JUST BECAUSE A RIVER IS HOLY DOESN'T MEAN IT'S CLEAN
GREATER ISRAEL What would Jesus do about the Jordan River? The major source of water in the land of the Bible, the fabled river is dying a slow death due to rampant pollution and unregulated diversion. An integral part of the river's ecosystem, the Dead Sea is also dying (say what?).
Jordan, Israel and Syria have all diverted upstream waters for domestic and agricultural uses. Since these political entities don't play nice together, everyone is taking as much water out of the river as possible. So far, neither Jahweh nor Allah have done much about it. Jesus is reported to have been baptized in this body of water, so perhaps he could talk to Dad?
In the 1950s, Israel built a pipeline to pump water out of the Sea of Galilee, stopping its flow into the Jordan. In the early 1960s, the Jriver still moved 1.3 billion cubic meters (46 billion cu ft) of water every year from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. But dams, canals and pumping stations built by Israel, Jordan and Syria to divert water for crops and drinking have reduced the flow by more than 95 percent to about 100 million cubic meters (3.5 billion cu ft). According to authorities, more than half of the flow is raw sewage and agricultural runoff.
At this point, almost all the tributaries that feed into the river have been dammed or diverted. Nevertheless, the pollution does not seem to bother the pilgrims who come from around the world to the river's banks to fill souvenir bottles with muddy water. In the baptismal site of Bethany Beyond the Jordan, on the Jordanian side, officials have built pools where treated water is pumped to allow pilgrims to bathe in cleaner waters. Protecting the tourism dollar. Still, some heavy believers insist on re-baptising themselves in the yucky river anyway, apparently confident that Jahweh will provide medial amnesty.
The condition of the Jordan is invisible to the world at large because much of the area is a closed military zone. Fences and mines keep the public away from the area near the river. The latest threat to the river’s water supply is a new Syrian dam on the Yarmuk River. When the dam becomes operational this year, the two major sources of the lower Jordan – the Yarmuk and the Sea of Galilee – will no longer provide any water to the river.
In addition to the region’s unique history of three-way religious conflict, the valley is at the crossroads of biodiversity, bringing together species from Africa, Asia and Europe.
