Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Nobel laureates call for Jordan Valley ‘peace park’
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — Nobel laureates taking part in last week’s conference in Petra called for a cross-border “peace park” to
be set up in the Jordan Valley to promote dialogue between Israelis and Jordanians and tackle environmental problems
affecting the Jordan River.
Peter Agre, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, told participants in a session on the environment that the Jordan
River was a site of great historical, cultural and religious importance,” and that all efforts should be made to
preserve it.
“The river is drying up and its unique and natural ecosystem is being destroyed because of diversion of its water
by all sides,” said Agre, who chaired the session.
“The continued degradation of the river due to the discharge of pollutants, saline water, agricultural runoffs and
fish pond waste is having a serious affect on the environment,” he added.
The proposed peace park, to be located in the north of the Jordan Valley close to Pella, would entail bringing fresh
water back to a 15-kilometre stretch of the river, which flows south from the Sea of Galilee for about 100 kilometres
before entering the Dead Sea.
Participants in the session also called for utilising existing infrastructure on both banks of the river, including a
2,000-year-old Roman bridge on the Israeli side of the river and the Ottoman railway to create a world class
ecotourism site.
The laureates did not say how their vision would be funded, but Agre said the situation at present posed a
“devastating threat” to the environment.
“The situation by the river has also a major impact on the health of the residents at the Jordan River banks,” he added.
Participants said the proposed project would capitalise on the area’s huge tourism potential, create much needed
job opportunities for the populations on both sides of the borders and preserve the Jordan Valley’s environment and
historical sites.
“The current situation in the Jordan River is not only a challenge to Jordan, Israel and Palestine, but it is also
a major peace-building opportunity for cooperation, where mayors from three sides could meet to discuss means to
improve conditions in the Jordan Valley and the Jordan River,” the Nobel Prize winner said at the conference, which
brought together 33 Nobel laureates and more than 200 prominent figures.
During the 1960s, around 1.3 billion cubic metres of water flowed every year from Lake Tiberias 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 90 per cent to about 100 million cubic metres.
Years of conflict and mismanagement among the main users of the river have contributed to the crisis, according to
environmentalists.
Although the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel called for the rehabilitation of the river, so far little
progress has been achieved.
In late 2006, Jordanian and Israeli mayors from the towns of Pella and Beit Shean signed an agreement to cooperate
on shared water issues in an effort to breathe life back into the river’s tributaries and promote tourism and development.
The agreement formed part of the Good Water Neighbours project, established by EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle
East in 2001 to raise awareness of the shared water problems of Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis.