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Study: West Bank Pollution Threatening Israeli Groundwater

[Ha'aretz] Zafrir Rinat - For several years now, a white river has run through the Hebron Hills with waste from a sawmill near Hebron, threatening the groundwater inside Israel and impeding attempts to rehabilitate Israel's rivers. Israel has tried to deal with the problem by collecting and purifying the waste at the boundary between Israel and the West Bank. But that is insufficient because much pollution enters the groundwater in the West Bank and spreads to Israel underground. The problem is documented in a two-year study conducted by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University and the Palestinian Water and Environmental Development Organization. The study found that the Basor River, which runs from near Hebron to Gaza, is now full of both municipal waste and toxins emitted by the stone- and leather-working industries around Hebron. It estimated that from 45 to 90% of the pollution seeps into the ground before the river reaches the Israeli treatment plant. While the Alexander River has improved substantially, the study said, it still is being polluted by municipal waste and the olive oil industries around Nablus and Tulkarm, and about half of the pollution on the Palestinian side seeps into the groundwater before reaching the "green line."
2007-12-17 01:00:00
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