A $56.5 million rehabilitation project for the Kishon River has been launched by the Israeli government in an attempt to return the now polluted river to it’s once natural state, providing clean water and habitat for many species of fish and plants, as well as a “green lung” for the city of Haifa.
The massive clean-up project includes developing a recreational park area along the banks of the river that will encompass 148 acres of land and providing not only a clean ecosystem for local and migratory wildlife, but a natural recreation area for human inhabitants.
Beginning this summer, the first stage of the project will involve dredging sediment from the riverbed, which is largely made up of toxic pollutants that have accumulated over the past three or four decades.
According to the project’s steering committee and deputy director general for natural resources at the Environmental Protection Ministry, Dr. Yishayahu Bar-Or, before clean-up projects were initiated, the river was essentially “dead”, as it was so acidic and contaminated with hydrocarbon residues from oil refining and heavy metals from agricultural fertilizers, even bacteria were unable to survive in the water.
The dredged sediment will be then piled at a 74-acre site near the river, where once it is aerated bacteria will again inhabit the muck and begin to break down the oil residues. This process will take an estimated two to three years.
Since 1997 when the Environmental Protection Ministry began imposing strict guidelines on effluents in the river, as well as building waste treatment facilities, there has been a marked improvement in the river quality. Fish, water birds and turtles have been seen again in the river since 2001, but it is hoped that with the new rehabilitation project, the Kishon will once again be a pristine beauty and a fit home for wildlife.
For further details, see:
http://www.israel21c.org/201104288992/environment/kishon-river-from-poison-to-pristine