cannot maintain sewage systems because they are in crisis financially, and the recurrent malfunctions only tighten their budget crunch.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884491.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:52 PM | Permalink

Jerusalem Post

Jul. 24, 2007

RORY KRESS
Gidon Bromberg, founder and Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, loves his job not just because it allows him to fight for the environment, but because it gives him an opportunity to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians.

Last Thursday, Mayor Yitzhak Wald of Baka al-Gharbiya-Jat signed a memorandum of understanding along with his Palestinian counterpart just across the Green Line and the security barrier, Mayor Moayad Hussein of Baka a-Sharkiya, pledging to join together to protect the Wadi Abu Nar, whose polluted stream is shared by both communities, located east of Hadera and north of Tulkarm.

The event was organized by the Friends of the Earth Middle East's Good Water Neighbors project.

Seventeen other Israel-Palestinian pairings are involved in similar environmental protection projects - including one involving Abasan el-Kabir (the municipality supports Fatah) in the southeast Gaza Strip and Eshel Hanassi in the Negev. Bromberg says that soon, up to twenty-one pairs of communities will join the project.

In this region, according to Bromberg, there is a mutual dependence on shared water sources that know no borders. The Jordan River Valley, the Mountain Aquifer on the border with the West Bank, and the Coastal Aquifer that runs for 120 km all require cooperation between Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians if they are to be protected, he says.

"We can't afford to stop talking about water," says Bromberg, adding that the only talks that continued throughout the second intifada were those on water resources.

Bromberg expresses great pride in his organization's youth program: the Young Water Trustees. This year, the Young Water Trustees will be working on a "Constructive Wetlands" project, taking "grey water" (lightly polluted water) and treating it by running it through a garden. The water can then be employed for some agricultural uses.

Yale University recently accepted Bromberg to the Yale World Fellows Program. He will join 17 other mid-career leaders, selected from 970 applicants, in a four-month seminar including access to any of Yale's 3,000 courses, individually tailored skill-building training. and meetings with US and foreign leaders.

During his time at Yale, Bromberg estimates he will speak up to three times a week about Friends of the Earth Middle East, informing some of the United States's budding leaders about sustainable environmental protection as a means to peace.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766055295&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 01:48 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 10, 2007

By Eli Ashkenazi

Five eagles were set free from the Carmel wildlife reserve yesterday, including among them Mendelssohn, the first eagle chick to hatch in the reserve after 53 years.

Named after the late Heinrich Mendelssohn, one of Israel's leading zoologists, Mendelssohn had been returned to the wild over a year ago and settled on Mount Carmel. But the rocket volleys during the Second Lebanon War - which caused many bush and forest fires on the mountain - scared him away, and Mendelssohn was believed to have left the country in search of a more calm nesting area.

The transmitter attached to Mendelssohn's body stopped working, and all contact with him was cut off.

Mendelssohn returned to the reserve two months ago, and was observed sitting on the roof of the cage in which he had grown up. He was captured and examined, then joined the four eagles that had been brought to the reserve for fitting with transmitters.

All the eagles received special wing tags to help identify them from the ground during their flight.

"Monitoring eagles is part of our work to preserve and nurture the eagle community in Israel, and helps us to prevent attempts to harm the eagles, like poisoning," said Eli Amitai, director of Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority.

Amitai said the eagles in the north suffered over the past year from the war and poisoning. "We hope to restore the eagle community and return to the time in which many raptors, especially eagles, were seen in Israel's sky," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880067.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Arab Environmental Monitor

July 14, 2007

For the first time in its history, UNESCO World Heritage Programme had to take the bad decision of removing one site from its glamorous list of global natural wonders, and the site in question is an Arabian Oryx sanctuary in Oman.

No bad feelings in politics, however. The Omani government was the one asking for removal of the site from the list and both UNESCO and IUCN had to comply, according to an IUCN press release.

The press release says that IUCN had identified serious threats to the natural values of the site for a number of years. These were discussed several times by the World Heritage Committee, which called for urgent action to redress the threats. The sanctuary’s problems included ineffective planning and management, poaching, oil and gas exploration and extensive and uncontrolled use of off-road vehicles within the site. With this package of problems, there is effectively no sanctuary functioning.

During the last joint IUCN and UNESCO monitoring mission to the sanctuary in January 2007, it was clear that the threats facing the site had escalated to unprecedented levels. In January, the Sultanate of Oman issued a Royal Decree reducing the size of the World Heritage site by 90% from 27,500 km2 to 2,854 km2.

This unprecedented action contravenes all the process adopted by the World Heritage Convention. With the extreme reduction in size, the property no longer has the outstanding universal value for which it was put on the World Heritage List.
The population of Arabian oryx has significantly declined from 450 in 1996 to a current situation where there is only one breeding herd of four females and four males. The capacity of the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary to maintain a viable free-ranging population of this endangered specie has been extremely reduced.

This is really a big loss. Among the Arab countries Oman has a very impressive record of environmental awareness and effective policies. To extend the damaging impact of modern industries and negative behaviours to a site known for its global natural importance is really a shocking situation.

http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/7/267605.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:33 AM | Permalink

Arab Environment Monitor

July 20, 2007

Batir Wardham

While thinking of which Arab sites can be nominated for the new 7 natural wonders campaign which has started right after the end of the New Seven Wonders competition which saw Petra as a winner, I was trtying to see how many Arab sites are actually inscribed in the official UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. I know they are not too much and I know that one site in Oman was deleted recently for failing to adhere to guidelines, but I have never thought the number will be only TWO sites.

The first is the Ichkeul national park in Tunisia that ws inscribed in 1980. The Ichkeul lake and wetland are a major stopover point for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds, such as ducks, geese, storks and pink flamingoes, who come to feed and nest there. Ichkeul is the last remaining lake in a chain that once extended across North Africa.
Almost 25 year later the second site inscribed is the Whale Valley in Egypt. Wadi Al-Hitan, Whale Valley, in the Western Desert of Egypt, contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, suborder of whales, the archaeoceti. These fossils represent one of the major stories of evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. This is the most important site in the world for the demonstration of this stage of evolution. It portrays vividly the form and life of these whales during their transition. The number, concentration and quality of such fossils here is unique, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. The fossils of Al-Hitan show the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of losing their hind limbs. They already display the typical streamlined body form of modern whales, whilst retaining certain primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. Other fossil material in the site makes it possible to reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the time.
Wadi Al-Hitan is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales. It portrays vividly their form and mode of life during their transition from land animals to a marine existence. It exceeds the values of other comparable sites in terms of the number, concentration and quality of its fossils, and their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. It accords with key principles of the IUCN study on fossil World Heritage Sites, and represents significant values that are currently absent from the World Heritage List.
Two exquisite sites are not enough. The shoratge of Arab sites in the UNESCO World natural Heritage List is a function of the inadequate capacity of Arab environmental and tourism agencies. The process of inscription is difficult and involves adherence to strict guidelines. I am sure there are many sites in the Arab World that can be inscribed including the famous Soqotra in Yemen and maybe Wadi Rum in Jordan. Arab Ministries of environment and tourism have to do their job properly and focus on including the Arab sites in the list.

http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/7/272344.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 25, 2007

By Eli Ashkenazi

A tiny wasp that has ravaged eucalyptus groves in the Mediterranean Basin, Africa and the Far East, and which arrived in Israel a few years ago, has proven anew that no organism is eternally dominant. Israeli researchers have found a predator one millimeter in length called Closterocerus, which thwarts the wasp's advance.

Several nations have already turned to Israel for information about this natural adversary. David Brand, head of the Jewish National Fund's (JNF) Department of Forestry and Development, says, "Six years ago, two species of wasps were discovered to create galls [abnormal swellings of plant tissue], thus damaging eucalyptus leaves: the Leptocybe invasa, which damages new leaves, and the Ophelimus maskelli, which damages mature leaves. Both wasps subject eucalyptus trees to continuous attack."

The wasps reproduce on eucalyptus leaves, blanketing them and causing the leaves to fall. The wasps spread "like wildfire," according to David Brand, halting the trees' growth.

In Israel, the wasps are prevalent from the Southern Golan Heights in the North to the Western Negev Desert in the South. They also attack eucalyptus groves in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Kenya and South Africa, and there are reports of damage to trees in Vietnam, India and Thailand.

Massive damage to eucalyptus trees compelled a team of JNF-funded scientists to launch research three years ago to identify the pest's biological adversaries. Professor Zvi Mendel of the Agriculture Ministry's Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Dr. Alex Protasov, Dr. Zion Madar, Nitza Sapir and David Brand traveled to Australia to find the wasp's natural enemy. There, they were assisted by Dr. John La Salle and Joe Krycer, a member of JNF-Australia. "It was like finding a needle in a haystack," Brand says, "because there are dozens of pests and dozens of predators."

After they found leaf tissue scarred by galls like those that developed in Israel, they took samples and sent them to Israel. Here, researchers followed the development of wasp larvae that emerged from the galls and the development of the wasp's predator, which hatched from the leaves at the same time. The scientists closely observed the Closterocerus to ensure that they only preyed on the wasps' eggs and larvae and did not damage other insects.

After a year of testing the predator's behavior, researchers received approval from the Agriculture Ministry Plant Protection and Inspection Services to release the Closterocerus into Israel's forests. This approval only applies to Ophelimus maskelli wasps, as it is still unclear that Closterocerus can control Leptocybe invasa wasps without damaging other species.

"There has been palpable reduction of the damage done by Ophelimus maskelli," says Brand. "According to reports, its predator naturally migrated to Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey."

Nations located farther from Israel requested that the Israeli research team send the predator to them. South Africa, a nation with commercial eucalyptus groves that feed its wood and paper industries, recently turned to Israel for assistance. Professor Mendel also received requests for help from India and Thailand.

"In India and Thailand, eucalyptus groves are gravely threatened by the wasp," says Brand. "This represents tremendous financial damage. In commercial forestry, damage in cents per dunam determines the size of income."

Israeli experts in this field recently traveled to Thailand and will soon leave for South Africa.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/885332.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:23 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 25, 2007

By Mijal Grinberg

Towering over the trees of the Yatir Forest on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron is a green metallic building. Passersby may mistake it for just another weather forecast station, but in fact, the research conducted there could help combat desertification around the world. The research station, operated by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, is the only facility in the Middle East capable of measuring greenhouse gases.

The station at Yatir was set up six years ago, as part of the FluxNet worldwide network established by scientists to investigate carbon dioxide absorption by plants. Professor Dan Yakir, who operates the station, says that the Yatir forest station is unique because it alone is situated in a semi-arid climate.

And indeed, the data that he and his students have collected seems to be quite unusual: Apparently, the trees at Yatir forest grow just as fast as other trees growing in regions with twice the precipitation. A closer inspection revealed that the trees were compensating for the lack of water by making use of carbon dioxide.

These findings may create a new perspective on planting forests in arid regions, Yakir explains. Such forests could be planted to help curb desertification and reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which could help to prevent global warming. However, Yakir adds that the practical conclusions stemming from the findings are inconclusive.

For example, Yatir says, planting forests in arid areas would take up large quantities of water, which could otherwise be used for other needs.

Helping Yakir at the station are Naama Raz-Yassif, 37, and Leon Peters, 25, who belong to a team of five other graduate students. Raz-Yassif and Peters arrive once a week at the station to gather the data, clean the equipment (which includes more than 80 measuring devices) and provide maintenance.

On their weekly visit to the station yesterday, Leon installed a device to analyze isotopes in evaporated water. Each member of Yakir research team hails from a different field of study. Raz-Yassif, for example, conducts research into water. On her visit to the station yesterday she recovered a device that measures the rate of water evaporation from the soil.

Other FluxNet stations around the globe are also dedicated to understanding the role that forests have in the emission and absorption of carbon dioxide. That is because forests as a whole consume 25 percent of all carbon dioxide, a gas which has a profound effect on global warming. As in other FluxNet stations, the facility at Yatir examines all relevant climatic and geologic factors, such as salinity, wind and temperature.

Yatir forest was not selected at random. The area was chosen specifically for the scarce rainfall that it receives - less than 300 millimeters per year. "This level of precipitation is atypical of forests, including those being examined elsewhere in the world," Yakir explains. Moreover, the trees at Yatir forest are not natives. They were planted there in the 1960s.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/885342.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:20 AM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 19, 2007

MATTHEW KRIEGER

The long awaited multi-billion dollar deal with the British energy company BG Group will be signed "imminently," a high-ranking official in the National Infrastructure Ministry told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

"In this deal there are two chief negotiators - Hezi Kugler, the director-general of the Infrastructure Ministry and Yarom Ariav, director-general of the Finance Ministry, and believe me when I tell you that the deal, in principle, is really almost done," the official told The Jerusalem Post.

He also dispelled any rumors about the possible breakup of the deal stemming from stalled negotiations between Israel and BG over the price of the gas and said in an interview with the Post that Kugler met earlier this week with BG Vice President Nigel Shaw and the two made "great strides" towards finalizing the last components of the deal.

"Right now we are at the point where we are ready to sign a deal in principle, which is the first stage of the agreement, and then we will be ready to start talking about the legalities involved," he said. The official pointed that a "deal in principle" includes agreeing to how much gas would be sold to Israel, at what price and for how many years.

According to an article that appeared in Globes on Tuesday, BG sources said the company would only allow for a few more months of negotiations over the price at which the gas would be sold and if there was no deal would revert to an earlier plan of selling the estimated 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to Egypt.

A BG spokesman did confirmed the report to the Post, saying that "while BG wants to sell the gas to Israel, if we can't make any progress, we will sell the gas to Egypt."

The Infrastructure official, nevertheless, stood by his comments as a representative of the Israeli government but said he could not speak for BG.

The gas under discussion is located off the coast of the Gaza Strip in the Gaza Marine field and has been said to be worth some $4 billion, a number that likely will depending on the final price agreed upon by Israel and BG.

Israel began talks with BG in February 2006 and said in May of that year that it expected to buy 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas from BG annually starting in 2009. Soon after, BG broke off talks with Israel and said that it preferred bringing gas to Egypt to be liquefied and then shipped by tankers to the US, Europe and the Far East. Talks resumed in July 2006, and in April of this year the cabinet voted 21-to-three to grant a negotiating team formal permission to hold talks with BG on the purchase of gas from the Gaza Marine field.

Located about 50 kilometers off the Gaza Strip coast, control of the Gaza Marine field was given to the PA following the Oslo Accords. BG acquired the rights to drill for gas in the field about eight years ago, however, the terms of agreement by which they acquired the field are unknown.

"BG is an upstanding company and despite the fact that we don't know exactly how it was acquired, we trust that they did everything correct," said the ministry official.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766008253&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 11:16 AM | Permalink

Ma'an

July 20, 2007

تكبير الخط تصغير الخط
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israel and the Palestinian Authority are reportedly in talks over signing the largest mutual economic agreement since the Oslo Accords, the Israeli Maariv daily reported on Friday.

The paper said that the agreement focuses on the supply of Gaza gas to Israel, through British Gas. Natural gas was found off the coast of Gaza in 2000 and BG has been in talks with the PA – specifically the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) – over drilling the gas and selling it to Israel.

The deal, if signed, would reach some three or four billion US dollars, according to Maariv.

The negotiations are taking place between the political advisors of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the chief PLO negotiator, Saeb Erekat, Maariv reported. The talks are focusing on securing guarantees that the funds of the deal will not reach "terrorist organizations," as defined by Israel.

The paper added that the international Quartet's new envoy to the Middle East, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, might contribute to reaching the signing of this deal.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24129

Posted by MEEF at 11:16 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 18, 2007

Yusuf Mansur

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation is planning to build a water treatment plant less than two miles from the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA). In spite of its perfect knowledge of the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) plan, the planned and already approved expansion of the airport and the opposition of the Ministry of Environment, the ministry seems adamant. Maybe there should be more communication among the government’s various branches.

According to published information, the Ministry of Water purchased a plot
of land, two miles south of the QAIA, in 1998 after concluding an environmental
assessment that year supporting such location for the establishment of a
water treatment plant.

The land, 279,000sq.m., was purchased at a time when land prices were low,
possibly one-tenth if not less, of their current prices, and real estate
development was sparse in that region.

Currently, land prices in the area reach over JD1 million per hectare, as
investors flocked to the area with residential and commercial projects. The
airport is being expanded at a cost of JD500 million to handle nine million
passengers annually. The executive branch of government was asked to work on
improving the area around the airport because it is the main point of entry
into the country by air.

Environmental reports indicate that the planned treatment plant may create
brackish water and bird concentrations that may threaten the safety of
passengers and planes.

The location of the plant is close to Qasr Al Mushatta, a tourist site that
has no equal among the desert palaces of the region. The smell of the chosen
site would pollute the air and scenery in an area that is supposed to highlight
the beauty and modernity of Jordan — the airport and the lands surrounding is
the first impression a traveller receives of the country.

The water may seep into areas that will host 16,000 housing units (80,000
citizens), plus thousands of other units that are planned there.

The Ministry of Environment already addressed the Ministry of Water in an
official communiquי indicating that based on a technical assessment by the
Ministry of Environment, the chosen location is in close proximity of
residential areas and the airport, which could endanger air traffic.

The Ministry of Environment requested that a new environmental assessment be
conducted. The old assessment was conducted nine years ago (Jordan did not
have a Ministry of Environment back then) and, therefore, according to Jordanian
law, it is no longer valid.

The Ministry of Water is showing reservations because the relocation would
cost an additional JD2 million of the reported plant cost of JD44 million.
However, a win-win solution does exist. The land can be sold to investors and over
JD10 million can be made in capital gains to the Ministry of Water, which can be
applied to the cost of relocation to the new site; the government could save
JD8 million, and the environment around the airport could be, thus, safeguarded.

What is truly baffling is that the GAM has already circulated a well
thought-out plan regarding Greater Amman, showing current and planned residential,
commercial, industrial and agricultural concentrations.

The plan has been distributed and made available on the GAM website. Several
public meetings have taken place and presentations have been made of the GAM
plan and strategy, and discussions spanned hours. Therefore, to claim that
the content of the plan is unknown is inexcusable. Placing the water treatment
plant in such close proximity to what has become known as Jordan’s
“investment corridor” could deteriorate the gargantuan efforts undertaken so far to
attract investment to one of the hottest spots in the Kingdom.

Maybe government agencies should talk among themselves, and talk environment
first, not because environment is a luxury but because it is a guarantee of
a safer and better future and a more refined quality of life. Nine million
travellers will be coming (currently six million) to Jordan through the QAIA
every year. We really do not want the first thing they see as a sign of the
development of the Kingdom a water treatment plant, never mind smell it.

Posted by MEEF at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 17, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The government will introduce new regulations this month to regulate the practice of sandblasting to clean buildings, a government official said on Monday.

Ministry of Environment Spokesperson Isa Shboul said the regulations are being introduced following complaints by citizens and also as a result of studies which prove that dust caused by sandblasting is harmful to the respiratory system.

"It's not only harmful to health but also pollutes the environment," said Shboul.

Sandblasting is a general term used to describe the act of propelling very fine bits of material, usually sand, at high velocity to clean or etch a surface.

The new regulations will require owners of sandblasting businesses to replace dry sand with wet sand, thus limiting the spread of dust emissions in the air.

The regulations also oblige them to screen off the buildings on which they are working with canvas to limit dust emissions.

"Citizens have also complained about the piles of sand left near premises where sandblasting has taken place," Shboul said.

The ministry, in cooperation with the Environmental Police Department will supervise the disposal of sand residues after the cleaning process is completed, said Shboul.

He added that environmental police will carry out inspection campaigns to ensure people are abiding by the new regulations and that violators will be fined.

Posted by MEEF at 10:54 AM | Permalink

Peres Center For Peace

In June 2007, within the framework of the "Olives – The Symbol of Peace" project, which is a sub-project of the Peres Center's "Integrated Crop Management" program, the Peres Center, together with the General Council of Marseilles, France, held a 3-day Israeli-Palestinian-French workshop which focused on the improvement of olive oil quality and marketing techniques.

The Palestinian-Israeli delegation at the Olive Oil Workshop in France, June 2007

Some 35 delegates took part in various workshop sessions, which were presented by international experts in the field, including from the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace of the San Diego State University Foundation.

The highlight of the workshop was a major event that attracted 150 guests including local politicians and media representatives, which featured addresses by the head of the Palestinian, Israeli and French delegations, in addition to the Vice President of the General Council of Marseilles.
A session of olive oil tasting at the Israeli-Palestinian-French workshop in Marseilles, within the "Olives - the Symbol of Peace" project

Furthermore, the delegates were instructed as to how to differentiate between olive oil qualities. This session, which was led by leading tasters from Europe, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was held at Chateau Virant (one of the best winery and olive oil producers in Provence).

The valuable skills acquired by the delegates during the workshop will enable the Palestinian and Israeli delegates to work together to meet international olive oil standards for export, and eradicate the damaging olive fly.

http://www.peres-center.org/SectionProject.asp?cc=0109020105

Posted by MEEF at 02:29 PM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 17, 2007

Ron Friedman

A series of "green" motions were passed in the Knesset on Tuesday, as part of a day dedicated to environmental causes.

In their attempt to make Israel a more environmentally-friendly country, "Green" lawmakers and activists decided to start from the top. The leaders of the Knesset Socio-Environmental caucus, together with environmental student organization "The Green Course," submitted a report to the Knesset providing practical proposals for making the country's governing body more environmentally conscientious.

The 25-page report submitted by MKs Dov Kheinin (Hadash) and Michael Melchior (Labor), together with "Green Course" chairman Gil Ya'acov, lays out a plan based on the principle of the three R's: reduce, reuse and recycle.

The report, titled "Greenifying the Knesset," focuses on the issues of recycling and waste management, energy and water conservation, ecological gardening, and sustainable transportation solutions.

Many of the suggestions arose from looking at how parliamentary houses in other countries made their buildings more environmentally friendly.

The report suggests a range of practical solutions, including providing containers for sorting garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable bins, saving paper by using double-sided printing and more electronic documents, replacing regular light bulbs with more efficient ones, installing automated systems to regulate temperature and lighting, increasing the purchase of sustainable products, and relying more on public transportation and carpooling and less on private vehicles.

"The Knesset now has a historic opportunity to become one of the leading parliaments in the world in the field of environmental protection. As a young country whose parliament is currently being remodeled, we have the chance to implement an environmental move that other, older buildings would have problems completing," said Melchior.

"Real environmental activity in the Knesset has to take place both in legislation and in practical action," said Kheinin. "This report details how the Knesset can set an example for proper environmental conduct in public institutions."

On the legislative front, the Knesset set a series of environmental protection laws in motion, including one reassigning the responsibility for environmental law enforcement away from the state government and into the hands of local municipalities.

"This law is revolutionary. It gives local authorities both the legitimacy and the incentive to pursue environmental criminals," said Kheinin. The transfer of authority also means the municipalities will collect the revenue from pollution fines.

The Knesset also promoted a decision to discuss the legislation of a "clean beaches" bill. The motion came on the heels of a new report released earlier this week that described high levels of water pollution along the coast.

MK Ofir Paz-Pines, chairman of the Committee of the Interior and the Environment, called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to head a ministerial committee addressing Israel's policy on global warming.

"Israel must join the global village, which is in grave danger, and commit itself to joining other countries in adopting the 20/20 plan," said Pines. The plan refers to the challenge of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by 20 percent by the year 2020.

"Israel has a history of aggressive development, which is part of the Zionist ideology of taming the wilderness and building the nation. I'm telling you, we have to be very cautious in what we do," said Pines. "Israel's environment is sick, dangerous, polluting and unplanned. Every day, people in this country die because the environment is uncared-for."

The caucus failed to pass two motions: a law requiring stringent environmental protection of schools and kindergartens, and another a proposal to change the government tendering laws requiring that every government service provider's environmental performance be one of the factors for consideration. The Finance Ministry's budget committee appealed both motions.

"Israel must realize that global warming is no less dangerous than any other security threat facing this country," said Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra (Kadima), speaking before a nearly-empty chamber.

Ezra also called for each government and Knesset office to designate a staff member to be in charge of sustainable development in the office.

Ya'acov noted that "the Knesset is first and foremost supposed to represent the state of Israel and provide a symbol for its citizens. At a time when there is a crisis of trust between the people and their representatives, this move can demonstrate how the Knesset can set an example for promoting environmental concern in Israel."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184672474060&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 02:28 PM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 17, 2007

Ron Friedman

A series of "green" motions were passed in the Knesset on Tuesday, as part of a day dedicated to environmental causes.

In their attempt to make Israel a more environmentally-friendly country, "Green" lawmakers and activists decided to start from the top. The leaders of the Knesset Socio-Environmental caucus, together with environmental student organization "The Green Course," submitted a report to the Knesset providing practical proposals for making the country's governing body more environmentally conscientious.

The 25-page report submitted by MKs Dov Kheinin (Hadash) and Michael Melchior (Labor), together with "Green Course" chairman Gil Ya'acov, lays out a plan based on the principle of the three R's: reduce, reuse and recycle.

The report, titled "Greenifying the Knesset," focuses on the issues of recycling and waste management, energy and water conservation, ecological gardening, and sustainable transportation solutions.

Many of the suggestions arose from looking at how parliamentary houses in other countries made their buildings more environmentally friendly.

The report suggests a range of practical solutions, including providing containers for sorting garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable bins, saving paper by using double-sided printing and more electronic documents, replacing regular light bulbs with more efficient ones, installing automated systems to regulate temperature and lighting, increasing the purchase of sustainable products, and relying more on public transportation and carpooling and less on private vehicles.

"The Knesset now has a historic opportunity to become one of the leading parliaments in the world in the field of environmental protection. As a young country whose parliament is currently being remodeled, we have the chance to implement an environmental move that other, older buildings would have problems completing," said Melchior.

"Real environmental activity in the Knesset has to take place both in legislation and in practical action," said Kheinin. "This report details how the Knesset can set an example for proper environmental conduct in public institutions."

On the legislative front, the Knesset set a series of environmental protection laws in motion, including one reassigning the responsibility for environmental law enforcement away from the state government and into the hands of local municipalities.

"This law is revolutionary. It gives local authorities both the legitimacy and the incentive to pursue environmental criminals," said Kheinin. The transfer of authority also means the municipalities will collect the revenue from pollution fines.

The Knesset also promoted a decision to discuss the legislation of a "clean beaches" bill. The motion came on the heels of a new report released earlier this week that described high levels of water pollution along the coast.

MK Ofir Paz-Pines, chairman of the Committee of the Interior and the Environment, called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to head a ministerial committee addressing Israel's policy on global warming.

"Israel must join the global village, which is in grave danger, and commit itself to joining other countries in adopting the 20/20 plan," said Pines. The plan refers to the challenge of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by 20 percent by the year 2020.

"Israel has a history of aggressive development, which is part of the Zionist ideology of taming the wilderness and building the nation. I'm telling you, we have to be very cautious in what we do," said Pines. "Israel's environment is sick, dangerous, polluting and unplanned. Every day, people in this country die because the environment is uncared-for."

The caucus failed to pass two motions: a law requiring stringent environmental protection of schools and kindergartens, and another a proposal to change the government tendering laws requiring that every government service provider's environmental performance be one of the factors for consideration. The Finance Ministry's budget committee appealed both motions.

"Israel must realize that global warming is no less dangerous than any other security threat facing this country," said Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra (Kadima), speaking before a nearly-empty chamber.

Ezra also called for each government and Knesset office to designate a staff member to be in charge of sustainable development in the office.

Ya'acov noted that "the Knesset is first and foremost supposed to represent the state of Israel and provide a symbol for its citizens. At a time when there is a crisis of trust between the people and their representatives, this move can demonstrate how the Knesset can set an example for promoting environmental concern in Israel."

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184672474060&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 02:28 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 19, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

A few weeks ago, several school principals gathered excitedly at the Environment Ministry to receive their "green accreditation," certifying that their schools are committed to educating their pupils to protect the environment. To win accreditation, a school must devote at least 30 hours to environmental studies, make intelligent use of resources including water and energy, and operate a program involving community-oriented activity. Green accreditation has been awarded so far to 90 schools and 25 kindergartens. But while the phenomenon is growing, a new study claims that the levels of pupils' knowledge and commitment to the environment are still in desperate need of improvement.

The findings, by Maya Negev and Gonen Sagi, researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, will be reported on tomorrow at the Knesset, during an environmental-awareness day being held there.

In their study, entitled "Environmental Literacy in the Israeli School System," Negev and Sagi examined the knowledge, positions and conduct of 7,635 pupils in grades 6 through 12 at 182 schools.

"The study indicates an enormous gap between the declarations about the purpose and extent of environmental education, and its implementation," says Prof. Alon Tal of BGU, one of the people behind the study. "Anyone who thinks that environmental education is in good shape needs a reality check."

According to Tal, there are substantial gaps in knowledge among pupils concerning various environmental subjects, and they are not familiar with the most basic issues. The report's conclusions state that most local pupils have not been exposed to the subjects in question in a productive way. There are hardly any up-to-date materials on ecological issues, and curricula rarely include a practical component like helping to improve the environment in the school vicinity. In questionnaires distributed to the pupils, many answered only half or fewer of the questions correctly.

The most significant finding, in Tal's view, is the difference between knowledge and commitment to environmentally helpful behavior. "For example, we found that at Arab schools that scored low on environmental knowledge, environmental behavior got the highest score. There were schools in economically strong areas where the level of knowledge was high, but commitment was low."

The study suggests considering additional avenues for changing pupils' behavior, including via the family and local authorities.

The researchers claim that even at schools taking part in special programs sponsored by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Environment Ministry, only some of the showed higher levels of environmental literacy and committed behavior, in comparison to other schools.

Tal says that the Education Ministry is aware that instilling knowledge of environmental issues is not enough, and it is planning to introduce new initiatives through which schools will adopt sites for preservation and improvement.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/882111.html

Posted by MEEF at 02:20 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 19, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

The Water Commission warns of possible exposure to poisonous fumes that could spread from polluted land and water sources on sites planned for construction projects in the Dan region, which includes Tel Aviv and Givatayim. Such plans include the "City Project," located in a major commercial and industrial area in the Givatayim municipality, just south of the diamond exchange. The Water Commission has been running tests of the ground water and land pollution levels in the Dan region for the past three years.

The pollution, caused by industries that operated in the area over a period of decades, has spread by sublimation of poisonous fumes. An American company recently completed testing nine sites suspected of being heavily polluted.

Following the tests, Sarah Elhanani, head of the Water Commission's Water Quality Division, has sent letters to a number of water experts and planning committees about the findings, which she says, "give a particularly disturbing picture of sites with serious ground water pollution," Elhanani wrote.

According to Elhanani, the Tel Aviv municipality has plans to build on a site at the corner of Yigal Alon and Arvei Nachal Streets, adjacent to the site planned for Givatayim's City Project. "If pollution in this area is not treated," she wrote, "there is a danger of human exposure to fumes of volatile poisons. These materials could spread and harm residents of the area, both during development works and in the future."

Extensive pollution was also found at the former location of the Israel Military Industries (IMI) in northern Tel Aviv. A residential neighborhood was constructed on the site, thought the polluted ground water was not treated. The most polluted areas at the site are currently out of reach for testing, since apartment buildings have been constructed over them. Nevertheless, tests carried out nearby show that the pollution continues to spread.

Elhanani warns that unless all polluted spots are treated, drinking water drill-sites will continue to close down. There is also a growing concern about possible exposure to polluted fumes which could penetrate existing and future buildings in Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv, she added.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/883877.html

Posted by MEEF at 02:14 PM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 17, 2007

Etgar Lefkovits

A 5,500-dunam area of natural forest and park land on the periphery of Jerusalem will be designated as Emek Refaim Park and declared a "green area" where construction is forbidden, the municipality said this week.

The mammoth park area - which will be double the size of the Tel Aviv suburb Givatayim - will stretch from the Sorek and Refaim rivers west of the capital to the Malha sports complex in the southeast, and will include the city's Biblical Zoo.

The park, set to include a wide range of recreational and nature activities, woodlands, sport and leisure expanses, scenic roads, biking paths and natural springs, is part of a city plan to establish parks and green areas in and around Jerusalem.

In November, Mayor Uri Lupolianski suspended the Safdie Plan. The proposal, named after its original planner, architect Moshe Safdie, would have seen the construction of 20,000 housing units on more than 26 sq.-km. of natural woodlands and forests west of Jerusalem.

The plan was subsequently nixed by an Interior Ministry building committee following one of the largest environmental campaigns in years.

Ahinoam Pollack contributed to this report.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184672473990&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 02:11 PM | Permalink

Arab Environmental Monitor

July 14, 2007

Batir Wardham

In Arab countries with scarce water resources and shortage of money and technologies for desalination, the option of greywater reuse and treatment is gaining a lot of potential. Despite problems that appeared in small-scale applications of greywater resuse in households the technologies are getting better and cheaper. The main element will be for the local community itself to adopt the technologies even when the donors leave.

The IDRC's WadiMENA initiative has developed a very useful technical bulliten on greywater treatment and reuse in MENA countries. This bulletin introduces greywater as a Water Demand Management tool that has the potential to contribute to alleviating water scarcity in the dry countires of the MENA region. The bulletin captures local knowledge on greywater treatment and reuse in MENA, gained as a result of research projects funded and coordinated by IDRC. It is intended to highlight the future courses of action requisite to balance between the increasing challenges of water scarcity, food security and sustainable development. The bulletin also sheds light on the Aqaba declaration that came out as a result of the greywater experts meeting held back in February 2007. The bulletin is written by Karma El-Fadl, and edited by Doaa Arafa, Lorra Thompson and Mark Redwood
For every water management practitioner in the field this guide will be handy.

The English guide is here: http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11836240891Greywater_Treatme_Eng._03061.pdf

Posted by MEEF at 01:58 PM | Permalink

Al Jazeera (English)

July 15, 2007

By Farid Barsoum in the Nile Delta, Egypt

Some Egyptians have to walk
many kilometres to get clean water
A large puddle provides the only drinking water for many residents of Brulus on the Nile Delta. The water is putrid.

Anger and desperation brought residents to the streets, blocking the local highway in protest at what they say is the Egyptian government's indifference to the crisis.

One woman protesting said: "We have to use this water, we have no choice. Dead dogs and donkeys are thrown into this water.

"It's very dirty yet. We use it for drinking, to wash our clothes and dishes."

The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people die each year in Egypt from water borne diseases or dehydration.

Failing crops

And it is not just the people who are dying of thirst - so is the land.

Watch Farid Barsoum's report on shortage of water in the Delta
Farms are not producing enough crops. Farmers are falling into debt waiting through another meagre harvest.

One farmer said: "We can't sleep at night we're so thirsty. We have no one to go to except maybe to God for help."

More than 100,000 people in the area are facing sickness or death from the water shortage.

Hadeen Sabbahi, opposition member of parliament for Brulus and Hmoul, said: "There is a hidden and ignored thirst problem in Egypt. The protests here brought light to the problem.

"How can a country that has the Nile river suffer like this? A glass of clean water is a basic right of all citizens."

Bureaucracy

More than 10,000 people in the area face
sickness or death due to the shortage
Government opposition parties say bureaucratic red tape is delaying the building of a purified water network in the area, with priority being given to more affluent and tourist-drawing areas.

People must often walk many kilometres to get cleaner water, or in some cases they end up fighting each other for what little water they get here.

"I will steal to feed my children," one man said. "We work to pay for water. Soon we will even have to buy air from the government."

As people grow more desperate, so does anger at the authorities' negligence.

The hope now is for water to flow or for the government to start running.

Posted by MEEF at 01:23 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 18, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday announced plans to establish a treatment plant for medical and hazardous waste in the Zarqa area.

The plan was announced during a workshop to discuss the ministry's 2007-2009 strategic plan.

Minister of Environment Khalid Irani said the strategy focuses on several significant pillars, including the disposal of medical wastes.

"The ministry's efforts, in cooperation with the health sector is represented mainly by managing medical waste," Irani told the participants, who included representatives of governmental and nongovernmental organisations.

The three-year strategy also seeks to increase the percentage of medical waste that is treated in a environment-friendly way.

The strategy's major goals include developing regulations and policies to preserve the environment, reinforcing regulations and inspections on industrial facilities, and upgrading awareness raising programmes, among others.

"The environment sector is not a separate entity from other development sectors, but rather a fundamental member in the economic and social growth process," Irani said.

The minister urged the Ministry of Agriculture to encourage farmers to invest in environment-friendly agricultural practices and to provide them with incentives to use organic fertilisers.

Earlier this month, the ministry called on Jordan Valley farmers to stop using untreated fertilisers which attract domestic flies and cause health and environmental problems.

In the transport sector, the minister said the strategy mainly focuses on reducing the use of leaded petrol in preparation for a complete shift to unleaded petrol by the beginning of next year.

The ministry will also prepare an integrated plan for rehabilitating the Zarqa River basin and help set regulations to protect water sources from pollutants.

The ministry has also initiated several projects to address the Zarqa River, which is severely polluted due to wastewater leakage, effluents from factories and sewage systems.

Posted by MEEF at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 19, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The winning bidder of the $600 million Disi Water Conveyance Project will be announced in two weeks, Ministry of Water and Irrigation sources said on Wednesday.

Three companies, including a Kuwaiti company, a Turkish company and an alliance of a Spanish-Italian company in February qualified to bid for the the project, which will supply Amman and the southern governorates with around 100 million cubic metres of water per year from the southern Disi aquifer for the next 100 years.

The ministry's spokesperson, Assistant Secretary General Adnan Zu'bi, said so far the Turkish company has tendered the lowest price per cubic metre of water, ranging between 75-80 fils.

"We will negotiate with the winning company to reach the lowest price to ensure citizens pay minimum prices," Zu'bi said.

"Each fils we manage to slash of the price will save the ministry JD1 million annually," he added.

The project, which will be completed four years after construction work begins, will include establishing a main pumping station, three storage wells and a 320-kilometre conveyance line.

The Disi project is one of six strategic plans initiated by the ministry to address the country's water deficit, which currently stands at 500 million cubic metres annually.

The consortium will run the Disi project for a period of 40 years after which the government, which will invest $200 million, will regain ownership.

Posted by MEEF at 11:52 AM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 19, 2007

RORY KRESS,

The mayors of Palestinian Baka a-Sharkiya (East Baka) and Israeli Baka al-Gharbiya (West Baka)-Jat signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to protect Wadi Abu Nar, a stream that runs through both municipalities.

Friends of the Earth Middle East, the local chapter of Friends of the Earth International, organized the memorandum and the signing between Baka a-Sharkiya Mayor Moayad Hussein and Baka al-Gharbiya-Jat Mayor Yitzhak Wald at the European Commission Building in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood.

The municipalities are situated east of Hadera and north of Tulkarm, and are separated by the Green Line and the security barrier.

Wadi Abu Nar is polluted and a health hazard. The memorandum of understanding includes a pledge to stop all dumping of solid waste into the stream and to work to beautify the Wadi in the hope that it will eventually become a recreational area.

The agreement also acknowledged the mayors' commitment to protect the Mountain Aquifer - the most important underground water source for both Israelis and Palestinians, endangered by sewage and waste dumping - by establishing an authorized sewage grid-system.

Baka al-Gharbiya-Jat agreed to connect its sewage-treatment plant, currently under construction, with a proposed waste-disposal network in Baka a-Sharkiya to the mutual benefit of both towns.

"The towns were once united... [but] then a new era of social suffering began," Hussein said of the security barrier, which has isolated his town from both Israel and the West Bank, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

The barrier hit Baka a-Sharkiya hard: separating students from schools, medical professionals from hospitals, and artisans from workshops and stores.

The environmental ramifications were major as well: 500 dunams, or 124 acres, were destroyed by the bulldozers and thousands of olive trees were uprooted, he said.

"It's precisely this type of project, bringing two communities across a border together for a common endeavor that reminds us that hope is possible," said Roy Dickenson, director of operations for the European Commission Technical Assistance Office. "It's the concrete, practical projects that make people work together... that bring peace."

Friends of the Earth Middle East sponsored the event as part of its Good Water Neighbors project, which operates under the "basic understanding among all people that water is the source of life," said Gidon Bromberg, the Friends' Israel director. "Therefore we have a mutual dependence on managing those shared water resources. Whether in times of conflict or... in times of peace."

"The environment knows no borders," said Friends of the Earth Middle East Palestinian director Nadr el-Khatib.

Wald said that when he was born during WWII, no one thought anything like the European Union could ever be a reality. "I believe that something like that could happen here," he said, "I'm looking forward with optimistic eyes."

Friends of the Earth Middle East was established in 1994, and unites Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians around environmental causes.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184766017884&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 11:41 AM | Permalink

MA'AN

July 19, 2007

JERUSALEM, 19 July 2007 (IRIN) - Two mayors - one Israeli and one Palestinian - signed a joint declaration on 19 July agreeing to improve cooperation between their towns in water and waste management as well as conservation.

Baqa al-Gharbiya (Western Baqa) and Baqa A-Sharqiya (Eastern Baqa) lie on either side of the green line border between Israel and the West Bank, and the mayors agreed to cooperate on issues of health and environment, despite the political divide between them.

A polluted river, Wadi Abu Naar, runs through the two towns.

"The sharing of air and water requires cooperation between the two sides," said Moayed Hussein, the Palestinian mayor of Baqa a-Sharqiya.

The drinking water in his village of 4,500 people has become severely polluted due to the dumping of solid waste in the river as well as the lack of a sewage system and treatment plant.

"The first and main health hazard the villagers face is pollution in their drinking water," said Yousef Sadeq, an environmental health expert with Friends of the Earth (FOE), a UK-based charity.

"Children get sick from the water. Diarrhoea, vomiting and other symptoms sometimes appear," Sadeq said, adding that he was concerned about outbreaks of dysentery and other water-borne diseases.

The Israeli mayor of Baqa al-Gharbiya, Yitzhak Wald, has agreed to allow his neighbours to connect to his town's sewage system and its water treatment plant, which they lack.

The Good Water Neighbors project, funded by the European Commission and run by FOE Middle East, has brought together 17 municipalities from Israel, the oPt and Jordan.

"The mayors are acting to prevent a health hazard and the spreading of diseases," said Gideon Bromberg from FOE.

However, the villages still need more funding to fully connect the systems. Hussein said he would like to pay for the connection, but his village has suffered economic loss since the outbreak of violence in 2000. "People used to work in Israel and now they can't," he said.

---
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The information in this article is not compiled by Ma'an reporters.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=24140

Posted by MEEF at 08:48 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 16, 2007

By BEN WINOGRAD, Associated Press Writer

SHEIK HUSSEIN VILLAGE Jordan

For years, Ibrahim Alayyan watched in frustration as rats ravaged the date crop at his lush family farm.

Having no luck with pesticides, the retired Jordanian heart surgeon was only too eager to try a pest control agent widely used in fields just across the Jordan River in Israel owls.

"There used to be so many rats," Alayyan said. "But after we put in the owls, thank God, this is the first time we have had a full date harvest."

To the world, the symbol of peace may be a dove, but to farmers on either side of the Jordan, it's Tyto alba, the common barn owl.

Alayyan is one of dozens of Jordanians working in cooperation with Israeli colleagues, targeting rodents with a natural predator instead of with chemicals.

The effort still faces suspicions and superstitions, but organizers hope the message of their partial success will spread to Lebanon, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, and demonstrate the fruits of the 1994 peace treaty that ended a 46-year state of war between Israel and Jordan.

Political benefits aside, the project is driven foremost by environmental concerns.

In the late 1970s, chemicals killed hundreds of birds in northern Israel, said Yossi Leshem, an Israeli ornithologist and director of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration.

So Leshem persuaded Sde Eliyahu, a kibbutz south of the Sea of Galilee, to try owls, which can eat up to 10 rodents a day. All the farmers needed was to build boxes where the birds could mate and raise their young.

"I put up 14 barn owl boxes, and everybody laughed at me," said Shauli Aviel, who oversees the effort at the collective farm.

A few years later, Sde Eliyahu's rat problem had vanished, he said. More than 60 nesting boxes now sit on the grounds of the kibbutz, and the technique has caught on with other farmers along the Jordan.

Yet as the owl population grew, the birds increasingly began flying and looking to nest across the nearby border with Jordan, where pesticide use remains rampant. Chemicals seeped into the water table, and owls were poisoned by eating contaminated rodents.

Then came the peace treaty, Israelis and Jordanians got used to being good neighbors, and in late 2002 Aviel and fellow Israeli farmers planned a regional conference on barn owls to explain their advantages to colleagues across the Jordan River.

The response was discouraging. Many Arabs consider owls the same way others view black cats as bad luck. Word came back to the Israelis that no Jordanians would attend.

So the organizers changed the title of the conference to focus on organic farming, and two dozen Jordanians turned up. Midway through the gathering they were given a demonstration on owls, and soon Jordanian farmers were asking how they could attract owls to their fields, Aviel said.

With funding from the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, Ohio, the kibbutz gave the Jordanians advice and building materials. More than three dozen nesting boxes have since been put up in Jordan, organizers said.

Among the most eager participants was Alayyan, a former chief of cardiovascular surgery at a Jordanian hospital. He agreed to build a nesting box at his family's farm in the village of Sheik Hussein, six miles from Aviel's kibbutz.

"For me, it was a real pleasure to find a man like that on the other side of the border," said Aviel, as he and Alayyan surveyed a group of newborn owl nestlings. Unable to communicate in their own languages, the two men spoke to each other in English, but when it came to nature and conservation, "He spoke in my language," Aviel said.

The project also has gotten support from political and former military leaders in both countries, including Mansour Abu Rashed, the former head of Jordanian intelligence.

Rashed, who heads the Amman Center for Peace and Development, said organizers are "under no illusions" the owl project will ease Mideast tensions; the goal is simply "to bring people together, to let them talk and build confidence."

But obstacles remain. After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Israeli farmers delayed the initial delivery of building materials to Jordan for the owl boxes because of the tense atmosphere. Arabic posters promoting the benefits of barn owls make no mention of Israel.

Some Israeli organizers have expressed frustration at the pace of progress in Jordan. And last month, some nesting boxes on Jordanian farms were stolen or vandalized. Although it was unclear whether the vandalism was driven by owl-phobia or by Israel's involvement, it upset Leshem, the Israeli ornithologist.

"We are wasting our money and time, coming and putting boxes and then, suddenly, they are destroyed," he said after a recent meeting with the Jordanians.

"It's a new project in our area," explained Abu Rashed, the retired general. "Nobody knows what's inside" the boxes.

Organizers also say the project has gained little traction among Palestinians, because of security restrictions that make it hard for them and Israelis to travel to each other's territory for meetings.

Still, even when tensions run high, the environment is one of the few areas where Israelis and Arabs cooperate. The owl conference went ahead at a time when the Palestinian uprising against Israel was at its peak, and during that uprising, Israeli and Palestinian officials maintained contacts on issues such as water quality and waste removal.

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in southern Israel trains Jewish and Arab students, including Jordanians and Palestinians, in solving ecological problems.

Friends of the Earth-Middle East, an organization of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmentalists, leads joint efforts to clean up the Jordan River and promote eco-tourism packages on both sides of the border.

"We're doing something our governments are not able to do," says Mira Edelstein, an organization spokeswoman. "If people know how to highlight the environmental benefits that can come out of this type of cooperation, then it's not political anymore."

Posted by MEEF at 07:45 AM | Permalink

Arab Environment Monitor

Saturday, July 14, 2007

By: Batir Wardam

With a water per capita share of 160 cubic meters per year, Jordan is among the world's top 10 water scarce countries. The struggle to provide adequate and clean water resources is one of the biggest developmental challenges in Jordan. At the center of the debate about water management is the issue of water pricing and valuation.

Although the infrastructure of water supply in Jordan reaches a high percentage of population (96%) , the sustainability of water supply is not considered adequate. Households in Jordan receive water either once or twice a week and in many occasions citizens are forced to buy water from tankers which price can reach up to 1.5 JD per meter.

Moreover, Municipal water in Jordan is used by the domestic and commercial sectors, public institutions, as well as by small industries that are connected to the public water system and receive needed water from municipalities. The municipal water requirements are determined by population growth, industrial development, urban concentration and income increase.

Water valuation is used by the Ministry of Water as an economic tool for better efficiency in water allocation. The Jordan’s Water Utility Policy (MWI, 1997) demands to move towards full cost recovery and to use water tariffs mechanism to promote cost recovery considering water quality, end users as well as economic impacts on the various economic sectors.

Cost recovery is a matter of pricing. The price of water does not cover the costs of water in Jordan. In case water prices would be raised to reflect the value of water, these prices will at least cover costs.
Indirect water valuation has been applied for irrigation water through restriction of water use in crops of low value that consume high quantities of water. In the municipal water sector, tariffs have been developed and executed to cover operation and maintenance costs as well as to reduce water consumption and wastage. However, these tariffs are not based on a valuation of municipal water through assessing the willingness of the consumers to pay for water.
For social and political reasons, comprehensive water valuation, as demanded by economists, has not yet been implemented in Jordan. Some areas in the desert, such as in Aqaba governorate, Mafraq governorate, etc, are still supplied with municipal water free of charge.

Water tariffs show a fixed rate for a 0-20m3 block, with a minimum of 20m3 and an increasing price for each additional consumed cubic meter of municipal water. This is based on the calculation that the minimum water consumption of a household per quarter of a year in Jordan is 20 m³.

The current pricing structure for municipal water was devised on the base of cost recovery of the maintenance and operation costs. However, the water tariffs in Jordan were structured in such a way as to guarantee the minimum needed consumption at a subsidized fixed price per m3 and to recover these subsidies from customers with higher consumption assuming the more consumptive customers to be wealthier. It is designed to possibly cover the service costs while keeping lifeline use affordable to the poor. The progressive pricing is at the same time a controlling mechanism to water wastage. The charges for water and wastewater are primarily based on the amount of water consumed.

Even with the on-going privatization of municipal water utilities in Amman, the Government of Jordan is still subsidizing the water sector. This subsidization has decreased gradually from a maximum of 59.13% of the total costs in 1995 and a minimum of 35% in 2005.

It is important to note that although the Jordanian population is paying a high rate of taxes for a variety of services and product the most important and non-renewable resource is still being subsidized.

http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/7/267987.html

Posted by MEEF at 02:15 PM | Permalink

Friends of the Earth Middle East

July 10, 2007

Six Mediterranean countries make the splash to clean up their Rivers

On Sunday, July 15th, six (6) Mediterranean countries will simultaneously JUMP into their local Rivers, joining the European bi-annual BIG JUMP event that calls on governments to take action in cleaning up their local waterways.

The Jordan River, polluted and drying up, will this year join the Alexandria River (Egypt), the Emilia-Romagna Adriatic coastline (Italy), the Tanger (Morocco), Catalonia (Spain) and the Rhône River (France).

In partnership with the Anna Lindh Foundation, Friends of the Earth Middle East has organized the event to be held at the PEACE ISLAND, at 16:00 on Sunday, July 15th.

Together with Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian mayors of the Jordan Valley, a Rabbi, Priest and Imam will also partake in the event, highlighting the importance of the Jordan River for all the peoples in the region and for all 3 religions.

"Following the listing of the Jordan River as a World Endangered Cultural Heritage Site by the World Monuments Fund it is imperative that the rehabilitation of the Jordan remains on the public agenda," said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East in Tel-Aviv. "The Big Jump with mayors in bathing suits is on the one hand fun, but the message is serious."

The event will include short readings about water & peace from the Holy Scriptures, each by its religious representative, followed by the Mayors of the region jumping together into the river, and then kayaking a short stretch of water to the juncture of the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers.

"Israel has dammed up the Jordan River at Degania, and Syria and Jordan have stopped the Yarmouk. The stench of raw sewage is all that is now left flowing in the Jordan. The Jordan is so polluted that in fact we will do the ‘Big Jump’ in what is left of the Yarmouk and kayak to the Jordan," said Munqeth Mehyar, Jordanian Director of Friends of the Earth in Amman.

Registration required - entrance onto the Peace Island (Jordan) is only allowed with prior sign up and passport details.
Transportation provided from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
For more information, please contact Mira Edelstein 054-6392937

http://www.foeme.org/press.php?ind=52

Posted by MEEF at 02:13 PM | Permalink

Ma'an News

July 12, 2007

BETHLEHEM - On July 15th, residents of six Mediterranean countries will simultaneously jump into their local rivers, joining its counterpart, the European bi-annual 'Big Jump' event, that calls on governments to clean up their local waterways.

The event will take place at the Jordan River, which is severely polluted
and drying up, the Alexandria River (Egypt), the Emilia-Romagna Adriatic Coastline
(Italy), the Tanger (Morocco), Catalonia (Spain) and finally, the Rhône
River (France), a press release from Friend of the Earth – Middle East (FoEME) said.

In order to stress the importance of the Jordan River for all the peoples in
the region and for all three religions, a rabbi, a priest and an imam will
partake in the event, alongside Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian mayors from both
sides of the Jordan Valley.

"Following the listing of the Jordan River as a World Endangered Cultural
Heritage site by the World Monument Fund, it is imperative that the
rehabilitation of the Jordan remains on the public agenda," said Israeli
Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East Gidon Bromberg in a press
release.
"The Big Jump with mayors in bathing suits is on the one hand fun, but the
message is serious."

The goal of the Big Jump in the Middle East is to make people and
governments aware of the fact that the Jordan River, unique in its natural and cultural
wealth, is under threat from excessive water diversion and pollution, FoEME says.

"Israel has dammed up the Jordan River at Degania [south of the Sea of
Galilee], and Syria and Jordan have stopped the Yarmouk River [enters the Jordan River
between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea]. The stench of raw sewer is all
that is now left flowing in the Jordan. It is so polluted that in fact we
will do the 'Big Jump' in what is left of the Yarmouk, and kayak to the Jordan,"
stated Jordanian Director of Friends of the Earth in Amman, Munqeth Mehyar.

Friends of the Earth Middle East, an umbrella organisation that brings
together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmentalists, has organised the
event in partnership with the Anna Lindh Foundation Euro-Mediterranean for the
Dialogue between Cultures. It will take place at the 'Peace Island', which
is located close to the junction of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers (in Jordanian
territory), south of the Sea of Galilee, on Sunday July 15th at 16:00.

The event will include short readings about water and peace from the Holy
Scriptures, each by its religious representative.

Posted by MEEF at 01:37 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 12, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

The Civil Administration and the Water and Sewage Authority recently approved the construction of a pipe to channel purified sewage to irrigate agriculture in the Jordan Valley.

But environmental experts say the move will prevent an overall solution to the problem of the flow of sewage from Jerusalem and Bethlehem into the Kidron Stream toward the Judean Desert and the Dead Sea.

Work on the project, which is also said to contravene agreements with the Palestinians, has begun in recent weeks to build a pipe from the Hyrcania Valley, about halfway between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. At that point a dam will confine the sewage, which will be channeled by pipe to the Jordan Valley where, after purification, it will irrigate date plantations.

Almost 10 million cubic meters of sewage from the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of north Jerusalem and Bethlehem flow through the Kidron. Jerusalem?s water and sewage company has begun to prepare alternatives to deal with the problem.

One is to impound effluents near Jerusalem and channel them through a tunnel under areas in Palestinian civil control, and then connect it to a pipe to a purification facility. The tunnel will obviate the need to obtain Palestinian agreement for the pipe.

Another possibility is to build purification facilities near Jerusalem and channel the treated effluents from that point. A study initiated by the German Science Ministry in collaboration with Israeli and Palestinian teams is also looking into the problem.

"What kind of treatment is it to let the sewage flow to Hyrcania and only then to remove it from the stream" said Prof. Reuven Laster, an environmental law expert on the Israeli team.

Laster says the work is being done hastily and "without coordinating with the Palestinians with whom we have agreements about water." He added that "with such an enormous investment, it won't be temporary because they won't invest in anything else."

Geographer Almog Ram, another member of the Israeli team, notes that the flow of sewage through the desert changes the composition of its flora and fauna, and that much of the sewage seeps into the groundwater and contaminates the water table.

However, Zeevik Ahipaz of the Water and Sewage Authority said: "This pipe is not a substitute for sewage treatment by the Jerusalem Municipality. It will become part of other solutions that have not yet been approved."

"We have therefore decided to authorize assistance to the project of a little under NIS 20 million. This is not optimal, but it will improve the situation in which sewage flows to the Dead Sea. We will not delay a pollution-prevention project just because we haven't yet obtained understandings with the Palestinians," he said.

"After we understood from the Water Authority that there was no alternative, we decided not to oppose the plan," said Shoni Goldberger, the Environmental Protection Ministry?s Jerusalem district head. He said the ministry continues to pressure the Jerusalem Municipality to find permanent solutions.

The Civil Administration said in its surveys conducted last year that groundwater pollution was found along the Kidrom, and a number of treatments are being examined.

The pipeline was propsed as a temporary response to the issue. A permanent overall solution is also in preparation. The Civil Administration is obligated to advance this solution and is examining the proposal to impound the sewage, together with other solutions, in consideration of all components including the time factor.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880974.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:32 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 12, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Jordan Environment Society (JES) to implement a comprehensive awareness programme aimed at reducing the use of plastics and encouraging the segregation of waste materials.

"The agreement seeks to familiarise people on the importance of recycling plastic materials and the dangerous impact of plastic bags on the environment," Minister of Environment Khalid Irani said at the signing ceremony.

We need to encourage people on using environment-friendly alternatives, Irani added.

Meanwhile, the ministry's spokesperson, Isa Shboul, underlined the negative impact of plastics on the environment.

"Each plastic bag or bottle takes 80 years to decay. Through this period, it's harming the soil, water resources and killing livestock which eat it while grazing," Shboul said.

He suggested using paper bags instead of plastics, adding that it had proved to be an environment-friendly alternative.

Irani said the ministry is keen on increasing cooperation with civil society institutions to preserve the country's resources and raise people's awareness on environment-related issues.

He said several awareness campaigns will be implemented soon in cooperation with the country's environment societies to curb the use of plastic materials and encourage segregating solid wastes.

In December last year, the Free Zones Corporation opened three recycling plants, worth JD6 million, to reduce wastes. The plants recycle around 120 tonnes of liquid and solid waste daily, including plastics, scrap tyres, iron and industrial oil.

Under the five-month agreement, poster and brochure campaigns will encourage the use of paper bags and waste segregation and will target schools, hotels and other institutions.

A technical committee comprising members from the ministry and the JES will be formed to follow up on the implementation of the agreement's projects.

The JES is implementing a recycling project that seeks to preserve national recourses and reduce solid wastes in order to relieve pressure on dumps.

The project encourages people to participate in preserving the environment and urges the local community to collect and segregate wastes into glass, plastics, and paper wastes, each in a separate container.

JES, established in 1988, is a nonprofit NGO concerned with protecting the environment and preserving its basic elements of water, air, soil and living beings, according to its website.

Posted by MEEF at 01:28 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 14, 2007

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

Authorities on Saturday banned bathing at beaches near the Alexander River estuary after a routine inspection revealed its waters had been dangerously contaminated.

Water samples taken from three beaches at Beit Yanai, Michmoret and Neurim contained over five times the allowed maximum of bacteria, Ministry of Health official Ze'ev Fish said.

Ministry officials are investigating whether the pollutants had also originated from the nearby Hadera River.

They added further water quality examinations will be held on Sunday to determine whether the beaches are still unsafe for public health.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv's Gordon and Frishman beaches were reopened Friday after being shut last week due to a sewage spillage from an unknown source.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/881711.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 11, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

Two years ago, the Elcon Recycling Center wastewater treatment plant in Haifa Bay received the approval of the Environmental Protection Ministry to transfer hypersaline waste (fluids that contain unusually high concentrations of salt) to treatment pools in an industrial zone in the Galilee region. The ministry later received data that indicated that Elcon's purification process had failed to rid these brine-like substances of dangerous pollutants. Transport of the hypersaline waste to the Galilee was halted. The ministry now maintains it is taking action to remove this environmental hazard.

Elcon's hypersaline waste affair renewed arguments regarding the handling of hazardous waste. The Environmental Services Company (ESC) that operates the national hazardous waste treatment site at Ramat Hovav, the only site where such waste may be legally disposed, stands on one side of these arguments. The government company bases its objections to the opening of additional treatment sites on the claims that the Environmental Protection Ministry will find it difficult to supervise them. They cite the recent incident at Elcon as an example. Neither the ESC nor the Environmental Protection Ministry provide details on the identity of the parties that conducted investigations of the hypersaline effluents transferred by Elcon to the Galilee.

Parties like Elcon stand on the other side of the argument. They maintain that it is possible to bury less hazardous waste, which they describe as "gray" waste, in additional locations. The Environmental Protection Ministry recently supported this decision and began to approve alternate sites in which to conceal this waste.

Elcon chairman Yitzhak Goren and ESC chairman Ron Komer are former directors of the Environmental Protection Ministry. Each chairman is defending the interests of his own company, but both declare that they are fully committed to protecting the environment.

Israel annually produces 350,000 tons of hazardous waste. Some of the waste is treated and recycled in treatment plants, and more than a third is transported to Ramat Hovav. An unknown amount is illegally disposed of in streams, garbage dumps and sewage systems. The nearly 30 companies that operate in this sphere are permitted to treat waste on site, but they may only dispose of waste in Ramat Hovav. Several plants in Ramat Hovav neutralize waste to make it solid and stable. There is also a landfill site and a waste incinerator operated by Ecosol Israel.

Two years ago, experts in the Environmental Protection Ministry launched a campaign to promote landfill disposal of "gray waste."

Then-environment minister Shalom Simhon opposed the idea. He believed that categorizing different types of waste and establishing an additional method of landfill disposal would hamper the ministry's ability to efficiently supervise hazardous waste treatment, and maintain quality and continuity in the industry and various companies that operate in the market.

But the ministry recently renewed this initiative under the leadership of Dr. Yossi Inbar, the environment ministry's senior deputy director-general for industries.

The ministry drafted guidelines for the establishment of a "low-risk waste disposal site," which calls for more stringent operating conditions than those required in a regular urban waste disposal site, but more lenient standards than those required in Ramat Hovav. The draft also outlines permissible concentrations of a variety of pollutant waste byproducts. Ministry officials say that these guidelines resemble hazardous waste treatment standards in the European Union, and that they would reduce the burden on Ramat Hovav, a relatively small site.

"We are currently formulating a precise definition of gray waste, but, in general, this pertains to situations like polluted soil from gas stations, which contains a concentration of pollutants that does not reach a certain threshold," Inbar reports. "We are working to approve a process like that at the Efeh site in the Negev, which is currently used as landfill for regular waste."

"As soon as you regress and permit private parties to dispose of waste in sites in which there is no meticulous follow-up, you create a risk that the Environmental Protection Ministry cannot supervise those sites," says Dr. Eitan Zilbiger, managing director of the ESC. "In cases in which large volumes of polluted soil are disposed, under ministry supervision, it is reasonable to transfer it to another site to prevent jamming up of our site.

But they can't permit more than 1,500 facilities for that. If that happens, they will discover that dangerous pollutants have arrived at inappropriate sites. Even at our site, where we conduct comprehensive, stringent examinations, we discover waste contained in trucks, which was not reported to us."

Zilbiger notes that the landfill disposal fee at Ramat Hovav is eight times higher than in any other site, thus providing a financial incentive to transfer all types of waste to other areas. "It's true that it isn't optimal and financially efficient for all the waste to come to us," says ESC chair Roni Komer. "But, as a government company, we have more commitment and responsibility than private companies." He says that about half of the gray waste will no longer be sent to Ramat Hovav.

Sacks full of sludge, produced in a process in which effluents are dried, are placed in a long line in the Elcon back-lot every day, ready to be transported to Ramat Hovav. Elcon chairman Yitzhak Goren and the company's CEO and founder Dr. Zvi Elgat are absolutely certain that it would pose no environmental risk to transport this waste to alternate sites, like Efeh in the Negev.

Elgat says that despite the financial damage Elcon sustained as a result of the Environmental Protection Ministry's cancellation of various permits, the waste that it disposed of in Galilee pools did not pose a risk to the environment. "This involved industrial hypersaline effluents that pose significantly less risk than the contents of the pools in Ramat Hovav, and it evaporates in a sealed and isolated pool. I received no request from the ministry to address the hazard that was supposedly created there," he says.

Goren, who joined Elcon after the "brine pool" affair, says his connections to the Environmental Protection Ministry work to the company's benefit. "I understand the ministry's modus operandi and way of thinking, but my status could be a problem because people in the ministry are concerned that if Elcon receives permits, people might say that it is because of me."

Elcon employs various technologies to transform highly toxic waste into purified water used in manufacturing in the plant. The company developed technology to treat high concentrations of organic matter in effluents produced in pharmaceutical plants. They have decided to transform hypersaline effluents into solid salt rather than dispose of them in pools. The resulting salt is, of course, transported to Ramat Hovav. "This treatment plant has come as close as possible to a state in which there are no remaining pollutants after treatment," Goren says. He says Elcon received a permit in principle to dispose of sludge, but because a tender has not been issued to choose a site, the company has not yet disposed of the sludge in an alternate location.

Elgat and Goren say that the ESC's monopoly on the hazardous waste disposal market is the root of the problem. Unlike other companies, the ESC is not required to obtain various permits from the Environmental Protection Ministry because it is the default choice for disposal of all types of waste.

These claims are supported by a report commissioned by the Environmental Protection Ministry two and a half years ago, in which the ministry requested that the Pareto Engineering firm provide recommendations for management of the hazardous waste disposal system. The report, to a ministry committee appointed to address this issue, for which Goren was one of the authors, concluded that legislation clearly favored the ESC and that no producer of waste was forced to obtain permits to use the government company's disposal services.

The company is free to dictate prices and payment conditions because of its status as a monopoly, and to heighten standards for waste absorption. The company clearly paints a different picture in its descriptions of marketing strategies that cater to clientele; these include customer satisfaction surveys, a complete package of environmental services and waste treatment in the company's backyard.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880535.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 13, 2007

Feynan Eco-lodge gets commendation as Best Overseas Tourism Project

The lodge at Wadi Feynan sits deep in the mountains of Jordan’s southern Rift Valley (Photo courtesy of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature)

By Linda Hindi

AMMAN — As Jordan advances in the global ecotourism sector, the Feynan Eco-lodge in the Dana Reserve has received an international commendation under the title “Best Overseas Tourism Project”.

“Not many Jordanians realise that Dana Reserve is among the few world leaders in sustainable nature conservation with its tourism related projects,” said Chris Johnson, director of Wild Jordan, which developed the Feynan Eco-lodge.

The project, which was recognised by the British Guild of Travel Writers, an
association nearly half-a-century-old with over 270 experts involved in the
world of travel, gave merit to Feynan as a tourist potential that benefits
the local community and environment.

Travel writer Hugh Taylor wrote: “This superbly designed adobe lodge… built
entirely of local materials has a unique arabesque design by a local
architect, incorporates traditional adobe building techniques and has produced a
building that is functional, romantic and blends with its surroundings.”

The lodge at Wadi Feynan sits deep in the mountains of Jordan’s southern
Rift Valley, near the west border of the 320-square-kilometre Dana Reserve. It
was designed as a retreat for tourists wishing to explore an archaeologically
rich area while hiking, stargazing and interacting with the local bedouin
community.

A recent visitor who works in the marketing department at Fastlink,
27-year-old Nour Abu Nameh, described her first experience at the lodge as “amazing,
relaxing and quiet”.

According to Wild Jordan’s tourism operations manager, Ali Goussous, its
unique quality of seclusion is emphasised by the fact that it’s eight kilometres
away from the nearest road and accessible only by 4x4, one of the community
shuttle services, or a five-hour hike through the gorge of Wadi Dana.

“We put it in a very remote area to encourage people to discover the other
side of Jordan. The remarkable sense of isolation is freedom for those tired of
the trappings of an urban society,” Goussous said.

He explained that environment-friendly measures include: solar powered
energy — it is lit by candles at night; natural ventilation systems; thick insulated
walls to minimise energy use; and the recycling of garbage and food.

The electric generators on site are rarely used unless needed for Internet
connection, as some businesses book the lodge as an exclusive working
getaway.

“The all bedouin staff cooks vegetarian cuisine from local desert vegetation
and food is stored traditionally without the use of electricity. Upon request,
lamb is cooked by fire in a ditch or manually grilled over the fire for six hours,” he said.

In terms of archaeological sites, the area previously known as “Feynan
Kingdom”, is regarded by many experts to be second only to Petra in importance,
according to its directors.

It shows evidence of human habitation stretching back 10,000 years and was
the first place in the world where copper ore was extracted and smelted for
human use.

The ancient community’s prosperous ages were during the Byzantine times when
the powerful trade which supplied most of the known world with copper products
was performed at the Khirbet souk. Remains of the souk, ancient churches and
Islamic and Christian graves are accessible through hiking tours with guides.

According to the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), the
lodge itself provides an unparalleled experience in desert accommodation. The 26
rooms, which are lit by candles at night, create an atmosphere reminiscent
of the ancient caravanserai that gave rest and shelter to the camel trains that
plied nearby trading routes.

New income

In addition to being at the cutting-edge of ecotourism, Feynan Lodge is also
directly supporting 34 local bedouin families and the nonprofit project is
self-sustainable.

“In fact, the whole Dana Reserve supports itself because of our unique
business approach in nature conservation. To be self-sustainable is extraordinary in
terms of these types of conservation areas which usually need to be
government supported,” the Wild Jordan director said.

The retreat, which opened two years ago under Wild Jordan, the business arm
for the RSCN, was constructed as a pilot project in line with the organisation’s
efforts to provide alternative forms of income for the impoverished bedouins
in the area, whose main source of income is through goat herding.

“The 9,000 goats in the area were basically eating the reserve to death.
Tourism gives people an alternative to grazing and we are seeing a gradual shift
into a new economy,” Johnson told The Jordan Times.

He noted that unless the local tribes see real economical benefits, it is
hard to change attitudes in an area that is used to living from hand-to-mouth.
But said that bedouin youth are eager to be part of the modern world and are
picking up on ways to profit from nature.

Income generators include homemade candles and leather products which are
used at the lodge and sold throughout the Kingdom.

“Each year, the two lodges and one campsite in Dana Reserve contribute
around JD250,000. The revenue goes back into protecting the area and supporting the
local economy,” Johnson said.

At the 2003 World Summit, Dana was chosen as one of the four best sustainable ecological projects in the world.

Posted by MEEF at 01:14 PM | Permalink

Al-Hayat

July 14, 2007

Ibrahim Muhammad

Visiting Amman, Doha, Dubai, Algeria, Damascus and other capitals of the Arab world, the Arab visitor's eye first catches the cities' breathtaking horizontal expansion. The most notable aspect of this development is probably the underdevelopment of the basic infrastructure that should accompany it. Furthermore, in countries such as Egypt, the Syrian coast and northern Africa, this expansion goes on at the expense of fertile agricultural lands that are rare in most Arab countries.

Amman, the Jordanian capital for instance, has very little vegetation and shocks you with its suffocating urban development, which ate up its surroundings and some agricultural lands. One does not even need years away to realize the change of scenery in entire areas.
These new districts are not equipped with proper sewage systems, roads, communications grids, transportation or public transports. Instances such as these are known to have catastrophic repercussions on the environment because of the infiltration of chemicals from the waste left by homes, offices, stores, auto repair shops and others into the agricultural lands and subterranean waters, eve if they are far from buildings. It is also known that such a leakage would render the latter unusable, and causes diseases that burden the budgets of individuals and states.
The scene is not much different in Damascus, where buildings have eaten up its famous fertile oasis, and the only pieces left of it are the vestiges of once green spaces surrounding the city until the late seventies of last century. As a result, these spaces can only respond to 25% of the needs of its inhabitants in food, having previously covered 75% of them, less than 40 years ago according to the information supplied by the merchants in the old markets.
As for Dubai, Doha and Bahrain, urban expansion there reached the waters of the Gulf, filled with earth to create artificial islands whose negative repercussions on the maritime life in that area during the next few years are still hard to configure. Expansion continues to consume the land like fashion trends in clothing, despite the concerns expressed by experts about this ecosystem. It also goes forth, free of any preliminary planning or execution of infrastructure in the right time, especially when roads, bridges, public transports like subways and fast trains, are concerned. Dubai is a fine example of this, where the weak interest in the means of transportation has led to severe traffic jam problems which are increasing daily, burdening the inhabitants, tourists and businessmen alike. The latter are therefore forced to take refuge in the neighboring Emirates while visiting their partners or doing business.
Contrary to the experience of urban expansion in the Arab world, the European experience, namely the German one is considered a successful example of respecting the vital historical and environmental elements. In the capital city Berlin per example, the spaces allotted to agricultural, construction spaces and green spaces, which represent a third of the city, have been delimited for a hundred years now. Even the infrastructure, established around a century ago, took into consideration the possible expansion of the city in later years. Thus, any later expansion represents a continuity of the existing infrastructure and a historical as well as architectural enrichment of it. As for urban housing, offices and commercial buildings in Germany as a whole, it is confined to areas whose infrastructure was built in advance on a long term basis. The strict conditions to preserve green spaces and use water are noteworthy in this context.
Construction inside cities and housing communities also has to answer these conditions, especially when it is a matter of reconstructing an old building or a building a new one adjacent to it. In such cases, conditions are strict to preserve the historical cachet. One also notices how uniquely attached German cities and villages are to reserving this aspect. The German experience is also unique for its fine tuning between the new and the old in a way that deserves to be examined and used in the urban expansion of the Arab world, where History and the components of our daily lives are neglected.

* A mediatic figure and an economic expert based in Berlin

http://english.daralhayat.com/business/07-2007/Article-20070714-c4ce2b5a-c0a8-10ed-0169-5e9910a70571/story.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:12 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 10, 2007

By Tamara Traubmann

In the early afternoon, Tami Zuri picks lavender, melissa and mint from the flower pots on her balcony in north Tel Aviv. She is preparing a drink for the participants in a workshop she will be giving shortly on producing vegetable dairy products.

This urban ecologist has decided to live a "green" life in the city, with minimum consumption and maximum benefit for the environment.

Her latest project, "a tree in the city," is forming a community with the help of the Internet site citytree.net, which promotes ideas like community gardens and ecological apartments in Tel Aviv.

An adviser on urban ecology, Zuri gives workshops for preparing compost and conscientious consumption, which takes into consideration both people's health and avoids animals' suffering in farms. Among other things, Zuri teaches how to prepare cream and cheeses from almonds and nuts.

Zuri, 40, was born in Tel Aviv and graduated from the graphic design department of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

"When I began my quest I had no environmental awareness, I simply felt bad and wanted to feel better," she says. "At the age of 29 I went to New York, where I was exposed to 'unlimited possibilities' - everything was big, fast and convenient. Gradually I began to see the quantities of garbage and wastefulness that this way of life involves, but also that there are many local communities there and a possibility to lead an ecological life."

Today she leads her life in ultimate defiance of the consumption culture. Since her return from New York about three years ago, she has bought no clothing or furniture, and has collected everything she has from the street.

Sitting in her living room, which is lit only by sun rays entering from the wide windows, she is dressed in a sleeveless T-shirt and printed skirt - both of which she found in the street.

"Since I started collecting clothes from the street, I've become a different woman," she says, pulling a pinkish coat with a faux fur collar out of the cupboard. She found it still on the hanger from the dry cleaners.

Zuri tries to follow the natural principle that nothing in the life cycle is redundant. Leaves falling from trees become animal fodder, their waste fertilize the soil that feeds the plants, and so the cycle is repeated.

She uses the food leftovers of the building's residents to make compost. The pile of rotting leftovers sits behind the apartment building, creating fertile soil teeming with life and smelling like a forest after the rain.

An organic farmer delivers fruit and vegetables weekly, which complements her shopping in small nearby health food stores. Not only do these sell organic products, but her shopping supports small businesses that are not part of the relentless vulture culture of the big chains.

Another principle she adheres to is avoiding fanaticism. So when some organic product is unavailable she buys the regular one. She uses as little water as possible, to avoid waste and prevent overloading the city's sewage system, and collects the shower and dish washing water for using to flush the toilet. While she showers she washes delicate clothes, treading on them in a tub, the way they used to do laundry long ago.

"An average Israeli family uses all the water you save in one shower. Doesn't that make your effort meaningless?" I ask her.

"I do these things because they makes me happy," she says. "Yes, I want to spread the word, because the choice of each one of us makes a difference; but I expect people to behave responsibly, to adopt only the things that suit them - it's not all or nothing.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880080.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:02 PM | Permalink

Jerusalem Post

July 13, 2007

Shelly Paz

Israel ranks 31st out of 108 countries for environment and social responsibility according to a new international report.

The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 is a biennial report that sums up the conduct of private and public businesses in 108 countries and examines their achievements regarding encouraging environmental public policy and civilian involvement.

The report was released by Accountability an international non-profit organization established in 1995 to promote transparency and environmental responsibility in businesses governmental and civilian institutes worldwide.

Sweden ranked first in the report followed by Denmark Finland Iceland and Britain. Australia was ninth followed by Canada Germany and Holland. France finished in 17 place and the US ranked next at 18th followed by Japan and Hong Kong.

At the bottom of the list were Chad (108) Nepal (107) and Bangladesh (106). Israel is finished right before Italy (32) Greece and Taiwan.

Over the years Accountability developed the AA1000 a quality standard stamp which assures a company's clients that the company they are dealing with is acting for the benefit of the society and environment they inhabit.

One of the conclusions the report presents shows the connection between market competitiveness and taking social responsibility. This challenge has encouraged businesses to handle environmental and social questions more creatively and gave birth to an entire new industry of alternative energy while also leading to the creation of new organizations which aim to eliminate corruption.

The report also found that markets that were not adapted to this new need to create an impression in their clients that they were supportive of them in terms of the environment and social welfare would lose their customers over time.

Liad Ortar CEO of Arkada an Israeli company that specializes in accompanying businesses in developing and managing environmental and social policy said Israel's companies are far behind most countries in publishing and presenting their reports to the public.

Posted by MEEF at 12:59 PM | Permalink

Arab Environmental Monitor

July 15, 2007

Batir Wardham

Sustainable buildings are wittnessing high growth and momentum in many countries around the world. The concept is pioneering and such buildings will include hundreds of eco-friendly innovations. The cost of installation and maintenance will always be high until it becomes economically feasible but the technology is there and that matters.
The Ecogeek blog, the world's leading blog for ecological innovations has published a list of the world's top 10 green skyscrapers based on a study by Jon Schroeder.

According to the study the world's greenest skyscraper will be established in Manama, Bahrain and it is the Bahrain World Trade Center Towers. At no 4 is Dubai Lighthouse Tower, still on drawing board. At no 7 is the Burj Al Taqa (Tower of energy) in Dubai again.
To have three out of the top 10 green skyscrapers in Arab countries is very good. Here is the list with adequate description in the Ecogeek blog

1.The Bahrain World Trade Center Towers, Kingdom of Bahrain
2. The Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China
3. Bank of America Tower, New York City
4. The Lighthouse Tower, Dubai
5.The CIS Tower, Manchester England
6. The Hearst Tower, New York City
7.The Burj al-Taqa (Energy Tower), Dubai
8.Waugh Thistleton Residential Tower, London
9. 340 on the Park, Chicago
10. The Urban Cactus, Rotterdam

Posted by MEEF at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 4, 2007

By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent

Dozens of turtles were moved to a new home Tuesday, the recently built sewage treatment facility of the Bnei Shimon regional council in the Negev.

The turtles were transported by Shahar Yasinovsky, director of the western Negev environment department, and Shimon Fashli, director of the Bnei Shimon council's sanitation and licensing division. They dug the turtles out of the mud and dried sewage of Kibbutz Beit Kama's old treatment facility, where workers first discovered their existence when the facility was being drained.

After the discovery, Yasinovsky and Fashli decided to arrange an organized evacuation for the turtles. They had to wait until the rainy season ended, so it would be easier to capture the turtles. The big move began in June and ended Tuesday.

Trying not to sink in the mud, Fashli held what looked like a large butterfly net. He dipped it down and waited for a turtle to make its appearance. Occasionally, some turtles would stick their heads up, examine the situation, and run away from the net.

All the same, they were slowly captured  and no simple task it was. Once they were ensnared in the net, Fashli and Yasinovsky lifted the turtles and placed them into the vehicle that would transport them to their new home.

When the number of turtles captured came close to the number of turtles estimated to have been living in the old treatment facility, Fashli and Yasinovsky drove a short distance to the new and improved facility. They placed the turtles near the purification pools and the turtles headed straight for the mud they found so familiar.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877990.html

Posted by MEEF at 06:27 AM | Permalink

Jerusalem Post

July 4, 2007

By Etgar Lefkovits

A Jerusalem court has renewed a ban on the opening of a major new thoroughfare in the capital until repairs are made to environmental and landscape damages caused by the paving of the road court documents released Tuesday show.

The Jerusalem District Court accepted an appeal late Monday that was filed by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel which argued that required environmental work in and around the road has not been completed as required by law.

The thoroughfare dubbed Route Nine will run from the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway and will directly connect to the city's Begin Highway without entering the congested entrance to the capital.

"There is no doubt that it is in the public's interest to open the road to traffic but it is also in the public's interest to preserve the nature and the rehabilitation of the Arazim Valley Judge Musia Arad wrote in the ruling.

The judge also ordered the Moriah Construction company, which is a sister company of the Jerusalem Municipality, to pay NIS 30,000 in court fees.

A request by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski to speed up work on the road so that it could be inaugurated this spring in conjunction with the start of celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem was previously held up by a Jerusalem court following an appeal filed by SPNI.

The NIS 500 million road, which includes three bridges and two tunnels, will run 3.5 kilometers.

The opening of the road will allow motorists from Tel Aviv to reach Jerusalem's Malha Mall or the city's Teddy Stadium without facing a single traffic light.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183459188495&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 06:25 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 3, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

A new highway, aimed at substantially alleviating traffic congestion in the entrances to and exits from Jerusalem, will not open until repairs are made to environmental and landscape damages caused by the paving of the road.

The Jerusalem District Court on Monday received a petition, filed by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, seeking to prevent the highway from being opened.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel demanded, via attorney Yuval Lester, the highway remain closed because the Moriah company, which is under the authority of the Jerusalem municipality, had not yet completed rehabilitating the environmental damage surrounding the highway, as it had pledged to do. The judge ordered Moriah to pay all the Society for the Protection of Nature's court fees ? some NIS 30,000.

Highway 9, which was recently completed, passes through the Arazim valley, most of which is protected by preservation laws and is slated to be a metropolitan park. The highway will connect between the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway and the northern and eastern parts of Jerusalem.

A Jerusalem District Court judge ruled that the fact that the cleanup and rehabilitation of the construction damage were not carried out cannot be disputed.

Moriah also failed to erect a fence meant to prevent deer and other wild animals from entering the highway, which would endanger both the animals and the drivers. They were supposed to build passageways under the highway specifically for the animals. The company also failed to clean up piles of dirt and did not complete building drains.

Moriah asked that the highway open immediately because of its necessity, and that repairs can resume after its opening. However, the judge rejected the request, saying that in the plan for the paving of the road, it is clearly cited that repairing environmental damage caused by the paving is a condition for the highway opening.

"There is no doubt that it is in the public's interest to open the highway for traffic, but there is also in the public's interest to preserve the nature and the rehabilitation of the Arazim valley," the judge wrote in the ruling.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877832.html

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Arab Environment Monitor

Friday, June 29, 2007

By Batir Wardham

A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, but also the growing global concern of environmental threats.

The Pew survey finds a general increase in the percentage of people citing pollution and environmental problems as a top global threat. Worries have risen sharply in Latin America and Europe, as well as in Japan and India. Many people blame the United States – and to a lesser extent China – for these problems and look to Washington to do something about them.
As was the case in Pew's first major global survey in 2002, global concerns vary significantly by region of the world. The spread of nuclear weapons is a growing worry in the Middle East – it is named as a top global danger in that region, along with religious and ethnic hatreds, but not environmental concerns.
In a comparison between 2002 and 2007 surveys, respondents from many countries stated an increase in their environmental concerns. Strangely enough, only respondents from the Middle East show little concern over environmental issues. Both Jordan and Lebanon showed a decrease in "environmental concerns" from 2002 to 2007 with Jordan decreasing from 37% to 30% while the decrease was more in Lebanon from 22% to 13%. However 40% of Egyptian respondent showed environmental concerns, 31% in Morocco, 28% in Palestine, 26% in Israel and only 22% in Kuwait.
Countries most concerned with environmental problems were South Korea (77%), Japan and China (70%), Sweden (66%), Ukraine (57%), Peru (55%), Canada (54%), Argentina (53%) and France 52%.

http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/6/256884.html

Posted by MEEF at 06:15 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 2, 2007

Family planning saves women’s and children’s lives and improves the quality
of life for the family as a whole, according to the Population Reference
Bureau.

It is one of the most effective investments for helping to ensure the health
and well-being of women, children and communities, and is a key component of
quality reproductive health services.

Family planning is therefore a part of life planning and a crucial concept
for everyone to understand and apply.

Marriage is the most important decision one ever makes and so careful
judgement in marriage is invaluable and could make the difference between a good and
healthy life and an emotionally and physically straining one.

According to Family Health International (FHI), “at least half a million
women die each year of pregnancy-related causes. Ninety-nine per cent live in
developing countries.”

In order to reduce these deaths, FHI suggests that one of the ways is to “reduce the number of pregnancies through family planning”.

Many cultures place high value on early childbearing, and even though early
pregnancies are wanted, according to FHI, there is abundant evidence
indicating that early childbearing increases the risk of obstructed labour, which can
lead to death or long-term disabilities like fistula (an abnormal connection or
passageway between organs or vessels that normally do not connect).

Many studies have shown that up to 80 per cent of patients with vaginal
fistula are less than 20 years old. Family planning can delay first births until
reproductive organs are fully developed and pregnancy is safer.

Another reason for high mortality in pregnancy-related causes is pregnancy
in young unmarried women. Such pregnancies are rarely welcomed, carrying a high
risk of abortion and potentially high mortality associated with unsafe
procedures.

According to the World Health Organisation, contraceptive use saves women’s
lives and improves their health by allowing women to avoid unwanted and
poorly timed pregnancies.

In addition to saving lives, family planning reduces fertility and can help
relieve the pressures that rapidly growing populations place on economic,
social and natural resources.

Rapid population growth strains the nation’s resources, impedes economic
growth and makes it more difficult to achieve improvements in education, health,
and environmental quality.

According to USAID in Jordan, “Jordan has one of the fastest growing
populations in the world. Between the two censuses in 1979 and 1994, the population grew
from 2.1 to 5.1 million people, an average increase of 2.7 per cent
annually. At this rate, the population of Jordan will double in 25 years.

“The government of Jordan has recognised that this will place tremendous
strain on Jordan’s natural resource base.”

Data from surveys suggests that approximately 120 million additional married
women worldwide would use a modern family planning method if more accurate
information and affordable, quality contraceptive services were easily
available, and if husbands and partners, family members and the community
were supportive, USAID in Jordan said.

Support from men is important in family planning where decisions can be
difficult in Muslim countries like Jordan. From 1998 to 2000, the Jordanian
National Population Committee and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health Centre for Communication Programmes designed a campaign titled
“Together for a Happy Family”, which emphasised the importance of men’s involvement
and an educated society towards family planning.

Many people are unaware that Islam permits modern family planning methods,
according to “Together for a Happy Family” campaign.

Because of culture and traditions, generally, special groups that have
inadequate access to family planning information and services include
adolescents (many of whom are unprepared for sexual activity, parenthood and
family life); unmarried people postponing the first pregnancy, displaced
populations, people with disabilities, and the poor, especially the rural
poor,according to FHI.

Today Jordan Health Communication Partnership is carrying out numerous
family planning campaigns across the cities and villages of Jordan, called Hayati
Ahla (My life is more beautiful), in a bid to educate men and women on the
importance of family planning for their health and well-being, and involve men in
family planning decisions.

Since the “Together for a Happy Family” campaign was started, there has been
improvement in men’s involvement in family planning issues, according to the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Centre for Communication
Programmes.

“The proportion of men who used a family planning method and discussed it
with their wives significantly increased from 93 per cent to 98 per cent between
1996 and 2001.”

Part of the education on family planning involves informing people who wish
to get married about the importance of getting medical checkups before marriage
and doing genetic tests.

Getting married is a special, exciting and busy time that is a dream for
most women, but there is more to getting married than just roses and dreams. It
is one of the most serious and difficult decisions taken in life, so planning
for the rest of one’s life is crucial, and this includes starting your marriage
on a healthy track.

Posted by MEEF at 06:04 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 1, 2007

Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN -- The government has issued instructions to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) to improve the quality of its diesel, which contains a high ratio of lead that is harmful to the environment, Minister of Environment Khalid Irani said on Sunday.

"The Cabinet recently took a decision to commit the JPRC to set a clear and time-specific schedule for improving the quality of its diesel, which contains lead levels that are much higher than international and local standards," Irani told The Jordan Times.

The diesel manufactured at the JPRC contains from 1.2 to 1.5 per cent of lead, while international standards are 0.35, according to Irani.

"This high percentage of lead causes air pollution and forms black clouds of smoke across the country," the minister said.

About 80 per cent of the diesel manufactured at the JPRC is consumed by industrial facilities for heating purposes and power generation, while the rest is used by the transportation sector, according to Irani.

"The government's decision commits the refinery to start improving diesel used for transportation, which means some 20 per cent of its production," Irani said.

The new improved diesel should be available within two years as stipulated by the decision, he added.

The minister said diesel used for other purposes does not pose a major problem for the environment at this stage, as most of it is consumed by industrial facilities, where filters are installed to reduce emissions.

"The priority at this stage is the diesel used for transportation, as vehicles running on diesel spread pollution across the country. The diesel manufactured for other purposes will be dealt with later," he said.

Referring to the government's plan to introduce unleaded petrol, the minister said it would available be in gas stations by 2008, noting that the refinery is ready for the manufacture of lead-free fuel.

Posted by MEEF at 06:41 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 1, 2007

AMMAN -- Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on Saturday said the government will pursue efforts to solve environmental problems in Fuheis, mainly caused by the presence of the Jordan Cement Factories Company (JCFC) in the city.

During a meeting yesterday with Vice Chairman of the French La Farge Company Eric Meuriot, the premier voiced hope that La Farge would work out drastic solutions for the environmental problems and stabilise cement prices.

He expressed the government's readiness to cooperate with the company, the main JCFC stakeholder, in examining alternative solutions and assisting in their implementation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Bakhit also referred to the benefits that would result from providing the industrial sector with Egyptian gas at preferential prices, saying the government was working to ensure the availability of natural gas for this sector.

Meuriot briefed the prime minister on conditions related to the company's work, underlining the need for more cooperation with the concerned authorities to ease pressure on the company and meet customer requirements.

Fuheis residents have staged several demonstrations over the past few years in protest against the factory's harmful effects on the environment and their health.

During a demonstration held in November last year, protesters called on the company to implement measures to minimise the impact on the environment, including proper sealing for loaded trucks and a more controlled use of dynamite.

They also called for the facility to be "gradually relocated" to another site.

In January 2005, the company announced it would implement a master plan to tackle pollution, according to which loading trucks would enter and exit the factory premises from a different location, away from inhabited areas.

Two years ago, the JCFC installed a $3.5 million dust filter to reduce emissions and company officials then said the filter was part of their efforts to address the environmental concerns of the town's residents.

The filter, which replaced the old and ineffective de-dusting system, utilises advanced technology to reduce dust emissions and has a competence rate of more than 98 per cent.

But residents remained sceptical about the benefit of the filter, saying the factory remained a major source of pollution to their town.

The five-decade-old cement factory is located within a stone's throw from the centre of the town, which has around 25,000 residents.

Posted by MEEF at 06:33 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 2, 2007

By Zvi Zrahiya, Haaretz Correspondent

The Knesset approved the third reading of a bill Monday calling for solar powered water heaters to be installed in all public housing apartments so that poverty stricken families will be able to reduce their electric bills.

The passed bill was proposed by Meretz MK Ran Cohen and the "Yedid" non-profit organization after it was discovered that most of the housing companies install electric water heaters and not solar powered ones.

The electric water heaters led to the absurd situation in which poverty stricken families would receive a NIS 100 rent discount ? but have to pay hundred of shekels in electricity bills.

During the legislation process, MK Cohen reached an agreement with former finance minister Abraham Hirchson and Housing Minister Meir Shitrit that the government would support the bill as long as the cost would be limited to NIS 5 million a year. The agreed upon budget will allow the state to install roughly 3000 solar powered water heaters a year.

Posted by MEEF at 06:28 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

2 Jul 2007

By Samir Ghawi

Jul. 2--AMMAN -- Technical and economic studies conducted on 20 establishments showed that there is a possibility of conserving 20 per cent of their energy consumption, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Khalid Shraideh told an executive club lunch on Sunday.

Shraideh spoke about the future strategy of Jordan's energy sector saying that the National Petroleum Company (NPC) is seeking a joint venture partner to explore and develop the Risha gas field and the necessary infrastructure.

Noting that current production is 21 million cubic feet per day, the minister said the output is expected to increase to 45 million cubic feet per day during 2007-2008.

He pointed out that as part of the long-term strategy, gas production from the Risha field is planned to reach 100-150 million cubic feet per day as there is potentially significant undeveloped gas.

The minister told the guests attending the lunch, held by the American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan (Amcham-Jordan), that natural gas is currently fuelling 85 per cent of total available capacity at Aqaba, Samra and Rehab power stations.

Within the plan to enhance the usage of natural gas to replace oil products, Shraideh expected large industries to begin the conversion programme to burning natural gas before the end of 2008.

He expected the gas distribution networks in large cities to develop, starting the fourth quarter of this year.

"The gas distribution and construction of the first Car Gas Fuel Station in Aqaba is expected to be completed by the end of 2007," he said.

Shraideh added: "Construction of the gas distribution network in Amman and Zarqa is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2007. Supplying gas to customers will commence in the second half of 2009".

He stressed that all the investments will be private.

Asked whether the use of gas will lower prices in the Kingdom, he tied this factor to other elements, like cost, but remarked that if, for example, the cement factory starts using gas, the prices of cement could be less by 30-35 per cent.

According to the minister, Jordan imports 200 million cubic feet per day of gas from Egypt.

"Jordan is highly dependent on imported energy and the cost of energy imports has been a major burden on the economy," he said, noting that 95 per cent of total energy demand is imported.

Without giving a specific figure, he estimated the cost of energy imports last year to be equal to 20 per cent of gross domestic product.

"Crude oil is imported from Saudi Arabia at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day," the minister said. He added that importing from Iraq by pipeline is the best option and that Baghdad and Amman have agreed to investigate this project.

Asked whether it is possible to have oil discoveries in Jordan, Shraideh said there are signs that oil exists in the Kingdom but not in commercial quantities.

Notwithstanding the importance of gas and crude oil, Shraideh described oil shale as a top energy resource for Jordan where proven reserves are estimated at 40 billion tonnes.

"The government signed four memoranda of understanding with four interested companies for Al Lajoun and Al Attarat areas in order to allow these companies to conduct bankable feasibility studies," he said. "If the results of the studies meet the criteria set in the memoranda, negotiations will start to grant the companies a concession agreement."

The companies are: International Corporation for Oil Shale Investment/Saudi investors and local company; Oil Shale Energy Jordan/Estonian investors; Jordan Energy and Mining Limited/British firm; Petrobras/Brazilain Company.

According to Shraideh, the government will invite additional international companies to invest in oil shale in other areas starting with Al Attarat during the second half of 2007.

As for deep oil shale, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Shell company on June 12, 2006 to evaluate, develop and exploit the deep oil shale resources for extraction of oil through a process called the In-Situ Conversion Process (ICP). Under this memorandum, Shell and the government will test the presence of commercial viable oil shale depots within an approximate area of 35,000- square-kilometres.

The government and Shell are in the process of negotiations on a concession agreement that provides Shell the right to explore and produce oil shale within an area of 20,000-square-kilometres.

This project will go through several phases which include exploration, appraisal, a pilot test, detailed design, and contract tendering for the commercial phase. "Negotiations are expected to be concluded during the second half of 2007", the minister remarked.

The minister also spoke about reform at the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC), the electricity sector and renewable energy.

He mentioned that after the end of concession in February 2008, the refined products sector will be extensively reformed in order to develop a competitive and efficient industry.

"Following the end of the concession agreement, JPRC will operate on a commercial basis and will continue to play a major role in the refined products sector," Shraideh said.

Noting that the refinery configuration will be changed to meet future demand profile, he estimated the investment required for the refinery expansion at approximately $1.34 billion.

The reform will not only be in terms of upgrading the refinery because a number of new companies will be formed.

That will include a logistics firm to manage storage and product handling , new marketing companies which will buy products from JPRC refinery or import products.

Retail companies will purchase products from marketing firms and operate retail stations to supply customers.

The minister stressed that all kinds of subsidies will be removed and the international parity price mechanism will be applied. He also emphasised that all energy activities will be regulated by the Electricity Regulatory Commission.

On electricity, the minister pointed out that Jordan imported 472Gwh from Egypt and 42Gwh from Syria in 2006, describing the Kingdom as " a main crossing point for many of the electrical interconnection projects within the Middle East region".

He expected the electricity privatisation programme involving the Central Electricity Generating Company, the Electricity Distribution Company and the Irbid District Electricity Company to be completed by the end of this year.

Shraideh concluded by highlighting renewable energy, saying that the target is to have it contribute around 10 per cent of electricity generation in 2015.

"Jordan has a strong wind regime, especially on the northern and western sides of the country where annual average wind speed exceeds seven miles per second," the minister said.

He added that a feasibility study is being conducted on two promising sites in Kamsheh in the north and Fujeij/Shobak in the south and that a tendering process for these two sites will be launched in 2007.

Posted by MEEF at 08:38 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

3 Jul 2007

The country’s 105 olive mills annually produce 200,000 cubic metres of olive vegetable water, which pollute the soil and water resources (Al Rai file photo)

By Mohammad Ghazal and Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN — The Environment Ministry will establish a pilot plant by the end of this year to treat the liquid residue of the olive-pressing process, as it pollutes the soil and water resources.

The JD500,000 EU-funded plant, to be built either at the Ikeider holding area or the Jordan University of Science and Technology, will start operating within four to six months with a daily capacity of 5-10 cubic metres, according to Adnan Khdair, director of integrated waste management of the Olive Oil Pressing Industries Programme.

The programme was launched in 2005 to introduce elements of an integrated waste management system to the olive oil sector in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Khdair said the plant will help curb the environmental problems caused by olive vegetable water (OVW), which contains large quantities of organic matter, solid material and oil that are hard to treat.

The country’s 105 olive mills produce 200,000 cubic metres of OVW annually, which poses an environmental challenge, he said

“The ministry decided to establish the plant as studies indicate that OVW harms the environment as it contains chemicals,” Khdair said, adding that the plant is part of the ministry’s measures to address environmental problems resulting from the by-products of olive presses.

These by-products include olive solid waste (OSW) and OVW, the ministry officials said. “OSW used to pose an environmental problem as presses used to dump it in valleys, where it would decay and emit a foul odour. Over the past few years, however, mill owners have started selling OSW as it is a good resource for heating purposes, especially after the hike in oil prices,” Khdair said.

Mohammad Bani Mustafa, director of Al Raimouni Olive Mill, said in the past, olive oil presses used to throw away the solid residue, “but that changed after the hike in fuel prices. Now, the solid waste is sold at JD40-70 per tonne.”

It is used to make charcoal and a substance that has become a common fuel substitute, known as “jift” in the local market.

“The problem at the current stage, however, is OVW, which can pollute water resources and the soil as it contains chemicals,” Bani Mustafa told The Jordan Times. OVW is a big problem in many parts of the world. Many countries have restrictions against dumping agricultural waste products into city sewers or streams and rivers, according to the olive oil source, www.oliveoilsource.com.

“Most areas allow a certain amount to be sprayed back into the orchard if it doesn’t impact the water supply. The vegetable water contains valuable trace elements and potassium, phosphorus, etc., as well as organic compounds,” according to the website. Khdair said the treated water could be used for agricultural purposes and the biogas emitted by the water can generate power, thus conserving the environment and helping owners of presses.

“I think that the plant will help us; at least it will preserve the environment. I pay almost JD10,000 annually to dispose of the water in the Ikeider holding area during the olive oil season, which starts in mid-October and lasts until mid-February,” said Bani Mustafa. The mill director said he pays JD25 for each tanker conveying the water from press to the holding area, and needs some 400 tankers. According to the Ministry of Agriculture figures, 1.250 million dunums of land in the country are planted with olives, and the sector produces some 253,000 tonnes of olives annually.

By-products that may result from oil extraction

• Stones or pits — Accumulates in plants where pitted or stuffed table olives are produced. Can be used for heating, building materials or for activated charcoal.

• Crude Olive Cake — The residue which remains after the first pressing of olives through traditional and continuous machines. There is still a small amount of oil in this cake. If not going on for further processing, this cake is often used for heating, for animal feed supplement or returned to the olive grove as a mulch.

• Exhausted Olive Cake — The residue that is left after the above crude olive cake has any remaining oil extracted from it by using solvents such as hexane. This cake is also often used for heating, for animal feed supplement or returned to the olive grove as a mulch.

• Partly Destoned Olive Cake — Produced if some of the crushed olive seeds are removed from the paste after processing. This cake is also often used for heating, for animal feed supplement or returned to the olive grove as a mulch.

• Olive Pulp — The residual paste which is produced if whole olive seeds are removed from the paste prior to processing. This residual paste has a very high water content and is difficult to store or dispose of.

• Vegetable Water — The brown watery liquid which has been separated from the oil by centrifugation or sedimentation after pressing. The invention of two phase oil extraction has reduced the pollution problems of this waste product by up to 90 per cent.

• Source: An Introduction to Olive Oil Processing.

www.oliveoilsource.com

Posted by MEEF at 08:26 AM | Permalink

Arab Environmental Monitor

Monday, July 02, 2007

By: Batir Wardam

You will have to search several locations in the World to find a situation similar to Aqaba’s: Jordan’s only outlet to the sea. This is a unique case of a confined, fragile and exquisite ecosystem subject to the cumulative effect of the “triangle of environmental threats”: Industry, tourism and transport.

The Jordanian segment of the Gulf of Aqaba is only 27 Km. Being the only sea port of Jordan, so many anthropogenic activities have engulfed the short beach in the last 50 years. Currently, only 7 Km of the beach is still “ natural”, devoid of ports, hotels, residential constructions and factories.
The huge stress for development in Aqaba and the fierce competition between transport, tourism and industry to occupy the beach have left the environment of Aqaba fighting a difficult battle against deterioration and pollution.
Aqaba is witnessing a drastic and rapid socio-economic and environmental transformation process that poses a great challenge to the integrity of the marine ecosystem. The great dynamics of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone and the liberal economic development planning is causing severe pressure on the Aqaba marine environment in many aspects. The following sections summarize some of the expected prospects for Aqaba until 2010 based on ASEZA's planning system.

Since its establishment in 2001 ASEZA has documented a relative success in attracting investments with a total of 1.0 billion US $ in investment with the ultimate aim of attracting 6.0 billion US $ by 2020.

One of the most important pressure elements on the environment will be the high increase of population. It is expected that the current total population of 80,000 will be increased by more than threefold to 300,000 in 2020 making Aqaba a semi-mega city with high pressure on infrastructure and services and waste.

Port transfer:

Maybe the main transformation element in the coming years will be the expected transfer of the Aqaba port complexes.

Currently, port activities are located in three different areas and the Aqaba master plan suggests merging these locations. A retail and entertainment complex will center around Aqaba’s Inner Harbour, where cruise ships and ferries will dock. Then, the emplacement of the current inner port will be converted to a mixed-use zone containing retail, commercial residential educational and recreational uses and the main sea port will be transform into an incubator complex where new business engaged in world trade, new technology and bimetal research, new digital technology. The date for this transformation is not yet specified.

It is expected that this process will generate a huge amount of environmental damage especially in the dredging activities and the destruction of corals in the new port location. Impacts will not be confined to the coastal zone where air pollution from dust and construction activities will have drastic impacts on the whole city and its population.

Southern Coastal Zone:

The southern coastal zone is changing its face drastically. Private sector-led development is transforming Aqaba’s southern coast into a tourist place into a new resort community with the construction of a new marina, residential development, and hotel and entertainment facilities. Moreover, a continuous pedestrian and bicycle trail will run the length of the coast.

The tourism attack on the southern coast may cause a lot of economic and political pressure on ASEZA to give away the Marine Park or parts of it to mass tourism activities. The 7 km of shoreline that are currently preserved for environmental protection and sustainable use of marine resources will be very attractive to investors in the future.

Southern Industrial Zone:

The planned reorganisation of existing industrial parcels in the Lower Industrial Area is intended for improving vehicular circulation and while adding more development sites and capacity. Part of this initiative includes a railway terminal and a lower loop roadway. New access roads and extended utility systems are planned to service the industrial expansion area.

The increased activities in the southern industrial zone may get in direct conflict with the tourism potential as well as with the port transfer system.

Airport Industrial Zone:

The airport will soon provide direct runway access to cargo, warehousing, and logistics operations. Land uses in the Zone include warehousing, logistics, distribution, light manufacturing, hi-tech industries, showrooms, and smart-office complexes.

Aqaba Town:

Development in the town will center around the cornice, a continuous pedestrian promenade along the waterfront.

The cornice - a destination in and of itself - of the Main Port will include a lagoon resort community, beach hotel district, and a public beach area in the palm grove.

This is another area that will witness great changes and impacts on the environment with the establishment of the lagoon and the new tourism attraction that will ensure the influx of high rates of tourists that may exceed the environmental carrying capacity in that region that is already having a problem of sea water intrusion and solid waste accumulation.

Posted by MEEF at 08:25 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 9, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

The Palestinian inhabitants of Hebron have grown accustomed to raids by the Israel Defense Forces, but the raid carried out by paratroopers of Brigade 202 last week was out of the ordinary.

The paratroopers were not searching for participants in any terror actions, but rather for the victim of thievery and illegal commerce: the rare Golden Eagle, which the paratroopers were searching for with the aid of Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel.

All of this was part of a joint battle to save the population of raptors in the region, which has been suffering the depredations of wildlife rustlers and traders. In the wake of intelligence information obtained by the INPA about the illegal presence of Golden Eagles in a house in Hebron, the authority requested help from the IDF.

A paratrooper force set out for the house together with an INPA ranger, Aviam Atar. The force came to the suspect's house, but the eagles were not found there.

After questioning, the inhabitants of the house led the soldiers to a shop in the town, and there the two eagles were found in good condition, overall. Atar, who was equipped with special sleeves to protect his arms from the eagles' sharp talons, took them away to the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem.

There it will be decided whether to release them in nature or whether they will have to spend the rest of their lives behind bars. In the wake of the operation, two suspects were arrested, taken for questioning to the Hebron police station and subsequently released on bail.

The Judean Desert is one of the last big refuges for birds of prey in Israel - a number of species of large eagles (the Golden Eagle and Bonelli's Eagle) as well as a large concentration of vultures. These birds are threatened by poisoning, illegal hunting, the destruction of habitats by building and the dwindling of their natural food supply. The threat of poaching for purposes of commerce also harms the few nests they still manage to maintain in the desert.

Birds aren't the only creatures at risk in the territories. On Monday, Hamas forces raiding the hideout of a notorious drug ring stumbled upon a lion stolen at riflepoint two years ago from the Gaza Zoo, said a force commander, Abu Hamam al-Deeb. She was malnourished, missing four teeth, claws and part of her tail, a veterinarian said.

Most of the birds that are trapped or stolen from nests are taken for sale in the territories or smuggled to the Gulf states, where there is considerable demand for these birds, some of which are trained to hunt.

It is estimated that in the past there were nearly 50 nesting pairs of Golden Eagles in the desert areas of Israel and the territories. During the past two decades their number has decreased by 50 percent, and this is a species that is in danger of extinction.

The Golden Eagle (which used to be known as the Rock Eagle) lives in pairs, each of which guards a territory of tens of square kilometers. It eats wild prey, including rabbits and foxes. It nests mostly on rocky ledges, and sometimes in one area there can be up to 10 nests.

The eagle pair will brood every year in one of them. The INPA rangers have discovered several cases of stolen raptor chicks and also instances of Palestinian inhabitants rappelling to the nests and taking young chicks from them. In one case, a nest that had been burned was found in the desert, apparently a reprisal action by Bedouin in the wake of INPA activity against illegal hunting. Last year Atar had help from another IDF unit in a search in a Bedouin locale in the desert, during which they found two Golden Eagles shackled in chains. Those eagles were taken to the Biblical Zoo and were not returned to nature.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879864.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Al Hayat

July 2, 2007

Walid Khadduri

Beirut - Natural gas production and export in the Mediterranean waters off of the coast of Gaza strip bring an added dimension to the ongoing conflict between Fatah and Hamas over the political control of the strip.
The Gaza marine field was discovered in the late 90's by the British Gas company BG Group, but its development was belated on account of the political complications and issues related to the Palestinian cause and the Israeli debate on the safety of gas installations from an Arabic source.

Upon the discovery of the gas field (with its estimated one trillion cu ft of gas reserves), Israel claimed that it extends to its regional waters; therefore it demanded its share in it, to co-develop it and to divide its gains with the Palestinian party. However, the geographical coordinates proved that it was entirely inside the Palestinian waters, thus rebuffing the Israeli claim. Afterwards, the British BG began studying the possibilities of exporting the Palestinian gas to the nearby Israeli market (since Israel in particular lacks gas reserves and is trying to change fuel in its power stations from coal to gas, while according to MEES, its 2006 production of natural gas from a maritime field in its regional waters did not surpass 223 million cubic feet) in addition to providing fuel to the Gaza power station.
The preliminary negotiations between the British company and the Israeli infrastructure ministry were unsuccessful, due to political reasons (the second intifada and the necessary guarantees to constantly secure the pipelines) and to a disagreement over the costs. BG refused a primary Israeli offer of 3.10 $ per MBTU, taxing it as a non-commercial, very low price considering the worldwide rise in oil and gas prices. Instead, it decided to turn to the Egyptian market, where it exports liquefied gas from Idku, and supply it with additional quantities of gas.
Following strenuous negotiations, the Israeli cabinet headed by Ehud Olmert agreed, by a majority of 21 votes against 3 on 29 April 2007, to import Gaza's marine gas for a higher price than initially offered, i.e. 4.50$ per MBTU, according to MEES.
Despite the official agreement, the signing ceremony still has not been organized between BG and the Israeli ministry of power, which plans to import 1.6 billion cu m of Palestinian gas yearly for 15 years, while the gas is supposed to reach the Israeli company's warehouses in Ashdod through a sea pipeline by 2011 at the latest. According to the London Times, the deal with Israel is estimated at around 4 billion dollars. If signed and executed, it is expected to provide the Palestinian National Authority with around 100 million dollars per year in royalties for its share in the project. The overall value of exports from Gaza to Israel is around 360 million dollars yearly, while exports from Israel to the Gaza strip reach 750 million dollars per year, as published in Yedioth Ahronoth, according to the Institute of Palestine Studies' bulletin on excerpts from Hebrew newspapers.
There are many questions on the serious signing of the commercial contract, especially after Hamas' military coup in the Gaza Strip. Will the Israeli government accept to deal with it instead of the Palestinian national authority, or will it continue to deal with the national authority in Ramallah? How will Hamas react to this policy in Gaza? Will it accept the agreements reached by the Palestinian, Israeli and British parties so far? It is noteworthy that under the government of national unity, presided by Haniya and following the Mecca agreement, neither the prime minister nor the Hamas movement made any public objections to the project or the ongoing negotiations to put the final touches to the commercial agreement.

http://english.daralhayat.com/business/07-2007/Article-20070702-868d3d59-c0a8-10ed-0082-a494eba38cc2/story.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:33 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 8, 2007

By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN - Jordan will begin supplying the West Bank city of Jericho with all electricity needs at preferential prices before the end of this year, an official said on Saturday.

"Jericho will be separated soon from the Israeli electricity network
and linked to the Jordanian power grid," National Electric Power
Company Director General Ahmad Hiasat told The Jordan Times.
"Jordan will provide the city with all its power needs by the end of the
year."

Hiasat said electricity will be sold to Jericho at preferential
prices on a Palestinian Authority request during a recent meeting
between King Abdullah and President Mahmoud Abbas.
"Jericho is only around seven kilometres away from the Kingdom's
power plants in the Jordan Valley," he added, saying possible plans
to supply other Palestinian cities with electricity "depends on the
political situation".

"The Palestinians said they did not want to be dependent on the
Israeli power supplies," he said. "Jericho will stop receiving
electricity from Israel once it gets power from Jordan."
Meanwhile, Hiasat told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the
Kingdom has been providing electricity to Syria for four months at an
average of 2,385 megawatts per hour.

"Jordan supplies to Syria almost every night, when electricity loads
in the Kingdom are low," Hiasat said.
He said Jordan imports power from Egypt at times of peak demand.
"Some of Jordan's power plants run on diesel, which is costly,
therefore, it's cheaper to import power from Egypt," Hiasat said.

Posted by MEEF at 01:28 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 7, 2007

By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN — A total of 2,591 environmental violations have been registered since the beginning of 2007, including littering, cutting trees, gas emissions and violations of public health safety, according to the Environment Ministry.

The bulk of these were gas emissions from vehicles, with a total of 933
vehicles found in violation of environmental regulation, ministry spokesperson Isa Shboul
told The Jordan Times.

The rest were polluting water resources, illegal dumping of wastewater and
disregard of public health safety measures by some restaurants, which were
either given warnings or shut down, Shboul added.

Ten industrial and agricultural facilities, as well as quarries, were shut
down since the beginning of the year in Amman, Zarqa and Irbid following complaints
filed by residents from these governorates, he said.

Meanwhile, a Public Security Department helicopter has started inspecting
industrial facilities in environmental hot spots in the country to help the
environmental police monitor violations, according to Shboul.

“The helicopter will fly over hot spots in Ajloun, Sahab, the Jordan Valley
and Zarqa, which is home to more than 50 per cent of the country’s industrial
facilities. It will monitor emissions from these facilities and littering
and report these violations to the environmental police,” said the official.

The helicopter will fly over these areas three times a month, according to
Shboul.

Posted by MEEF at 01:25 PM | Permalink

The Daily Star

July 07, 2007

Environment hotline

BEIRUT: Plastic waste from the Beirut's Normandy landfill continues to be dumped in several areas across Lebanon, raising fears among Lebanese about the toxicity of the materials, said a report published in this month's Environment and Development magazine. The waste was originally intended to help shape a spacious agricultural venue in the Chouf region of Sibline.

The Environment Ministry decided to transfer the plastic waste to Sibline for the proposed venue after conducting tests and impact assessments on the Sibline project. Since that decision, however, the same waste has wound up in the landfills of several towns and villages, including Sidon, Zahrani, Bhamdoun, Sofar, Sharon, and Hamana.

The situation subsequently led the Nature Without Frontiers Association, the Sharon Agricultural Cooperative and the Sofar Municipality to raise concerns about the dumping.

"The locations where waste is being dumped clearly shows that such shipments are not innocent, especially [since] they are being thrown near tourist attractions," said Mahmoud Ahmadieh, head of Nature Without Frontiers.

Municipalities in the Chouf area worked hard to enhance agricultural spaces in the region, "and not to transform their villages into large dumpsters," added the head of the Sharon Agricultural Cooperative Shawqi Banna.

Additionally, although the town of Bhamdoun succeeded in getting rid of a large portion of the mistakenly transferred waste, even larger quantities are still buried in the soil of the mountainous village.

The waste, randomly deposited throughout Bhamdoun's natural surroundings, has partially filled Bhamdoun's well-known valley, plugged up its waterways and caused drastic changes for the local agricultural sector.

A laboratory analysis conducted at the American University of Beirut (AUB) demonstrated that the waste being dumped at the Sibline project and in other areas all consisted of a non-toxic blend of plastic materials and earth.

The analysis, however, also raised several questions about why the plastic waste was being shipped to regions where no clear-cut developmental projects are being conducted.

Professor Nagi Kodeih - the head of the Service for the Prevention from the Impacts of Technologies and Natural Disasters at the Ministry of Environment - said AUB lab results of samples from waste shipments showed that the soil of regions where wastes were being dumped contained "frightening amounts of toxic materials, including Vanadium, Cobalt, Arsenic, Uranium and Mercury."

However, Environment and Development magazine dismissed claims made during the show Al-Fassad (Corruption) on New Television, which discussed waste shipments from Normandy. The magazine said Kodeih skewed lab results by using the Method Detection Limit (MDL) technique rather than the commonly used Highest Allowed Average metal detection method.

"Rather than measuring the true quantities of materials in the soil, MDL gives the lowest quantity of materials the used detector can perceive," it said.

Kodeih's interpretation raised panic among the Lebanese, the magazine added. "While personalized interpretations work well for philosophy and literature, scientific data cannot be interpreted in several different ways or else we can't call them scientific anymore," the magazine said. - Environment Hotline, The Daily Star

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=83605&categ_id=1#

Posted by MEEF at 01:24 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 8, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

Tel Aviv area beaches could become heavily polluted due to repairs being done to a cracked sewage pipe in the city.

The Dan Municipal Union for Environment and Sewage, a body responsible for the transfer of sewage across the Gush Dan area, has identified a crack in one of the main sewage lines in northern Tel Aviv. If the crack is not repaired, the pipe could collapse, spilling large amounts of sewage into residential areas. However, while the pipe is being repaired, the sewage would be spilled into the sea, causing large-scale pollution to area beaches.

The crack was discovered by divers checking the entire sewage system. The survey was ordered after one of the pipes exploded in Jaffa four years ago, pouring millions of cubic meters of raw sewage into the sea.

Director of the environmental organization Tzalul attorney Yariv Abramovich accused the municipal union of failing to address the sewage problem effectively. "For years, they have been maintaining breakdowns, rather than preventing them," Abramovich said. "This problem should set alarm bells ringing at the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Environment Ministry. They must force a systematic solution on the union which will include a solution to the dangerous worn out pipelines."

Municipal Union Chairman Itai Pinkas replied "we have been alert and we have prevented a heavy environmental disaster. Now we are investing hundreds of millions of shekels in replacing sewage infrastructure in Gush Dan."

The fear of collapse surrounds a 300-meter long section of the pipe that was installed over twenty years ago. After identifying the crack, the union decided to immediately take steps to prevent collapse. The repairs are slated to begin this week.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879533.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:18 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times
Agence French Presse

July 5 2007

Laith Abou-Ragheb

Giant islands taking shape off the coast of Dubai are sparking interest not only from celebrities but also from environmental campaigners jittery about the man-made structures so large they can be seen from space.

Work is all but complete on the Palm Jumeirah, the first of three palm tree-shaped islands, which developers Nakheel say is more than one and a half times the size of New York's Central Park and will eventually house thousands of luxury apartments, beachside villas, upmarket hotels and restaurants.

The project, which includes a cluster of isles taking the shape of a world map, are part of Dubai's rush to become a regional business and tourism powerhouse.

Included are lavish plans for homes built on stilts, marinas, shopping malls, water theme parks, sports facilities, health spas, cinemas, boardwalks, a monorail and a number of dive sites.

With the focus on luxury and leisure, the glitterati are lining up according to Nakheel, which boasts that British footballers David Beckham and Michael Owen as well as Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan have invested in the project.

Interest, it says, has also been been shown by the likes of pop star Michael Jackson, racing driver Michael Schumacher, actors Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington and model Naomi Campbell.

But with millions of cubic metres (feet) of rock and sand being either quarried from the UAE or dredged from the bottom of the Gulf to create the islands, environmentalists are less than enthused.

Wildlife protection groups caution that the heavy dredging could damage marine habitats while other experts warn of increased pollution and strains on the local environment when humans begin flocking to the resorts.

Cyclone Gonu, which tore through neighbouring Oman early this month killing 49 people and washing the east coast of the UAE with high waves, has raised concerns about the vulnerability of coastal areas to natural disasters.

"Most countries now agree that climate change is an existing man-made problem. I do hope this was taken into account when designing these projects," said Ibrahim al-Zubi, an environmental volunteer at the Emirates Diving Association (EDA).

EDA is a UN-accredited body that aims to promote the sustainable development of the Gulf state's marine resources.

Zubi said the thousands of people moving on to the islands would put greater strain on the UAE's water and power resources as well as creating more pollution and domestic waste.

The UAE, of which Dubai is one of its seven member states, already has the world's biggest ecological footprint, according to a 2004 report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that measures the environmental sustainability of a state.

"The transition between a traditional economy based on subsistence fisheries, oasis agriculture and livestock to a modern, highly urbanised country in less than 30 years is affecting the environment," WWF warned.

"Several coastal areas of regional importance are being threatened by tourism development."

But Nakheel says it has gone to great lengths to ensure sustainability and to minimise ecological damage.

"The engineering and the thought that has been put into these projects is pioneering globally and there is an underlying objective of setting new standards in environmental performance," Shaun Lenehan, the head of Nakheel's in-house environmental department, told AFP.

Lenehan said consumed water which will be derived from the Palm Jumeirah's two desalination plants would be treated before being pumped back for irrigation and air conditioning.

Furthermore, Lenehan said Nakheel will only hire waste management firms that have a recycling policy and the island will have an integrated transport system including a metro line.

Far from damaging marine habitats, he said, the projects have in fact attracted new marine life.

"Twelve species of coral and up to 50 types of fish are now living in and around the rocky breakwater of Palm Jumeirah. These have in turn attracted sharks, squid and barracuda," Lenehan said.

Ibrahim Bashir, a Kenyan who has been diving off Dubai's coast for the past three years, said he has witnessed a drop in water quality due to silt from construction.

"We usually dive about 10 kilometres (six miles) out to sea to view shipwrecks," he said. "It was once very clear, with visibility of up to 10 metres. But now you sometimes can't even see the tip of your hand."

But he agreed there had been some positive developments, such as the recent appearance in the area of sharks, dolphins and some types of stingrays and jelly fish, which could have been drawn by the new ecosystems created by the projects.

"In the short term, things aren't great. But in the long term, I think it will be okay," he said.

Lenehan dismissed local media reports that tropical storms such as Gonu and rising sea levels due to global warming might pose a serious threat to the islands, which are being built in the relatively calm Gulf waters.

"They were designed to withstand a one-in-100 year storm with 4.5-metre high (15 foot) waves," he said, adding the islands were built at a height above a conservative projection of 0.6 metres (23 inches) for a rise in sea levels over the next century.

Posted by MEEF at 01:08 PM | Permalink

Israel 21c

July 01, 2007

DEMOCRACY

By Ilana Teitelbaum

From the moment we wake up in the morning and open a box of cereal to the hours we spend at work among printers, faxes, and copying machines, to times spent relaxing in the evening with a magazine or mass market paperback, we are constantly surrounded by paper.

Back in the late 1990s when email first began to take off, the dream of the "paperless office" seemed poised to make the leap from myth to reality. More than a decade later, it's become clear that this transition never took place, and today Americans consume about 187 billion pounds of paper each year. And that's just the US - all over the world, billions of trees are cut down annually in an attempt to keep pace with the world's growing demand for paper products.

A little-known alternative to trees for the production of paper is kenaf, a leafy, fast-growing annual related to the cotton plant. With a Persian name and ancient historical roots in Africa, the origin of kenaf is shrouded in mystery. One thing is certain: kenaf is both an effective and environmentally-friendly substitute to wood. Yet in spite of an endorsement from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), kenaf has still not found its way into the mainstream market. High-end companies like Kodak, J.C. Penney and the Gap use kenaf paper for catalogues and film, but the vast majority of companies are still using wood-based paper.

Israeli Professor Roni Aloni of Tel Aviv University has been working with kenaf for 30 years, and may have finally discovered the breakthrough that will spring kenaf from obscurity. He, along with Professor Adi Avni and graduate student Jonathon Dayan, has succeeded at silencing a gene in the kenaf plant, which causes the kenaf to produce 50% more fibers per crop - and those fibers are longer and of higher quality than before. "The idea was to increase quality and fiber and stem length," Aloni told ISRAEL21c.

The technology is still in the testing stage, but the hope is that kenaf will replace trees as the source of pulp for paper manufacture. Kenaf grows much faster than trees, and would therefore be a more efficient source of pulp even without genetic modifications. "The same acreage of land planted with kenaf can yield the equivalent quantity of pulp fibers from wood that takes 20 years to grow," explained Aloni.

Aloni and Dayan have discovered a way to increase the levels of a hormone called gibellin in the kenaf plant - the hormone that is instrumental in producing the long, thick fibers that are used for making paper. Normally at a certain stage in the plant's growth, the production of gibellin is deactivated. Aloni and Dayan found the gene that causes the deactivation of the gibellin and then silenced the gene, so that the plant grows larger and more fibrous than before. "We found a gene and sequenced it with silencing technology. The scientific community did think about doing this, but they believed it would silence the whole system. We found a way to silence only one gene," explained Dayan.

Until now, kenaf paper has been slightly more expensive to produce than wood-based paper, particularly since the lumber industry in the US is subsidized by the government. According to Aloni, though, increasing the productivity of the kenaf plant will boost its value as a cash crop, creating an economic incentive for farmers. "Our technology makes... the kenaf able to compete economically with wood pulp for paper," he said.

The environmental benefits to replacing wood with kenaf would be significant. While wood paper mills are notorious for the deadly toxins they release into the atmosphere, kenaf requires fewer chemicals for processing because of its lower lignin content (the chemical that binds cellulose). Kenaf paper is also naturally brighter than wood paper, with the result that fewer chemicals are needed for the bleaching of kenaf paper. Chlorine, one of the most toxic offenders used for the bleaching of wood paper, is not used to bleach kenaf paper.

Forest officials in the US claim that cutting trees doesn't damage the environment because trees are a renewable resource. Unfortunately, re-planting trees doesn't save the natural habitats that were destroyed along with the original forests. Entire species of plants and animals have become extinct all over the world as a result of deforestation. Paper may not be made from animal skins anymore as it was in ancient times, but the current state of the industry probably kills far more species in the long run.

More than one company has expressed interest in Aloni's new development and is in negotiations with Ramot, the technology transfer company for Tel Aviv University. While Aloni is not at liberty to divulge the identities of these companies until the agreements are finalized, he was able to reveal that one company is in Italy while the other is in Brazil.

The Brazilian company, Aloni elaborated, plans on using kenaf for the dual purposes of paper and biofuel. "They would like to use the biggest kenaf plants mainly for energy. Kenaf fibers in the core are shorter and therefore less important for paper, while the outside layers of fiber are longer and excellent for paper-making. So we suggested they use the outside for paper and the core fibers to produce ethanol."

Meanwhile, the Italian company has requested "longer, softer fibers" for making paper and fabric for clothes, says Aloni, and adds, "Once we started to deal with companies we realized that each company needed something different. We have to grow 100 plants to produce one super-plant, and the more we do the more varieties of super-kenaf plants we get. We should be able to get different kinds that suit different needs."

Using an analogy, Aloni explains, "Every line of kenaf comes out differently - it's like a family: when you have children they may seem similar, but each one is different. We expect to get different lines and each might have different qualities.

"The paper and wood industry is more than $250 billion a year," concludes Aloni. "People think about cutting less wood, and when they do cut trees, then they would like to use it for wood products and not for paper. This is where kenaf could fit the bill."

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enScript=PrintVersion.jsp&enDispWho=Articles^l1696

Posted by MEEF at 01:04 PM | Permalink

Israel 21c

July 05, 2007

TECHNOLOGY

By Nicky Blackburn

You can tell Joseph Cory is a dreamer. Turn to his company's web site, Geotectura.com, and you see a host of ideas ranging from the wild - a one-meter square movable 'house' for the homeless, to the wacky, electro-magnetic skyscrapers that float above the ground. But out of this riotous imagination, Cory, a new breed of environmental architect, has developed a number of award-winning schemes that could help deal with some of the world's most pressing problems - lack of renewable energy, and water scarcity.

The Israeli scientist, who is shortly to complete his PhD at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Architecture and City Construction, at Haifa's Technion Israel Institute of Technology, has developed a new way to produce electricity using helium balloons made from fabric coated with photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. These balloons are much cheaper to build and install than existing solar panels, and also take up far less room, which is significant in an urban environment.

The balloons, which are a little like mini-Zeppelins, are connected to the ground via two cables: one to refill helium, and the other to pass the electricity to a control panel. The balloons can be connected to one another vertically, one meter apart, going up hundreds of meters into the sky.

"If you want more electricity you just have to add another balloon," Cory tells ISRAEL21c. "The vertical dimension is unlimited as long as you are not based near an airport."

Cory and his research partner at the Technion, Dr. Pini Gurfil, estimate that most homes would need just one or two balloons to supply their entire electrical needs. Apartment buildings or office blocks could use hundreds of balloons connected to the roof to supply part of their power needs, reducing costs substantially.

"The balloons don't have to compete with regular energy sources. They can be used alongside it, saving energy and reducing costs by half," explains 36-year-old Cory. "This invention is not trying to save the world or to say that what we have been using up to now is no longer important, it's another option that can help to save money and indirectly also save the planet a little bit by not using polluting fuels."

He envisages, for example, thousands of these balloons being installed in open urban areas like Central Park in New York. Visitors to the park would not be affected by the balloons, which would float in the sky high above the park, but the city authorities could use the electricity generated by them to power city amenities - like street lights for example.

Out of the city, the balloons could be used to generate electricity in remote places that are off the electricity grids. In the jungle, they could be floated high above the tree line, or at sea, ships could use them to power on-board facilities.

Cory imagines huge fields of balloons being set up to generate large quantities of electrical power. "Imagine seeing a field of those solar balloons, moving like grass in the wind," says Cory. "It would be a much more beautiful and architectural sight than today's ugly power stations."

Gurfil, who is an expert in satellites, is working hard to ensure that the balloons are wind resistant. Already there are two working prototypes in operation in Haifa and in Israel's desert, and work is continuing to find the optimal material and size. Installation will be simple. The idea is that the user can simply purchase a balloon from a shop or the Internet and install it themselves, without the need to bring in an expert.

Cory and Gurfil began working on the solar balloons, which have already been patented, about six months ago because they realized that one of the problems with solar energy today is that it is still not economic to use, both in terms of cost and space. In Israel most households have a solar panel on the roof that heats the water, but very few have solar panels to create electricity, even though the country has more than its fair share of sunny days.

"Today there's so much focus on clean energy and we are being urged to use it as much as possible but people still prefer old fashioned electricity," says Cory. "To generate electricity, solar panels have to be much larger and we simply don't have the room for them. In order to make a huge amount of energy, you need a huge amount of space. When officials suggest creating solar energy plants in the Arava or Negev deserts, greens complain that the plants will destroy the environment.

"The balloons don't have any negative effects on the environment at all. We are creating more space for the PV cells without taking away any urban space or landscape," says Cory.

The researchers, who up to now have worked on this project in their free time, are now looking for funding of up to $2 million to build a prototype of their work and to begin the process of commercialization.

Aside from the solar balloon scheme, Cory and fellow architect, Eyal Malka of Malka Architects have also developed WatAir, an inexpensive solution that can bring clean drinking water to people in remote or polluted areas. Cory and Malka began work on the project to enter a competition sponsored by WaterAid, an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing safe domestic water to developing nations, and Arup, a British engineering company that specializes in sustainable designs. The two researchers went on to win first prize in the contest.

WatAir is an inverted pyramid with panels of three meters in height made from a variety of materials including elastic canvas, recycled polycarbonate, metal or glass, that can create dozens of liters of fresh water every day from the air. The design is low-tech, low-cost and can be produced from local materials, says Cory.

Cory and Malka came up with the idea of the pyramid after seeing how dew collects on tents and sleeping bags in the desert. "This was our inspiration. The water is available, it's free and it's a very natural phenomenon," says Cory. "It's not really an innovation. About 2,000 years ago Nabatean tribes who lived in the Negev area are thought to have used this technique to collect dew to make water for their communities."

At night dew drops bead up on the top and undersides of the WatAir panels. The dew on the top may contain dust or dirt, so that water can be used for irrigation. But the dew that collects beneath the panels is pure drinking water. The drops are drawn downwards by gravity into tanks, wells, or bottles at the bottom.

WatAir can be placed anywhere - on a roof, in a backyard, on a street, in a park - and it can be any size. A 96 square meter structure can provide at least 48 liters of fresh water daily, but the dimensions can vary from a small personal unit, to several large units that provide water for a village. It's unique shape means it can also be used to collect rain water, and for shading. "It has many architectural aspects to it," says Cory.

Both the WatAir and the solar balloons can be used in disaster situations, such as an earthquake, or flood where power has failed and there is no clean water. They can be dropped by parachute from an airplane and set up in simply and with no fuss on rooftops, or wherever there is space. "We can provide people in situations like this with clean water and electricity for a substantial period of time," says Cory.

Cory believes that it will be easy to convince potential sponsors to pay for the manufacturing and shipment costs of these products, by printing logos and advertisements onto the canvas sheets.

Cory, who spent some years designing residential houses for a firm of architects, became interested in the field of environmental architecture when he began studying for his PhD in 2004. His subject is Frederick Keisler, an Austrian-born architect, artist, theoretician and theater designer who was based in New York in the mid 1920s. Keisler collaborated with the Surrealists and was part of the avant-garde art world throughout his career.

"He believed that it was the duty of the architect to feel his way towards the future in order to plan properly for today, and that's what started me thinking," says Cory. "I began to focus more on themes of water and energy, and all the sustainable concepts."

He founded the Geotectura studio in 2005 and began to collaborate with friends - architects, scientists, psychologists, landscape architects - to try to come up with alternative projects whenever they had any spare time. One of the first ideas was the electro-magnetic skyscrapers. "It's a purely fictional project," Cory admits. "We wanted to open people's eyes and ears. The idea was just to imagine how the future would look if buildings could fly by themselves without taking gravity into account. By doing this it helped free my mind and come up with more practical solutions like the solar balloons."

Other ideas include the i-rise, a small 5 meter by 7.5 meter prefabricated house that can be enlarged just by adding new units floor by floor in response to the demands of a growing family; and the Ownless - a mobile home for the homeless, inspired by the capsule hotels of Japan, that includes a built-in bike and photovoltaic cells to recharge batteries and run a reading lamp.

The i-rise project was runner-up in the 2007 Next Generation Competition organized by the US magazine, Metropolis.

"It's been a kind of evolution," says Cory. "For the first time I've been able to see beyond the small box of architecture, and I have started thinking about how I as an architect can make a change, and bring back social responsibility into the field."

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enScript=PrintVersion.jsp&enDispWho=Articles^l1700

Posted by MEEF at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 6, 2007

BYLINE: Mohammad Ghazal and Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment has called on Jordan Valley farmers to stop using untreated organic fertilisers, which attract domestic flies, a nuisance for picnickers and harmful to the environment.

Describing the use of these fertilisers as a "big problem," Minister of Environment Khalid Irani told The Jordan Times that due to the wrong practice, summer in this relatively hot area becomes unbearable, let alone the health hazards it poses to residents and visitors.

"The area is plagued by swarms of flies, which make it impossible even to enjoy a cup of tea," he added.

Besides causing such inconvenience, farmers are missing the advantages of using certified organic fertilisers, which would save them "30-40 per cent of irrigation water, reduce the use of pesticides and curb the spread of domestic flies by 75 per cent," Irani said.

This defeats farmers' perception of the material they use now, according to the minister, who stressed that untreated organic fertilisers "are not nourishing to the plant and they consume too much water to release their nutrients."

"For example, the benefit a plant gets from a quarter tonne of treated organic fertiliser equals that of a whole tonne of the untreated form. This is because the latter takes a prolonged period and large quantities of water to dissolve the nutrients," Irani said.

Jamal Masalha, a farmer from the area, confirmed that he and his peers use unprocessed organic fertilisers because they believe they are cost effective and more useful.

"I used to apply treated fertilisers to avoid the spread of the flies but I later stopped and started using untreated organic fertilisers because it is better for the plants," said Masalha.

Apart from the efforts to change farmers' perceptions, including an awareness campaign, the ministry is encouraging other steps to address the problem.

Irani noted that a factory in Deir Alla in the central Jordan Valley has started operating recently to treat organic fertilisers. The factory produces some 100,000 tonnes of treated fertilisers annually, which would help curb the problem, he said.

Jordan Valley Authority Secretary General Musa Jamaini described the problem of domestic flies as "chronic", saying that farmers had tried many methods to get rid of the flies, other than stopping the application of the harmful fertilisers, but nothing worked.

The official said there was no way out but to end the practice, as a first step.

Other plants to process untreated fertilisers would help to end the problem, he said.

Jamaini explained that flies are attracted to organic fertilisers because they contain a high percentage of humidity, while the sterilised fertilisers do not attract flies, simply because they are dry.

Posted by MEEF at 12:14 PM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 9, 2007

MATTHEW KRIEGER

Calling his new program "agriculture in service of the environment," Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon on Sunday unveiled his ministry's plan to reward those farmers who demonstrate "eco-friendly" farming practices.

"The trend of environmentally-friendly agriculture has been increasing over the last few years in response to the rise of awareness around the world about the importance of protecting the environment," said Simhon. "The Agriculture Ministry has made great strides in the area of promoting farming techniques that protect and cause as little harm as possible to the environment, and our ministry is working in cooperation with Environmental Protection Agency and other 'green' organizations with the goal of advancing the agricultural sector's environmental awareness."

According to Simhon's plan, which is expected to come into practice within the next few weeks, some NIS 120 million in grants will be awarded to those farmers who prove that they are practicing "green-agriculture" - defined as growing crops in fields instead of in hothouses; preventing the release of foul or dangerous odors into the air; protecting the sources of water and natural springs used to hydrate crops; and cutting down unwanted trees as opposed to burning them. Farmers can apply for grants from the ministry and those that fit the criteria will be awarded allowances.

"In the past, the ministry awarded money to farmers in the periphery of the country, such as in the Negev, the Golan and in the Jordan and Beit Shean valleys," said Yossi Yishai, deputy director-general and head of planning in the Agriculture Ministry. "The money that we gave to farmers in these areas helped answer their needs and we will continue to support them, but the new criterion will be mostly focused on helping farmers in the center of the country, as these farmers have not received benefits for a decade."

Simhon added that he hopes his plan will encourage farmers in the Gush Dan area to use wastewater and sewage run-off as fertilizer for their crops.

He expects these reforms will be as effective as agricultural reforms of the past, which have proven successful in reducing the number of barns in the country - replacing them with open aired shelters - a move that has slashed the amount of dangerous poisons inhaled by the animals.

The "green-revolution" is not limited to farmers who grow crops, but also has stretched into the country's burgeoning pig industry. The feed that is supplied to pigs raised in Israel will now contain Cycle-G, an additive that was developed by two Israeli scientists. Research has found that pigs given Cycle-G, the first environmentally friendly additive, have shown improved sustainability in confined buildings and produce less ammonia and reduce smell and odors. "This additive will allow pig producers to comply with the ever-growing demand for a license to produce - in particular from the environmental perspective," said Dr. Gert Jan Montenty, a Dutch scientist specializing in the area of livestock buildings and environment.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry and Agriculture Ministry will travel to Brussels this week to meet with European Union representatives in an effort to expand trade between Israel and the EU in the food and agriculture sectors.

Approximately 75 percent of all Israeli exports of food and agricultural products in 2006 was shipped to markets across the EU, with trade between Israel and the EU reaching €1.5 billion last year, as Israel exported €1b. and imported €500m.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183901658430&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Israel 21c

July 08, 2007

DEMOCRACY

By Michelle Levine

They may come from worlds apart, but leading political and environmental figures from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority have found a common theme to bring them together - the Great Rift Valley.

The Great Rift Valley is a series of geological rifts stretching 4,000 miles, from southern Turkey to Zimbabwe, running through Syria and Lebanon, along the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea until Kenya, at which point it splits into two branches. Five hundred million birds use the valley route to migrate twice a year from Europe to Asia.

The multi-national group - under the moniker of the Dead Sea Triangle (DST) - has met twice recently, in Jerusalem and at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, to discuss the future of the Great Rift Valley and to step up the environmental collaboration already in progress through innovative and large-scale projects.

Sessions were organized by Dr. Yossi Leshem from Israel's Society for the Protection of Nature and Tel Aviv University. Together with his partners in the project - Imad Atrash of the Palestine Wildlife Society and retired Jordanian general Mansour Abu Rashed - Leshem envisions a triangle of research facilities (known as the Dead Sea Triangle) in the Great Rift Valley, Ein Gedi, Jericho, and Wadi Mujeb in Jordan.

"Migratory and local birds are playing a key role in our collaboration, bringing people together: farmers, educators and scientists. The results of the birds' activities are far more profound than those of the politicians," Leshem told ISRAEL21c.

The global aim of the DST initiative is to provide a platform for dialog though cooperative research and education in the Dead Sea region. Three leading institutions of higher education, Al-Balqa University (ABU) in Jordan, Al-Quds University (AQU) in East Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel, will each set up a Dead Sea Research Hub along the shores of the Dead Sea to jointly contend with a series of scientific challenges common to all three parties.

While the group is currently fundraising for a research center and research bases in all three countries, work has already begun on one project - reducing agricultural reliance on pesticides.

Barn Owls and kestrels prey on rodents that attack crops, so farmers are learning to build nesting boxes to sweeten the birds' attraction to the area; once the birds of prey inhabit the farm, the farmer is free to discontinue use of chemical pesticides. Apparently the owls breed more when there is enough food for their young - and in the midst of Sde Eliyahu's wheat fields, these owls are laying far more eggs than usual and their young are of various ages.

In 2004, the Tel Aviv Municipality began using kestrels and barn owls for biological pest control, exterminating rats and mice in urban courtyards. Eight local schools joined in the education efforts to promote this project. More recently, Jordanian and Palestinian farmers decided to join SPNI's project to reduce pesticide use.

"It is a good experience to learn from the Israelis and this project, in particular, is very important for our health and environment because we are getting rid of the rodents and pests plaguing farmers in a natural way," said Atrash, who has worked in close alliance with Leshem and the SPNI for years.

In January 2006, the Cleveland Federation helped fulfill this vision - funding research and conservation activities with Jordanian farmers, and 20 nesting boxes for barn owls and kestrels on the eastern shores of the Jordan River, across the river from the Bet She'an Valley.

The program is coordinated by Rashed, a retired senior Jordanian Intelligence Officer and one of the leaders of the Israel-Jordan peace process; Rashed is currently the chairman of the Amman Center for Peace and Development (ACPD). He explained that in the Muslim tradition, barn owls symbolize bad luck. Thus, many of the Jordanian farmers were hesitant to cooperate at first. Yet after a few farmers used barn owls instead of chemical pesticides with tremendous success, others were quick to follow suit.

An integral part of the Dead Sea Triangle Initiative, the proposed Research and Visitor Center will compile research being performed in every nation situated along the Great Rift Valley about processes and phenomena of the valley. Emphasis will be placed on integrated research in the fields of geology, life sciences and archaeology. The center will focus on issues such as migrating birds, geology, Dead Sea studies and heritage.

Atrash is optimistic about the Dead Sea Triangle initiative, and will be establishing an environmental research and education project with Al-Quds University and the Jericho-Wildlife Monitoring Station (JWMS)

"The JWMS has been involved in research, education, and eco-tourism since 2001," he told ISRAEL21c.

Likewise, Leshem is hopeful that the project will move forward in the near future, as support is already coming in.

"Representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and Japan's ambassador to Israel, Yoshinori Katori, are seriously considering sponsoring an initiative for regional cooperation in the valley, which they refer to as the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity," said Leshem.

If funding is obtained for the Dead Sea Triangle initiative, the great minds of the three triangle countries will be coming together much more frequently.

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enScript=PrintVersion.jsp&enDispWho=Articles^l1704

Posted by MEEF at 11:48 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 7, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

Vehicular emissions count for one-fifth of the total amount of global warming-gas carbon dioxide emitted in Israel each year, according to a report issued last week.

Israeli cars emit more than 14 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam, Teva v'Din) claimed.

According to the report, in order to significantly reduce this figure, it would be necessary to double cars' fuel efficiency and halve the total distance they travel each year. However, reducing car use in Israel is even more difficult than it has proved in other Western countries, due to the lack of an efficient public transport system.

Nevertheless, the report said, much travel could be eliminated via carpooling, and in many towns, it is also possible to get to work by bicycle or even on foot. In many others, however, streets are not designed with the needs of pedestrians and bicycle riders in mind.

The greatest savings in carbon dioxide emissions come from hybrid cars, which run on a combination of gasoline and electricity. The conventional model of the Honda Civic, for instance, uses 32 percent more gasoline per kilometer than does the its hybrid model. However, hybrids are significantly more expensive than regular cars.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879863.html

Posted by MEEF at 11:48 AM | Permalink

The Palestine Center

Edited transcript of a presentation by members of the Negotiation Support Unit of the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department on Water
“For the Record” No. 280 (27 June 2007)

At a 14 June 2007 Palestine Center briefing, Dr. Shaddad Attili, Mr. Fuad Bateh and Mr. John Murray of the Negotiations Support Unit of the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, proposed a positive-sum approach for the resolution of the water crisis in the Middle East. As for the allocation of water, both on the political and topographical level, they maintained that an equitable allocation of water is not only essential for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state but will also help restore relations with Israel and its neighboring countries. They also emphasized the dire need for clean water in Gaza and the creation of a much needed desalinization plant. Ultimately, the question of a viable and sustainable Palestinian state and the long-term interests of all the water-sharing parties—Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian and Palestine—depends on a sound and just resolution to the water conflict.

The Palestine Center
Washington, DC
14 June 2007

Fuad Bateh

We are very happy to be here and we like to thank all of you for coming to hear our message which we believe is very important to the future Palestinian state and that is the critical message of water and its importance to the Palestinian people and the future of the Palestinian state. The title of our presentation is “Water and the Two-State Solution.”

We would like for you to take away from this presentation four main messages: first, that the equitable allocation of the shared water resources is essential for a viable Palestinian state; second, the current allocation of water is inequitable, that being between the Palestinians and Israelis and also on a regional basis. It is both inequitable and unsustainable. Our third message is that we believe that we have a proposal for a negotiated solution, what we refer to as a positive-sum game, which is in contrast to how people perceive this issue as a negative-sum game or one side loses while the other side gains. But we see a win-win scenario and one that is sustainable over the long time. The fourth message we’d like for you to take away from the presentation today is that in looking at the bilateral agreements or multilateral arrangements between all the parties over the shared water resources, we must work to align the interest of these arrangements. One cannot really happen without the other. So let me begin the presentation by giving a little background.

Here you will see three aquifers, sources of ground water, in the West Bank that are shared between the Palestinians and the Israelis. A fourth ground water aquifer is the Gaza Strip aquifer which is part of the costal aquifer basin that is also shared by the Palestinians and Israelis. The fifth major water resource available to the Palestinian people is the Jordan River. The Jordan River basin is actually not only shared with the Israelis but also with the three co-riparians of the basin, which is Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast and Jordan to the immediate east. Now in this context, I would also like to mention the dynamics of the basin, where the true water stress of the basin has its impact most on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and the Jordanians as the lower members of the basin. Relatively speaking, comparatively, Lebanon and Syria have an abundance of water—it is relative compared to the Palestinians, the Israelis and the Jordanians. We would like to keep this in the back of your mind, to give you context for when we discuss the multilateral, regional element.

Our first message: the equitable allocation of shared water resources is essential for a viable Palestinian state. There have been many proponents for a two-state solution including [U.S. President George W] Bush. In his Road Map, he has talked about a two-state solution. In this, what is absolutely key is the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. There is no two-state solution if the Palestinian state cannot survive in and of itself. To be viable, Palestine must have an equitable share of fresh water resources. I use the word equitable because this is an international legal standard. Equitable and reasonable allocation under the 1997 U.N. convention on water was the standard that was set, and international legal scholars have been denoting this in soft-law context, the Helsinki Rules, the Berlin Rules for quite some years. This is a principle that is accepted universally among states. Along these lines, if you unpack the words equitable and reasonable, what does it practically mean? [It means] that an agreement between the parties that are sharing water has got to be fair and sustainable over time. So what we say here is that without a negotiated, fair and sustainable solution, there is no chance for a viable state. That is why the water question is so important and why getting the water question right is so important.

What is the current situation? Well, the current situation is the absolute opposite. The current context is that the allocation of water between Palestinians and Israelis is inequitable and therefore it is not sustainable. The Palestinians need to get their rightful share of water. How do we look at the context? Well, we look at it from a control point of view. Israel controls 85 percent of all the available water resources to the Palestinians. Whether it is through Israeli wells that are adjacent to Palestinian wells that go much deeper and basically undermine the Palestinians’ ability to extract water or whether it’s Israel’s location of settlements near key water resources. Major issues are the fact that Palestinians are not able to draw anything from the Jordan River and are denied complete access to it. Also, the most productive zones in the West Bank are in the western side, the Western Aquifer, and the Palestinians have no access to that as well.

I’d like to hit home on this last point with regards to Gaza, the Palestinians living in Gaza and their access to water and that they don’t have access to any water outside of Gaza. Why is this important? And it really shows the overall importance of getting the water question right because water has reached crisis level in Gaza. The Gaza Strip has approximately 1.5 million people in a 365 square kilometer area and this makes Gaza one of the highly densely populated areas on earth. Seventy percent of the people there live below the poverty line.

