Raw Sewage Taints Sacred Jordan River Baptisms
Pastor Dale Morgan
Raw Sewage Taints Sacred Jordan River Baptisms*
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI
The Associated Press
September 11, 2006; 11:45 PM
KIBBUTZ KINNERET, Israel -- Wading into the Jordan River, the pastor
blessed his flock, laying hands on the believers head's, before sending
them down under and into the hallowed waters to be baptized.
The faithful, throughly soaking wet, arise up out of the water, shouting
'amen' and 'hallelujah' after each baptism, unaware that just
downstream, raw sewage was flowing into the water.
That's the split personality of one of the world's most sacred rivers.
Small sections of the Jordan's upper portion, near the Sea of Galilee,
have been kept pristine for baptisms. But Israel, Jordan and Syria have
siphoned off huge amounts of river water to meet their needs in this
arid region, and pumped waste water back in.
Hardest hit is the 60-mile downstream stretch _ a meandering stream from
the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.
Environmentalists say the practice has almost destroyed the river's
ecosystem.
Now Christian evangelicals have teamed up with environmentalists to save
the Jordan. They want UNESCO to declare the entire Jordan Valley and
river a World Heritage Site, hoping it will force all countries involved
to work together to save it.
"If there's irreversible damage done ... Israel's going to have another
PR battle on its hands," said David Parsons, a spokesman for the
evangelical Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which has joined forces with
Friends of the Earth Middle East, a green group.
Rescuing the river could take decades, environmentalists say.
The damage began in 1964, when Israel began operating a dam that diverts
water from the Sea of Galilee, a major Jordan River water provider, to
the national water carrier, said Hillel Glassman, a stream expert at
Israel's Parks Authority. At the same time, Jordan built a channel that
diverted water from the Yarmouk River, another main tributary of the
Jordan River.
Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouk's waters. In a
year, the Yarmouk's flow into the Jordan River will dwindle to a
trickle, once Syria and Jordan begin operating a dam they jointly built,
he added.
Environmentalists blame all three countries.