Jesus would face problems being baptized in the Jordan River now
Source: Agencies |
May 5, 2010, Wednesday
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CHRISTIAN pilgrims who flock to the Jordan River to immerse themselves in the water where Jesus was baptized may have nothing left to dunk in next year.
A team of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental scientists says large stretches of the biblical river could dry up by 2011. And much of what remains is nothing but a canal of sewage, they said in a report released on Monday.
"You can almost jump across this river. In other places, you don't need to even jump - you can just cross it. It's ankle deep," said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, which commissioned the report. "You struggle to see the water."
According to Christian tradition, John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Typical of the region's conflicting land claims, both Jordan and Israel maintain the New Testament baptismal site stands on their soil, on either side of the Jordan.
Over the past five decades, Israel, Jordan and Syria have diverted about 98 percent of the Jordan River and its tributaries for drinking water and agricultural use. Only 20-30 million cubic meters flow through the river now, a tiny fraction of the 1.3 billion cubic meters that used to surge through before the 1930s, when the first dam was built on the river in what is now Israel.
Today, the lower section of the Jordan is choked with sewage from towns on the Israeli, West Bank and Jordanian sides.
Sadly, it is one of the efforts to save the river that has helped doom it, the report said. Israel and Jordan have agreed to stop dumping waste into the river and instead treat it in plants expected to be up and running in both countries in 2011.
The report praised the wastewater treatment plan, but noted it will dry up large stretches of the river by the end of next year because the treated sewage will be used for agriculture rather than pumped into the Jordan. The report recommends Israel and Jordan return a third of the river's former flow by filling it with freshwater pumped in from the Sea of Galilee and the Yarmouk river, the Jordan's largest tributary, in addition to highly treated wastewater.
Today, most Christian pilgrims who visit Israel immerse themselves in the fresh waters of the Jordan river at Yardenit, near the Sea of Galilee, 100 kilometers upstream.
About 1 kilometer away, a dam built by Israel blocks the water for agricultural use. Steps away, a fountain of murky sewage from nearby Israeli communities shoot through a rusty pipe, where it joins up with agricultural runoff and saline water from nearby salt springs to form the rest of the river.
Some still go to the traditional baptism site of Jesus, but some environmentalists strongly discourage baptisms there because the water is a health hazard.
A team of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental scientists says large stretches of the biblical river could dry up by 2011. And much of what remains is nothing but a canal of sewage, they said in a report released on Monday.
"You can almost jump across this river. In other places, you don't need to even jump - you can just cross it. It's ankle deep," said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, which commissioned the report. "You struggle to see the water."
According to Christian tradition, John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Typical of the region's conflicting land claims, both Jordan and Israel maintain the New Testament baptismal site stands on their soil, on either side of the Jordan.
Over the past five decades, Israel, Jordan and Syria have diverted about 98 percent of the Jordan River and its tributaries for drinking water and agricultural use. Only 20-30 million cubic meters flow through the river now, a tiny fraction of the 1.3 billion cubic meters that used to surge through before the 1930s, when the first dam was built on the river in what is now Israel.
Today, the lower section of the Jordan is choked with sewage from towns on the Israeli, West Bank and Jordanian sides.
Sadly, it is one of the efforts to save the river that has helped doom it, the report said. Israel and Jordan have agreed to stop dumping waste into the river and instead treat it in plants expected to be up and running in both countries in 2011.
The report praised the wastewater treatment plan, but noted it will dry up large stretches of the river by the end of next year because the treated sewage will be used for agriculture rather than pumped into the Jordan. The report recommends Israel and Jordan return a third of the river's former flow by filling it with freshwater pumped in from the Sea of Galilee and the Yarmouk river, the Jordan's largest tributary, in addition to highly treated wastewater.
Today, most Christian pilgrims who visit Israel immerse themselves in the fresh waters of the Jordan river at Yardenit, near the Sea of Galilee, 100 kilometers upstream.
About 1 kilometer away, a dam built by Israel blocks the water for agricultural use. Steps away, a fountain of murky sewage from nearby Israeli communities shoot through a rusty pipe, where it joins up with agricultural runoff and saline water from nearby salt springs to form the rest of the river.
Some still go to the traditional baptism site of Jesus, but some environmentalists strongly discourage baptisms there because the water is a health hazard.
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