Now, what is the water that they are able to draw out of the ground underneath their feet? Well, sustainable amounts which they can draw in which they can get every year without actually damaging the aquifer is 55 million cubic meters a year. That, in fact, is so far below what they are abstracting for their basic needs. They are taking over 150 million cubic meters of water out of the ground every year. What does this mean? There is a huge disparity. What you’re seeing is, because of this use, you have an intrusion from the sea into the aquifer so they’re really pulling out sea water and the content of the water is very saline. Another aspect is because of their inability to get outside resources and their inability, due to financial means, to take care of other matters such as waste water treatment, we’re finding close to 30 million cubic meters of waste and sewage is now seeping back into the ground and into the aquifer, highly polluting it.

This is a crisis because of the humanitarian health issue. Basically, if we look at it from a personal point of view, the people there are drinking water that is terrible to taste, you look at it, the coloring is brackish and it smells. They don’t have any other alternatives. So, if we look at it not only from a quantity issue but also a quality issue you could see the situation is very dire and you’re seeing a lot of water related diseases within the population.

If we do a comparison between the people in Gaza and their Israeli neighbors, the discrepancy between water use is one of the Palestinians have about 70 cubic meters per person per year use, where their neighbors right across the way, the Israelis, have an average of 330 cubic meters per person per year. And when you look back and look at the whole picture between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and this holds true, you have an average four times as much water usage by the Israelis than the Palestinians. This is actual usage. But what I want you to focus on is the availability of water. Actually, when you look at the availability of water to the Israelis compared to Palestinians, it’s almost ten times the amount. I don’t think anyone in this room can come away with saying that that is an equitable allocation of water resources. And therefore, we say that this cannot be sustained over time because one side is going to feel disadvantaged by the other. So on this, I’d like to leave you and ask my colleague, Dr. Shaddad Attili, to come up, and he is going to talk about the solution to this. But before we do, we want to reiterate the point that water is crucial to the viability of a future state, and so we have to get this question right. And as you can see, the current allocation is truly unsustainable.

Shaddad Attili

Thank you Fuad, good afternoon. Just to remind you of the two main messages Fuad highlighted; the current allocation of the water resources shared between Israelis and Palestinians are deeply inequitable, and the second message is that in order to create an independent Palestinian state that is viable, water should be made available to this state. What we call for is to apply internationally recognized standards in terms of shared water resources. The shared water resources, as Fuad said, are the four groundwater aquifers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the main surface water in the Jordan River basin, which is shared with other riparian countries. This is why it’s important when thinking of a solution to address the bilateral and the multilateral scenarios together.

We, in Palestine, kept working on this issue for about eight years. We used almost all the expertise in the world and we brought the best legal advisers, we brought the best conflict resolution people in order to help Palestinians resolve this issue. And that really helped us. And instead of being positional on the issue, our thinking has shifted toward what we call the inter-spaced approach, and we are really delighted to have Professor John Murray help us develop such a scenario.

I just want to highlight the scenario we came up with and why we are here in the States. And we’re going to Europe with the same messages that a solution, a water-conflict resolution, is achievable and we’re looking at a solution that stands and is sustained over time. So, this is actually our objective, an agreement on water to enable, first, equitable reallocation, second, to help the Palestinian state be a viable one and, third, to have an agreement that is sustained over time.

We identify three main components in order to reach such a solution. First, the need to reallocate the existing shared resources according to international law. International law standards should be applied between the parties on the bilateral level. This means an increase of water to the Palestinians over time. And the main point is that that will not harm Israel’s current use. Why? Because the increased use of water for the Palestinians will happen over time. So, if we sign an agreement with Israel today it doesn’t mean that we’ll have plenty of water and showers the next day because this requires the Palestinians to establish an infrastructure. We need to go to the donors, we need to convince them of establishing and building the infrastructure needed for a viable Palestinian state and that takes time.

Which means, Israel, after signing such an agreement, will recognize our water rights and Israel will also have its water rights secured and recognized. So, here we are taking water as an element of conflict out of the conflict agenda between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is very important.

Second, we’re not harming the Israeli current use because the day after the agreement the Israelis will have in their tap in their houses the same amount of water they used before the agreement. Whenever Palestinians are able to build and take their part or share of water, we will take it. In the meantime, Israel is building a desalination plant to compensate the water used by the Palestinians.

The third component related to the solution, which we envision, is the importance of desalination. This is why we’re saying that it will not harm Israel because whatever they give Palestinians today, a certain amount, an “x” amount, they will be able to develop an equivalent amount, if not a “y” amount which is greater than the amount they give the Palestinians. Here is why we emphasize the importance of the third party, to come and help the parties achieve such a solution.

So, using a diagram, this is how we explain that. The current water utilization, as Fuad mentioned, is 280 and 2,300 million cubic meters for the Israelis. Basically, what we are saying is to apply international law, identify what the Palestinian water rights are and identifying the Israeli water rights. So, this is our rightful share, yet we are not able to take this water immediately. Palestinians will gradually be able to reach this point, probably in 10 years, 20 years, we don’t know; it depends on the implementation of the infrastructure. And this will not harm the Israelis. The Israelis will keep using the amount of water that is left without use by the Palestinians and moreover, they will continue to develop new resources to compensate for this. If you look at the length of this (pointing to a chart) and to the length of the water that the Israelis are developing, it’s really greater than this. This is a solution that favors all parties. It doesn’t harm Israel and it enables the Palestinians; it enables the implementation of a sound agreement on the ground.

What is the fourth message? The fourth message that we’re coming with is that you can’t only deal with this bilaterally, just to satisfy the Israelis and the Palestinians and have the international community intervene and say, O.K. guys these are the shared water resources, equitably allocated, and we’re helping in the development of new water desalination plants. You cannot forget about the multilateral element. There is the Jordan River basin and what is the current situation in the Jordan River basin? If you go to Jordan you hear, and if you read the newspapers, there are plenty of problems between the Jordanians and the Syrians over the Yarmouk [River]—the current allocation of water. The Syrians are increasing their abstraction from the Yarmouk [River] at the expense of the Jordanians, and there are a lot of problems which have created certain diplomatic incidents between the parties over the use of the Yarmouk.

Let’s look at the other riparian, Syria and Israel—the Golan Heights. One of the main components of the Golan’s importance is the water issue. Again, four or five years ago, there was a problem over the Wazzani [River]; when Lebanon tried to increase their water use from the Wazzani, Israel threatened to launch a war on Lebanon. And of course, there is the dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis over water.

I want to point out that water is an issue or an element of conflict and this is why we call for the multilateral and the bilateral approach to be coherently aligned and to come up with the positive-sum outcome to the water issue, not only at the bilateral level but also on the regional level.

So, the international community can help the parties achieve such a solution. Israel already started building a desalination plant, but instead of having the desalination component within the equation we showed, they say, listen we do not have an extra drop to give to the Palestinians and the only option for the Palestinians is to go to the sea.
And we’re saying that is fine. We have to develop desalination facilities, import water from Turkey and maybe Turkey can give a certain amount to Syria. Syria left the amount it received form Turkey to Jordan to be taken from the Yarmouk. We can introduce the regional element of this. Israel can build the desalination facility along the coast and we can come, as Palestinians, to help them convince the international community of the importance of having this established which will enable the parties to settle the problems related to water. And water can be used as a vehicle for peace and not left as an element for further conflict.

In conclusion, there is a need to reallocate the existing resources between the Israelis and the Palestinians if we wish to have a viable Palestinian state. We will elaborate more about the importance of water and viability and all the [water related] issues between Israelis and Palestinians. A negotiated agreement is achievable based on international law and the bilateral should be nested coherently with the multilateral scenario. Finally, generating the solution of the positive-sum outcome, here I would like to ask Professor John Murray to come and talk about this concept at the regional level.

Thank you.

John Murray

Thank you very much, Shaddad.

I, of course, am involved in negotiation matters and that’s my specialty and I turn to Dr. Attili to help me with the technical matters.

What I wanted to do was to follow on from what Fuad and Shaddad talked about with regard to the multilateral and making sure that what is done in the bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians fits within, nests within the multilateral.

What I have here is a slide that talks about what the water availability is and the water utilization as of a year ago within the Jordan River basin riparian and, in a sense, it is a picture of instability waiting to happen. So there you see that Lebanon and Syria really have a lot more water available to them, both within the basin and outside the basin, whereas the three downstream states in the Jordan River are quite thirsty, as we call it.

You’ll notice when we talk about renewable water resource that they have available, that’s the total resource that each country has available. You can see that of the resources they have available that, in fact, Lebanon and Syria are not using the complete sustainable or renewable water resources that are available both within and without the Jordan River basin. So in a sense, Syria and Lebanon have many more options available to them in water use than the downstream states. Then you see Israel, Jordan and Palestine are using everything, in fact, sometimes more than what’s really available to them. They are thirsty, as we say.

The next thing to realize is that there is a substantial difference in per capita water use among the three downstream states. So, Israel is using 324-330 million cubic meters [MCM] per year, per person; that’s what they’re using. Jordan has 150, that’s less than half, and then you can see that the Palestinians are down at 70. What we’re saying is if this is the picture that we have today, it’s not sustainable over the long run, you’re going to have conflict with this kind of situation. You saw it with the slide that Dr. Attili showed where Jordan and Syria are in conflict, where Lebanon and Israel are in conflict over quantity; so one issue is quantity. Jordan and Israel are in conflict over quality. Israel and Jordan have a peace treaty and according to the peace treaty Israel is to deliver 50 MCM of water a year, and the real question is the quality of that water. And some of the water available to Israelis that they move over to the Jordanians is highly brackish, very saline and therefore not really usable for what the Jordanians want to use it for. There is a quality issue. If you look at the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, there is a quality issue going both ways. The Israelis are now very upset at the fact that in the West Bank facilities for waste water, excuse me solid waste, are not built and therefore pollution is coming downhill, downstream, from the West Bank into Israel. And right now, of course, they are very upset and they are taking a charge against the money that the Palestinians would otherwise have.

Now this is setting aside the fact that the reason that the Palestinians have not built a waste treatment plant is because the Israelis have not allowed them to build it. So now the Israelis are getting the message that this is not an issue to look at in terms of us being the occupier and you being the occupied and you can do only what we say—we’ve got to work together. So there is a quality issue and there is a management issue. So the question is how do you manage? And currently, the management between the Israelis and the Palestinians is one of occupation—the occupier and the occupied in the joint water committee. That kind of, shall we say, uneven table for negotiation is simply not stable. It distorts what you can manage and what is necessary to get in level playing fields. So, the message in the basin right now is a message of power.

How do we resolve these questions? As Dr. Attili said, when Lebanon tried to build a dam on the Wazzani, Israel threatened to bomb it—power, that’s how we solve these problems. What we need to get to is a frame that will resolve them by joint management that we advance out security in water by discussing with other people and managing it jointly. So in a sense, if you wanted to move to the positive-sum outcome looked at from a negotiations point of view, you’re going to have to move the mindset. You’re going to have to move from a position of saying we’ll resolve our disputes by power to a position of saying we’ll resolve our disputes through discussion, through joint management. Once you make that shift, if the five riparians or individual riparian begin to look at it in terms of joint management then the positive-sum outcome becomes doable.

Already you’ve heard from Dr. Attili that in fact the Palestinians have moved to realizing that you have to discuss, you have to manage jointly and you have to work on the basis of interest. The Jordanians are there—there are many in Israel, in Syria and Lebanon with whom we’re speaking who also see the advantage. We just need to have everybody move together.

Second, once you get a mindset of that, you need to come together and get a vision of how you’re going to manage jointly. People in the United States, out in the West, in the Colorado River, had trouble figuring out how they’re going to manage their water. So it’s not easy; these are not easy questions but these five riparians can come together and envision how they’re going to relate to one another—what is the process by which they’re going to work through their differences? And once they do that, once they set up that process and develop the criteria, they can address each specific problem as it comes up.

And one of the problems is, O.K. what about the transition period? If we agree that we are going to reallocate the inequitable water resources, it will look on paper that the Palestinians’ share goes up and the Israelis’ share goes down. However, that’s on paper. And as Fuad and Shaddad said, it’ll be over time that that actually takes affect. But that means that they have to cooperate, to coordinate in order to make it happen without either of the parties being hurt, and it’s that cooperation that’s important.

I leave you with one last concluding comment. We are at a stage, a period in which the opportunity exists even though it may seem counterintuitive given all of the news of today and yesterday. We are at a period wherein the opportunity exists to move this forward. We have an Arab League initiative in which Israel can see benefits beyond the bilateral, where they can draw in the entire multilateral picture within this region and we can shift these figures, the ones I showed before, from a picture of instability to a picture of joint, managed stability.

Thank you.

Fuad Bateh is legal advisor to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department. Shaddad Attili is policy advisor with the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department. John Murray is water negotiations and conflict management consultant.

http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/fortherecord.php?ID=300

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THE JERUSALEM POST

July 2, 2007

SHARON WROBEL

The government on Sunday agreed to increase the limit of Israel's desalinated water resources to 505 million cubic meters annually, as the country may be looking at a significant water shortage within the next 10 years.

"It has become clear around the world that we need to prepare for a situation of water shortage and Israel is no different and thus we need to adjust accordingly to rectify this situation," said National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who presented the proposal leading to the government's decision.

In association with Israel's Water Authority, the National Infrastructure Ministry conducted a survey analyzing the current level of Israel's water use and concluded that, as the country's population continues to grow, the dependence and use of water will increase correspondingly once the growth of agriculture and the dependence of water in industry is factored in.

Under the terms of the proposal, Israel's self-imposed limits on the amount of water it desalinates on a yearly basis will be boosted from 230 million cubic meters to 505 million cubic meters through additional desalination plants, which will generate 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water and an increase of capacity at the current desalination plants in Ashkelon, Hadera and Palmachim of 75 million cubic meters.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked that the establishment of additional desalination plants be examined.

According to the National Infrastructure Ministry, in 2001, the government restricted the number of cubic meters of water that Israel would allow to be desalinated per year beginning in 2002, when the number was set at 400 million cubic meters. This number, however, was reduced significantly in 2006, dropping to only 230 million cubic meters.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183053082368&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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Haaretz

July 2, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

It will be difficult to meet projected water demand for 2008 if next winter's rainfall levels are similar to those of last winter, said the head of the Water Authority Council, Prof. Uri Shani.

Lecturing at the Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot last week, Shani warned that Israel's water problems will worsen significantly in the coming years unless the production of desalinated water rises sharply. The lecture was not intended for media coverage.

In the wake of Shani's warnings, the cabinet voted Sunday to increase water desalination in Israel by 275 million cubic meters by 2013, bringing the total annual production of desalinated water to 505 million cubic meters by that time, representing one-fourth of the country's water consumption.

"The drop in water supply derives from atmospheric contamination, which affects cloud composition and causes a drop in rainfall levels," Shani said after the cabinet meeting. "Every year we record less water entering Lake Kinneret in the winter. Another factor in the drop in water supply is contamination of the coastal aquifer, which reduces the amount of water that can be pumped out."

The last drought in Israel lasted from 1999 to 2002. The main lesson was to have been the implementation of a system based on producing large quantities of desalinated water, reducing demand by saving water, and avoiding a situation in which the amount of water pumped out exceeds the amount of rainwater that replenishes the country's water sources.

In practice, this year hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water in excess of rainfall amounts were pumped, and the levels of groundwater (in the Mountain Aquifer and Coastal Aquifer) as well as Lake Kinneret fell.

According to the Water Authority's latest figures, the Mountain Aquifer dropped by one meter from the previous year.

Three months ago the authority's operating committee made several decisions on water pumping policy. Participants agreed there is a serious likelihood that water levels in Israel's reservoirs will fall below the "red lines," something that has not occurred for the past five years. That would create a permanent risk of groundwater salinization and reduction in the Kinneret's water quality.

The accepted policy in such situations is to pump less water and impose water-use restrictions on various sectors. Shani said it may be necessary to reduce water allocations for agriculture next year.

Environmental organizations and water experts criticized the Water Authority for making the construction of expensive, new water desalination plants its main answer to the water crisis, rather than investing in water-saving measures.

Shani says that water-saving methods have helped to reduce per-capita water use in the past 10 years from 115 cubic meters to 103 cubic meters. "Clearly there is a need for heightened effort in this direction," Shani said after the cabinet meeting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877283.html

Posted by MEEF at 01:12 PM | Permalink

Middle East Times

June 28, 2007

AFP
SAN FRANCISCO-- Humans have domesticated the planet to such a degree that few untouched spots remain, researchers report in a review article published in the journal Science.

Earth is so tamed that conservationism should shift focus from protecting nature from humans to better understanding and managing a domesticated world, the authors said.

"There is no such thing as nature untainted by people," writes Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, a US-based non-profit group. "Facing this reality should change the scientific focus of environmental science.''

As of 1995, only 17 percent of the world's land area remained truly wild -- with no human populations, crops, road access or night-time light detectable by satellite, the authors reported.

Half of the world's surface area is used for crops or grazing; more than half of all forests have been lost to land conversion; the largest land mammals on several continents have been eliminated; shipping lanes crisscross the oceans, according to the paper.

In Europe, 22,000 kilometers of coastline are paved.

Due to extensive damming, nearly six times as much water is held in artificial storage worldwide as is free-flowing, according to the article.

Beyond the obvious signs of human influence, other, more subtle changes are evident everywhere, Kareiva said.

Natural selection has been supplanted by human selection, meaning that certain species -- such as companion pets -- thrive, while others -- such as river trout -- have been altered specifically for human consumption, often to their detriment.

In the African nation of Namibia, overfishing has allowed large jellyfish to bloom. Prior to 1970, fishermen rarely snared large jellyfish in the Benguela ecosystem off the northern coast of Namibia.

Today, three times more jellyfish are caught than commercial fish in this region, according to the paper.

Altering ecosystems leaves them vulnerable to disturbances and less resilient, Kareiva said.

Carving out parkland hasn't worked either, the authors argue.

Protecting nature through national and state parks has only domesticated these regions. The Nature Conservancy's leading mission is protecting private lands.

The Fuji-Hakone-Izu Park in Japan, among the world's most popular parks, for instance, has more than 100 million visitors a year and includes spas, hotels, golf courses and trams.

Heavy human traffic in the worlds' protected areas has changed them forever, introducing non-native species, air pollution and trash, according to the article.

"In the modern world, wilderness is more commonly a management and regulatory designation than truly a system without a human imprint," Kareiva wrote. This trend will only accelerate with human population growth, he said.

In light of this, conservationists need to look more closely at trade-offs among ecosystem services, such as increased food production leading to overuse of antibiotics in animals, "so that nature and people simultaneously thrive," the authors concluded.

Posted by MEEF at 03:59 PM | Permalink

Middle East Times

June 29, 2007

UPI
LONDON--A new report says as many as 50 million people could be displaced over the next decade by encroaching deserts, especially in parts of Africa and Asia.

The study by the United Nations University says desertification is becoming the greatest environmental challenge of our time, the BBC said Thursday.

The study by more than 200 experts from 25 countries said one-third of Earth's population are at risk to become potential victims of the encroaching deserts. The report points to climate change as an underlying cause, with over-exploitation of land and unsustainable irrigation making matters worse.

Researchers said new farming practices that encourage forests in dry land areas could remove more carbon from the atmosphere and prevent the spread of deserts, the BBC said.

Posted by MEEF at 03:52 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

June 26, 2007

By Eli Ashekenazi

In a few years, hikers at the Hula Lake marsh will be able to sample locally produced buffalo mozzarella. The birth of the first water buffalo calf at the marsh yesterday was a significant milestone in efforts to increase the existing herd and attract new visitors to the site. Effi Naim, director of the Jewish National Fund project in the Hula marsh says, "We decided to bring buffalos to the site three years ago as part of the concept of reconstructing life at the lake before it was drained."

A 600-dunam plot with a small swamp at its center was allocated to the reconstruction project. Plants that surrounded the former lake, including reeds and papyrus, will be planted and a small village of thatch huts, like those used by the Bedouin before Israel's founding, will be built.

Naim says, "The growing buffalo herd will be a vital part of the reconstruction. We know that the Awarna [Bedouin] tribe from Sudan and Egypt, who lived in the Hula region, produced dairy products from buffalo milk. The buffalo was a semi-domestic animal that lived here before the lake was drained."

The first seven female buffalo calves were brought to the marsh from the Hula nature reserve but project organizers decided to import a bull calf from Italy. "Not because of the temperamental reputation of Italian males, but because of my desire to introduce new blood in the herd," Naim explains.

Much of the reconstructed landscape is already mature and exquisite. Ezra Yasur directs the ongoing landscaping project. Most of the dozens of species that he tends to come from botanical gardens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Pathways and small, wooden bridges will permit hikers to bypass plants as they cross canals and puddles.

Officials hope the marsh's natural inhabitants will return on their own to join buffalos and newly reintroduced plants. The shidmit adumat kanaf (Collard Pratincole, Glareola pratincola) has already returned to nest in the area after a prolonged absence that began when the lake was drained.

"We are creating a suitable habitat and waiting for nature to take over, though we are fully aware that certain species have disappeared forever and will not return. We would like to tell those who took a powder, or flapped a wing, 'We rehabilitated your home. We invite you to return to us,'" Naim concludes.

Posted by MEEF at 03:44 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 27, 2007

AMMAN (Petra) — Energy specialists reiterated on Thursday the need to rely on local energy resources to increase electrical power generation and reduce the country’s oil bill.

With higher oil prices at around $75 a barrel, the oil bill weighs heavily
on the state budget, already suffering a large deficit.

At a meeting organised by the Central Electricity Generating Company (CEGCO)
incooperation with the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA), participants
underlined the importance of examining and using local sources, especially
oil shale.

CEGCO Director Abdul Fattah Nsour explained how the burning of oil shale can
be used to generate electricity, noting that this is the most economical way.

“Around 73 per cent of the Kingdom’s electric power is generated through
the use of natural gas,” Nsour indicated.

Last year, the generated electricity grew by 15.2 per cent while the
electric peak load totalled 1901 megawatts, Nsour pointed out.

The availability rate last year was around 85 per cent, which is considered
good on the international level.

Nsour also pointed out that CEGCO has produced 81 per cent of the total
electrical consumption in the Kingdom while Al Samra electricity generation
plants and the private sector provided the remaining portion.

In 2006, the per capita average consumption totalled 2079 megawatts, the
CEGCO director said.

“This week, the electric peak load reached 1990 megawatts,” he added.

Addressing the attendance, JEA President Wael Saqa underlined the
importance of electric grid projects to serve the interests of the different parties
involved and boost regional cooperation.

Another speaker, Hussein Elian, a member of the JEA, drew attention to the
fact that the growth in electricity consumption in Jordan is so high that it is
around threefold that registered on the international level.

Posted by MEEF at 03:38 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 27, 2007

Multimillion-dinar residential city named after Saudi Monarch

AMMAN (Petra) — A multimillion-dinar residential city will be built near Zarqa to tackle overcrowding and help citizens on low and limited incomes buy suitable housing.

The 70,000-unit project, to be built on 21,000 state-owned dunums, was announced at a Royal Court meeting attended by King Abdullah and Saudi King Abdullah, who concluded yesterday a key two-day visit to Jordan.

“The King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz Al Saud Residential City” will be designed
to house 370,000 citizens.

Each housing unit will cost JD30,000. Local banks, mainly Islamic, will be
contracted to provide loans to citizens at government-subsidised interest
rates over 20 years. The city will include public facilities, banks, parks,
mosques as well as sports, cultural and recreational centres.

The cost of the land on which the city will be built was estimated at JD600
million, while another JD650 million will go to infrastructure projects.

The National Resources Investment and Development Corporation (MAWARED),
private sector firms and Saudi companies will implement the mega-project, expected
to create jobs and attract investments.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques arrived in Jordan on Wednesday, on the
first such visit by a Saudi King in almost 25 years, to a cheerful welcome
by thousands of Jordanians who lined the streets of Amman to express joy at his
visit.

He held talks with King Abdullah on bilateral ties and Middle East issues.

The two leaders warned of the “serious repercussions” of the developments in
the Palestinian territories, stressing that Palestinian infighting and rift
provides Israel with a pretext to evade its peace commitments.

They also focused on mechanisms to cement Jordanian-Saudi cooperation in
various fields, where they stressed keenness to build on the existing relations.

King Abdullah voiced appreciation of Saudi Arabia’s support for Jordan’s
plans to overcome the harsh economic situation caused by rising oil prices.

Posted by MEEF at 03:27 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 27, 2007

AMMAN (JT) — The 2007 State of the World Population report, entitled
Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, will be officially launched worldwide today.

“In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of world population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. By 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion. Most of the new urbanities will be poor… most cities will struggle to meet current needs,” according to the report, released by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

The report focuses on urbanisation in several contexts: Social, economic and
humanitarian, according to a UNFPA statement. Urbanisation — the increase in the urban share of population — is
inevitable, but it can also be positive.No country in the industrial age has ever achieved
significant economic growth without urbanisation. Cities concentrate
poverty, but they also represent poor people’s best hope of escaping it, the statement said.

“Cities create environmental problems, but they can also create solutions,
concentrating population in cities can contribute to long-term
sustainability. The potential benefits of urbanisation far outweigh the disadvantages. The
challenge is learning how to exploit its possibilities,” the statement
added.

The report, which includes a youth supplement, looks beyond current
problems, it is a call to action.

It examines the implications of impending urban growth and discusses what
needs to be done, with specific attention to poverty reduction and sustainability,
according to the statement.

The Kingdom is witnessing rapid growth and urbanisation, a result of natural
population increase and various economic and social factors in addition to
infrastructure, which plays a major role in the concentration of people in
some cities.

Also, the availability of jobs opportunities in major cities, especially the
capital, encourages internal migration and urbanisation.

Urban, according to the Jordanian definition, is any agglomeration which
consisted of 5,000 people or more in the last census year (2004).

The latest figures from the Department of Statistics show that 82.6 per cent
of the population is urban.

In Zarqa and Amman 90 per cent of the population is urban; Aqaba and Irbid,
over 80 per cent; Mafraq 40 per cent; and Karak, 37 per cent.

This year’s report will be launched under the patronage of UNFPA Goodwill
Ambassador HRH Princess Basma, in the Amman Municipality in recognition of
its role in responding to the continuous expansion of Greater Amman and its
rapid urbanisation.

Posted by MEEF at 07:42 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 28, 2007

By Linda Hindi, Jordan Times, Amman

AMMAN -- Jordan and other developing countries need to acknowledge and prepare for the inevitable surge in urban growth, which is expected to double by the year 2030, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The 2007 State of the World Population Report released on Wednesday warns governments to take immediate action before negative consequences outweigh positive potentials.

The UNFPA report, in its 30th edition, chose to highlight the rise in urban population.

The theme "Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth" interprets the potential disaster of a rise in poverty, health, social and environmental problems as a challenge to humanity to take early action and exploit its benefits.

The report stresses that over the next few decades, the developing world will face an unprecedented, inescapable, population expansion, with more than half of the world's people -- 3.3 billion -- living in urban areas next year. This figure will escalate to around 5 billion -- 60 per cent of global population -- in 23 years.

"To take advantage of potential opportunities, governments must prepare for the coming growth. "If they wait, it will be too late... This wave of urbanisation is without precedent. The changes are too large and too fast to allow planners and policy-makers simply to react," UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmad Obaid, said.

The report is particularly significant for the Kingdom because 82.6 per cent of the population is already urban, according to the Department of Statistics.

UNFPA assistant representative, Muna Idris, told The Jordan Times that previous policies adopted by countries like Vietnam and China, restricting rural dwellers from moving to urban cities, did not work.

"They tried to stop migration but when the strict regulations eased, people started pouring into the cities. You cannot stop people from choosing to move in search of better opportunities, better work and services for their families," she said.

More importantly, the report findings show that more live births than deaths is the leading cause of urban population growth, not migration.

This is an urban country, natural growth is the leading cause... if policy-makers want to buy time in order to cope with its impact then focus should be geared toward the reproductive health of woman and men. Slowing birth rates will allow the country more time to plan better, according to Idris.

The UN representative explained that people must be given a choice because ultimately, how many children they have is up to them, but if they were informed that more children might mean that they will have less access to services, it might make them think again.

Poorer areas will grow the fastest, and constitute the majority of urbanites. To curb growing slums and unleash sustainable economic growth, decision-makers must identify the weakest districts and then support housing, healthcare, education and employment in those areas, according to the report.

A major issue is land. Providing minimally serviced land for the poor will help meet present and future needs. With secure tenure, street access, water, sanitation, waste disposal and power, poor people will do their own building; a home can be the first step out of poverty.

Potential benefits, however, can far outweigh the negatives if governments take action and plan accordingly, according to the UNFPA.

"Urbanisation can and should be a force for good. No country in the industrialised age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanisation," the report reads.

It points out that although mega-cities will continue to expand it is the smaller cities -- 500,000 or fewer -- that will inflate the most. This means that for Jordan to plan right, it needs to focus on the smaller cities surrounding Amman because the capital already has an advantage in services and infrastructure.

"The report tells us that if this growth is addressed properly, it can be a good trend. In an urbanised setting, people are closer and it is easier and less costly to focus on certain areas to spread vital services and infrastructure," Idris told The Jordan Times.

"Governments need to make sure they are working in the smaller cities because those are the most in need. Listen to the poor, address their needs, don't forget them in an urbanisation plan, then we will have a better chance at combating the problem," she added.

Meanwhile, another issue the report highlighted is giving priority to women's empowerment to increase the health and well-being of families and thus communities.

During a keynote address at the launch, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador HRH Princess Basma pointed out that that another phenomenon has emerged as a result of aggravated poverty, "foremost of which is violence in all its forms, especially family violence and the violence directed against females."

Investing in women is a key component to positive growth and addressing urban population growth, according to the Princess.

"We need to benefit from the experiences of other cities --appearing in the report -- to face future challenges and create a prosperous future," she said.

Posted by MEEF at 07:34 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

June 27, 2007

By Tahal Frosh

The failure to rehabilitate land once used by a military factory is costing the state $1 billion in revenues. A seriously polluted 450-dunam (110-acre) plot in Herzliya's Nof Yam neighborhood used to be the site of an Israel Military Industries plant, and the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense is sponsoring legislation to get it cleaned up. The "green" advocacy organization says the state could make about $1 billion in betterment tax on the land if it were to be cleared for construction, based on the local norm of $5 million per dunam. The organization also estimates Herzliya's lost tax revenues at NIS 21 million annually. Developers could see net profits of $900 million from construction at the site.

The IMI plant was removed from there 10 years ago. In 1996, IMI conducted a partial survey of the site to determine pollution levels and to examine the feasibility of rehabilitating the land. IMI found large quantities of pollutants stemming from manufacturing processes used in the plant. In response to a petition by the Union for Environmental Defense, the Supreme Court demanded that the state complete the survey within four months.

The union's Aharon Dotan believes the high levels of pollution at the site endanger the health of area residents. He explains that winds can blow dangerous substances found in the dirt into nearby residential areas and into the sea. In addition, dangerous substances have seeped into groundwater at the site and there is a danger they will penetrate wells drilled in the area for drinking water.

The Nof Yam plot is not the only one in such a situation: Thousands of dunams in the country are estimated to be polluted, including land near gas stations. Rehabilitating a gas-station plot costs about NIS 600,000, while cleaning up the Nof Yam site may cost a few million dollars.

Polluters are not required to pay the price of rehabilitating land. The Dangerous Substances Law and the Water Law on land use prohibit polluting a water source or polluting land with dangerous materials. However, Union for Environmental Defense deputy director Amit Bracha says the problem is a lack of means of enforcement to use against polluters. He explained that the laws do not define polluters, polluted land and at what point rehabilitation must be undertaken.

According to the bill the green group is now sponsoring, any entity seeking a construction or business license would have to provide the results of a land survey indicating that the site in question is clean. Polluters will be responsible for rehabilitation. In instances where the source of the pollution cannot be identified, the landowner will be responsible for cleaning up and rehabilitating the area.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/874562.html

Posted by MEEF at 07:26 AM | Permalink

THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 27, 2007

Sheera Claire Frenkel

Nature filled the Land of Israel with olive, cypress, tamarisk, acacia, and carob trees. Now, after years of planting pines in their place, the Jewish National Fund is replenishing the trees native to Israel's northern forests which were devastated by the Second Lebanon War.

The 34 days of the Second Lebanon War ravaged more than 12,000 dunams of northern forest land that had been painstakingly planted by the JNF as far back as 100 years ago. Hizbullah's rockets sparked more than 800 forest fires in the North. The dry summer heat and winds fed the flames, forcing forest rangers to wage daily battles.

The JNF has salvaged opportunities from the scorched ruins of those forests by implementing a new design for Israel's landscape that will include a greater variety of flora and fauna than ever before.

"This is not like any other forest. I grew these trees. Out of my own hands they came and went into the ground. I feel like their father," said Yossi Karni, who has worked as a forest ranger in the Biriya forest, one of the hardest-hit areas of the war, for more than 24 years. "Now I am planting new trees, new children. I have much more knowledge and resources to make this crop better... It is a second chance."

In 1901, when the JNF first began its forest projects in Israel, the pine tree was one of the few plants that the organization could afford. Decades later, Theodor Herzl's famed "blue boxes" have done their work. The JNF now has millions in funds that they use for various projects.

Effi Stenzler, the world chairman of the JNF said that in the coming years, they will invest NIS 60-70 million in replenishing the forests in the north. Those funds will help pay for new technology to plant and foster saplings, state-of-the-art equipment to help maintain the forest, and rangers to help patrol and guard the area.

"The recovery of this area is very very close to our hearts," said Stenzler. "Fires know no borders, and many of the fiercest blazes began on the Lebanese side and crossed over into Israel. Looking across the border now, we still see the devastation in Lebanon."

Stenzler said that the JNF would be willing to donate funds and expertise to the Lebanese to help them replant their forest across the border.

"War and rockets don't recognize addresses. It is important for the world to know that we would be willing to help the Lebanese," said Stenzler.

If Lebanon would accept the assistance, it would be the first time that the JNF provided funding to a Middle East Project with a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

In order to draft the current plan for the northern forests, the JNF consulted with a wide array of experts in the field of forestation.

"Coupled with the new technology and equipment, we can afford to do things that we have never done before," said Karni.

Already, the JNF has planted cedar and carob trees in areas that were previously dominated by pine forests. Pine trees have relatively short life spans of 60-70 years, and their fallout increases the acidity level of the earth around them. The new foliage being planted is being done with a greater eye toward diversity of plant species, so that Israeli tourists will stop complaining of seeing "nothing but boring pine," said Karni.

The JNF has already completed work on 10 percent of the forest area devastated by fire and local heads say it will take anywhere between four to five years to finish clearing and planting the land. In addition, some stretches of forest are being left to regenerate on their own, so that rangers can observe the natural selection of the plants there.

The full recovery of the forest will take 50-60 years, said forest rangers, who added that it could take even longer if new fires were to burn through the area.

While Karni and the rest of the rangers are doing all they can to prevent new fires from breaking out, there are some flare-ups that they might be impossible to guard against - including a rumored war in the north.

"We, like everyone else, have been hearing the rumors of another war," said Karni. "We can only hope that it will not happen."

Already, though, work has begun on clearing away brush and low hanging branches so that in the case of a future war, fires will not spread as quickly.

Many of the same Golani units who fought in the Second Lebanon War are now being rotated into the northern forests to help with some of the manual labor. The irony was not lost on one group of soldiers Wednesday as they toiled under the morning sun.

"We, the soldiers, are clearing this away for a future war. We don't just fight terrorism. We fight fires," said one young man from Hadera.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182951030730&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by MEEF at 07:21 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

June 27, 2007

By Yigal Hai, Haaretz Correspondent

Four fires blazed Wednesday in Petah Tikva and the surrounding area, three in open fields and one in an apartment building. There were no reported injuries.

Initial investigations indicate that arson may be a possible cause in some of the fires. Findings from the initial probe have been transferred to the police.

A fire broke out near the industrial zone of the city at around 9 A.M. As a result of the blaze, poisonous smoke arose from the Segula industrial zone in Petah Tikva. Residents in nearby areas were asked to evacuate their homes for two hours.

In fields burned by the fire, an unauthorized site for waste disposal was found. Asbestos fibers, known to cause cancer, were also found at the site. Representatives from the environment ministry warned residents of the dangers of inhaling the poisonous smoke.

Dozens of fire squads from Petah Tikva, Givatayim, Bnei Brak, and Herzliya attempted to stop the spreading of the fire to factories in neighboring industrial zones.

Seven fires in open fields and three apartment building fires raged in the past two days in the area.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/875832.html

Posted by MEEF at 07:14 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

June 27, 2007

By Uri Blau

Last December, as part of the lesson-learning process in the wake of the Second Lebanon War, the Environment Ministry established a public committee chaired by Major General (Res.) Herzl Shafir to examine the preparedness of facilities containing hazardous substances in the north of the country for emergency situations. Initial and partial conclusions of the committee were made public, and seemed to be quite innocuous. Now it turns out that the true dynamite that turned up in the Shafir Committee's hearings remained classified. Haaretz has obtained the complete data about the dangers of the industrial plants in Haifa Bay, as it appears in the committee's internal documents.

According to the committee's interim report, whose main points are being published here for the first time, a population of 100,000 in a radius of up to 10 kilometers is liable to be affected in the event of a serious attack on the Port of Haifa or on some of the industries situated in the bay. The report reveals that most of the plants in Haifa Bay do not even have a business permit, and some of them do not meet the protection criteria of the Home Front Command. In addition, the port itself is the most problematic point on the bay, because of its many vulnerable components.

The Shafir Committee, whose work is ongoing, consists of representatives from the Environment Ministry, Home Front Command, the Public Security Ministry, the firefighters, the Manufacturers Association, representatives of the green organizations and others. The committee did not refer to specific threats in its deliberations (such as missiles, terrorism or earthquakes), but defined a general scenario of a "direct hit on a facility ... causing total destruction and constituting a significant danger for the surrounding population." The committee also did not examine the probability of the facilities being hit, but referred to such an attack as a factual datum. Moreover, the consequences of the attack were examined on the basis of severe conditions (meteorological conditions, wind direction, high population concentration and so forth). These, then, are the worst-case scenarios, from the major to the minor, relatively speaking.

Haifa port

Some 22 million tons of goods pass through Haifa port every year. Along with tens of thousands of containers of furniture, food, clothing and other items, 2,000 containers of bromine (six a day, on average) are exported via the port every year, as well as other hazardous substances, including fuels and distilled substances. There are also containers of ammonia and ethylene in the port. According to the Shafir Committee report, the Port of Haifa does not have a business permit. More than 1,000 people work there, and in some cases, when cruise ships are in port, there can be some 5,000 workers present.

The main danger in the port stems from bromine, which in a liquid state damages the tissues, while its vapors cause irritation of the nose, eyes and throat. Inhaling a large amount is liable to damage the respiratory system. The bromine is held in special containers intended for the transport of hazardous substances (ISO tankers) and can be in the port for 18 to 24 hours before it is loaded. The bromine containers, the report states, are protected from overturning or falling from a height, but in the event of a missile strike on or in the close vicinity of a container, it is likely to burst. In a minor event, one in which only one container is affected, the report predicts that between 15,000 and 55,000 people in a radius of 2.4 to 6.2 kilometers will be affected. Minor damage to two containers would kick the number of people potentially affected up to 90,000, in a radius of up to 8.6 kilometers.

A serious event, in which one bromine container is totally breached, is liable to affect up to 95,000 people in a radius of up to 7 kilometers. If two containers are breached, 100,000 people in a radius of at least 10 kilometers could be affected.

The positive point of the report asserts that the bromine containers are capable of withstanding earthquakes. On the other hand, no comprehensive risk survey has been conducted in the port, and the containers' durability against the force of a tsunami has also not been examined. The report recommends beefing up the means for treating and neutralizing an event in which containers are hit, determining the port's readiness for evacuating hazardous substances in an emergency, setting a procedure for dealing with an event of hazardous substances on a ship in the port, and examining the joint preparedness capability of the port directorate, Israel Rail (which transports the bromine), the Dead Sea Bromine Company, the shipping directorate, the Home Front Command and emergency and rescue units.

The ammonia tank

The ammonia storage tank of the Haifa Chemicals company, which is owned by businessman Arie Genger, holds up to 12,000 tons of ammonia. Haifa Chemicals is the sole importer of ammonia to Israel. According to the report, the plant does not have a business permit and the ammonia tank was built without a construction permit.

The ammonia is stored in liquid form at minus 33 degrees Celsius. The ammonia is supplied through the terminal to industries that are classified as essential (including the food and defense industries). It is transported to Israel on 12 ships a year, each carrying 10,000 tons of ammonia. Each ship remains in the port for 24 hours. From the tank the ammonia is transported by container to the Fertilizers & Chemicals company and to the southern plant of Haifa Chemicals. Shortly after the end of the Second Lebanon War (August 25, 2006), this magazine published an investigative report concerning the ammonia tank, which revealed that a direct hit on the ammonia tank was liable to affect tens of thousands of residents of the Haifa Bay area. The report noted that in February 2006 the Home Front Command had determined that the ammonia tank must not be used, due to the problem of providing it with protection, but shortly after the war the head of the Home Front Command, Major General Yitzhak Gershon, overturned the decision of the experts, adopted the position of Haifa Chemicals and allowed the company's work to go on as usual.

At the start of the war, Gershon declared in the Knesset that 90 percent of the hazardous substances had been moved away, even though most of the tank was full and Hezbollah missiles struck the bay. In response to the investigative report, Gershon maintained that the decision to retire the tank was overturned following an analysis of the probability of the tank taking a hit, which he stated was negligible. "In the situation that existed," he said then, "with the amount of material in the tank, the chance that it would be hit, the chance that there would be extreme wind velocity in a direction which generally does not characterize the bay - all these factors combined gave us a risk assessment which allowed us to live with the situation as it was." According to the Shafir Committee's interim report, the tank was indeed armored, and it has a mechanism that is meant to stop the spread of ammonia in the event of a hit, but it also has vulnerable points that could cause it to rupture in the event of a direct hit. The committee was told that the major threat to the tank is from an earthquake, which is liable to destroy it completely.

The report states that in the event of a minor attack on the tank, the number of casualties will range from a few hundred to a few tens of thousands in a radius of up to 1.7 kilometers. A serious strike, in which the tank is totally breached, is liable to affect 90,000 people in a radius of more than 7 kilometers. The report found that the tanks were built according to old (albeit stringent) standards, with regard to the event of an earthquake. It recommends technological solutions (which have already been put forward in the past by the experts of Home Front Command) for the vulnerable points that were found in the tank. In addition, the report states that in a state of emergency, ships must not be allowed to enter the port to offload ammonia and the amount of ammonia in the tank must be reduced to a minimum. Another recommendation is to conduct a durability survey of Haifa Chemicals' various storage facilities.

The report refers also to the smaller ammonia tank belonging to the company (which is liable to rupture in the event of a direct hit) and to the ammonia pipeline (which is liable to release gas into the air under a direct or near hit). In a minor hit, according to the report, dozens or hundreds of people will be affected in each of the two scenarios. Serious damage to the pipeline is liable to endanger the lives of 36,000 people. The report recommends technological solutions for the small tank and for the pipeline.

According to a source who was privy to the committee's deliberations, the long-range plan should be to build a tank and offloading terminal in the port of Ashdod, to build a tank to store an emergency stock in a safe place and to build a local facility for the production of ammonia, which will eliminate the need for importation and the need for interim storage tanks. At the same time, the source says, it is clear to the committee that "These solutions will not be implemented in the near term because of the opposition of other authorities to situating an ammonia tank in their area of jurisdiction and, of course, because of the funding problem."

Ferilizers & Chemicals

Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd. is a subsidiary of Rotem Ampart Negev Fertilizer and is one of the companies that constitute the Israel Chemicals concern, which is owned by the Ofer brothers. The company was founded in 1946 and engages in the manufacture and marketing of both liquid and solid fertilizers, industrial chemicals, products for the treatment of water, food additives for animals and more.

Each year Fertilizers & Chemicals uses 280 tons of chlorine, which is imported via tankers that are not protected and are liable to be breached in the event of a lateral or direct hit. In such an event, in the worst-case scenario, 70,000 people would be affected in a radius of 8.2 kilometers. The lesser scenario refers to 20,000 to 50,000 people in a radius of more than 6 kilometers.

In addition to the chlorine tanker, the company .- lso has two tanks for the storage of ammonia in Haifa Bay, each with a capacity of 500 tons, though in practice, according to a source on the committee, ammonia is stored in only one of them. According to the Shafir Committee report, that tank is liable to be breached in the event of a direct hit, affecting between 5,000 and 9,000 people in a radius of 3 to 10 kilometers.

According to the report, the plant's ability to withstand an earthquake is unknown, and a survey of the subject needs to be conducted.

The Kiryat Ata gas farm

The gas storage farm is jointly owned by PazGas, Amisragas and SuperGas. It is divided into three smaller units of rolling tanks, each of which contains a device for filling mobile tanks. The farm, where ammonia, chlorine and liquid propane gas is stored, is backed up by a fire extinguishing system and an emergency crew, but does not have a business permit. About 100 people are employed at the site, and a security firm supplies guards. The gas companies have agreed to build a new underground site to store the gas, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, but construction is expected to take two and a half years.

According to the committee's report, a direct hit on the gas tanks would rupture them. They are not protected against earthquakes, but storing them underground is supposed to solve that problem. In the event of a direct, severe event, hundreds of people would be affected in a radius of close to one kilometer. A milder event is liable to produce dozens of casualties in a radius of about 350 meters.

The ethylene tanks

There is an ethylene tank with a capacity of 2,000 tons in Haifa port. It belongs to Carmel Olefins, which is owned by Bazan and Petrochemical Industries. Carmel Olefins has about 650 employees, nearly 200 of whom are contract workers. According to the report, the plant and the ethylene tank do not have a business permit.

The ethylene is stored at a temperature of minus 100 degrees Celsius. Twice a year a ship with a capacity of 1,600 tons arrives in Haifa port to fill the tank and stays in the port about 24 hours.

According to a source on the committee, in an emergency the tank can be emptied to an operative minimum of 400 tons in 96 hours. The ethylene can also be burned if the tank needs to be emptied, a process that is supposed to take 48 hours. In the event of a hit on the tank, there is a risk of a vaporous ethylene cloud being carried by the wind several hundred meters, before exploding. Total destruction of the tank is possible in a scenario of war or an earthquake. Carmel Olefins has another ethylene tank, with a capacity of 3,500 tons, and it is better protected than the one in the port. Nonetheless, according to the report, each of the tanks is liable to rupture in the event of a direct hit, and therefore the recommendation is to add external and upper protection to both of them. In the event of the rupture of each of the tanks, the report predicts a few dozen possible casualties in a radius of up to 600 meters.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876284.html

Posted by MEEF at 07:10 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 27, 2007

ByHani Hazaimeh, Jordan Times, Amman

AMMAN -- American Ambassador to Jordan David Hale on Tuesday awarded a total of JD133,000 in grants to 19 community-based organisations (CBOs) in Amman and Madaba in support of their water conservation efforts.

Funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID), the grants are part of the Community-Based Initiatives for Water Demand Management.

The project was initiated in 2006 when the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) signed a memorandum of understanding with Mercy Corps, an international relief and development organisation, and the Jordan River Foundation (JRF) to launch a five-year project on water management in rural areas.

The memo stipulates presenting a total of 150 grants, each worth JD7,000, to be distributed equally to CBOs in Jordan's 12 governorates, according to a US embassy statement.

Over the next five years, $1.5 million will be granted to help communities, especially in rural areas, use water more efficiently to meet local needs, according to Hale.

The project will also provide training to enable these communities to operate lending programmes designed to improve their management of local water demand.

Most of the grants will operate as loan funds, and will support the households of ordinary Jordanians in their effort to better manage water resources, the statement said.

In his address at the ceremony, Hale said Jordan has made remarkable progress in economic and social reforms over the past years adding that the country has started implementing a broad programme of political reforms based on its market needs.

Amman Governor Saad Manaseer hosted yesterday's event at City Hall, which was by attended by Madaba Governor Wanas Harahsheh, government officials, members of Parliament and community leaders.

Also on Tuesday, Director of USAID's Water Resource Management Office John Smith-Sreen presented grants worth JD7,000 each to 14 community-based organisations from Maan and Aqaba governorates.

On Wednesday, the Tafileh governor is scheduled to host a similar ceremony for nine community organisations based in the governorate, who will receive grants totalling JD63,000.

USAID has allocated a total of $245 million as economic assistance to Jordan this year, which will be spent on education, health and water management, according to the US embassy.

The Kingdom is one of the 10 most water-deprived countries in the world, with per capita water consumption estimated at 170 cubic metres per annum, compared to 1,000cm per annum in other countries.

Posted by MEEF at 06:54 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 25, 2007

AMMAN (AFP) --
Eleven firms have qualified to submit a feasibility study to build a canal which would save the slowly evaporating Dead Sea by replenishing it with water from the Red Sea, an official said Monday.

The 25-year project to build a canal linking the two seas would also solve a severe water shortage in the region of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, officials said.

Jordanian Water Minister Zafer al-Aalem announced that 11 firms would be invited to "carry out a technical and environmental feasibility study for the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal," the Petra news agency reported.

"At the end of this month the World Bank will ask these firms to submit their offers," al-Aalem said, adding that the firms have until September 15 to present their projects. He did not identify the companies.

Once the proposals are in hand, representatives from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority will meet in Paris with the World Bank to examine the offers and announce two winners, he said.

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority agreed in December to launch a feasibility study for the massive project, that has been on the drawing board for years but has stalled amid regional tensions.

The Dead Sea is the world's lowest and most saline body of water. Its level has been dropping by a meter (three feet) annually.

France, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States have committed nine million dollars to finance the two-year study estimated to cost around 15.5 million dollars. It will be managed by the World Bank.

The canal will take about 25 years to build.

Once desalination plants are in place, it would eventually ease the region's acute water shortage by providing up to 850 million cubic metres (about 30 billion cubic feet) of fresh water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordanian officials said.

As one of the 10 most water impoverished countries in the world, Jordan's water deficit exceeds 500 million cubic metres a year, according to the water ministry.

Posted by MEEF at 06:37 AM | Permalink