Head:
River Revival
Sub:
Haifa’s Kishon River is fast becoming a regional nature showcase.
By MAURICE PICOW
The Kishon River was once described as Israel’s most polluted body of water. Is it
becoming a clean river again? I visited the offices of the Kishon River Authority
(KRA), located next to the fishing harbor of the Kishon River.
The Kishon has been going through an environmental revival. It is starting to become
a clean ecological place, for people who love nature to come and visit the area.
The revival is being carried out by the KRA, led by Sharon Nissim, as director of the
project.
“For many years, the Haifa Chemicals industry, one of many other industries, used the
Kishon as a river to put garbage in it. It put in the water a lot of sediment pollutants,”
said Nissim.
Haifa Chemicals and other industries in Haifa Bay were instructed to improve the
quality of the river according to the KRA and the Environmental Protection Minister
requirements.
“The Kishon is still not clean, but we are in improving the way it looks. We still have
not met our goals," said Nissim.
She says there are three things that need to be done to improve the quality of the river:
The first thing to do is to stop polluting it. The second thing to do is to remove and
purify the polluted sediments from the bottom of the river. The third thing to do is to
make sure there is clean water added to the river. The clean water will come from a
non-active water well and natural springs. The added clean water will increase the
base flow rate from 400 cubic meters per hour to over 1,000.
The Kishon River starts in the northern Samarian Mountains area )‫(הרי שומרון‬, around
Jenin. The river is about 70 kilometers long, until it reaches its end at Haifa Bay.
During the 1920s, it was a popular weekend place for picnics and water sports such as
boating, fishing and swimming. This all began to change when the British Mandate
authorities added oil refineries in Haifa to add fuel in British ships.
By the early 1990s the Kishon had become so polluted, that it became a dead river.
The KRA was formed in 1994 by the government. Since then, the authority has been
able to take out as much of 97% of the heavy metal in the water and 76% of the
volume of polluted water.
As part of the Kishon's revival, an upstream section of the Kishon has been made into
a nature park. This area has small waterfalls, picnic areas and a stone bridge that was
built during the Ottoman Empire. This part, located near Kiryat Tivon, will also have
a bicycle trail and other things to see and do for people who visit.
But the most important project is removing all the polluted sediments. This plan is
estimated to cost 220 million Shekels and will take at least three years to complete.
In the end, it will remove some 440,000 cubic meters of the sediments.
For more information visit: www.kishon.org.il.
Caption: THE NEW KISHON RIVER
Polluted ‫ּפֹולּוטד‬
Authority ‫אֹות'ֹורטי‬
Harbor ‫הרּבֹור‬
‫אנבירֹומנטל ‪Environmental‬‬
‫ריביבל ‪Revival‬‬
‫דירקטֹור ‪Director‬‬
‫אינדסטרי ‪Industry‬‬
‫סדימנט ‪Sediment‬‬
‫ּפֹולּוטנצ ‪Pollutants‬‬
‫אינסטרקטד ‪Instructed‬‬
‫קּואלטי ‪Quality‬‬
‫ּפרֹוטקשן ‪Protection‬‬
‫אימּפרּובינג ‪Improving‬‬
‫רימּוב ‪Remove‬‬
‫ּפיּוריפי ‪Purify‬‬
‫ּואל ‪Well‬‬
‫סּפרינגז ‪Springs‬‬
‫אינקריס ‪Increase‬‬
‫פלֹוּו ‪Flow‬‬
‫סּוימינג ‪Swimming‬‬
‫ריפינריז ‪Refineries‬‬
‫גברמנט ‪Government‬‬
‫וֹוליּומ ‪Volume‬‬
‫אּפסטרימ ‪Upstream‬‬
‫ּוֹוטרפֹולז ‪Waterfalls‬‬
‫קיּוּביק ‪Cubic‬‬
‫מזוהם‬
‫רשות‬
‫נמל‬
‫סביבתית‬
‫תחייה‬
‫מנהלת‬
‫מפעל‬
‫משקעים‬
‫מזהמים‬
‫הונחו‬
‫איכות‬
‫איכות (שר איכות סביבה)‬
‫דרישות‬
‫משפרים‬
‫להוציא‬
‫להוציא‬
‫לטהר‬
‫באר‬
‫מעיינות‬
‫תגדיל‬
‫זרימה‬
‫שחיה‬
‫בתי זיקוק‬
‫ממשלה‬
‫נפח‬
‫במעלה הזרם‬
‫מפלים‬
‫מעוקבים‬