Zalul Environmental Association to Haifa Mayor Yonah Yahav: Enough manipulation of Haifa and Krayot residents! Your agreement to build a bypass pipe for the Kishon is making you a partner in the plan to pollute Haifa Bay with the effluent of the factories.

Over a year ago, in an initiative by the Minister of the Environment, a public discussion was started on the subject of establishing a pipe to the sea for the effluenct of the Kishon factories by the representatives of the Haifa municipality. The conclusions and results of the discussion distinctly show that the proposed plan would hide the severe dangers to the sea environment in Haifa Bay. This program goes against previously determined directives to reduce the pollution of effluent from the factories of the Kishon and ignores advanced technology alternatives around the world, alternatives which will both rescue the Kishon River and bring enforced internationally recognized environmental standards to the factories along the Kishon River.

In Abramovich’s letter, he states that the recent public relations campaign, that was created to show the Kishon River as precious and valuable, was deceptive and based on heavy economic interests and clearly disregarded public opinion.

In addition, writes Abramovich in his letter, for a long time the Mayor of Haifa has not worked in any way to stop this dangerous program, to the contrary – he held a series of meetings with members of the Ministry of the Environment and the Kishon River Authority that encouraged them to undertake the program.

Zalul asserted that only a few weeks before they had tried multiple times to present their side in a meeting with Yonah Yahav to demonstrate the position of the organization as well as the public’s resistance. In reaction, Mayor Yahav chose to ignore the experience of those at the meeting. In addition, Zalul added, Mayor Yahav’s support to the pipe-to-sea program is essentially an open secret and because he knows his stance is adverse to the public, he attempts to conceal his position and that of the Haifa municipality.

Said Abramovich, “The Mayor of Haifa compares the calls of Zalul as that of a troublesome fly that disturbs him in his mission to build a pipe to the sea. Zalul’s intention, along with the residents of Haifa, is to campaign against this crazy notion to change the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal Haifa Bay to a gutter of effluent from the factories of the Kishon. We are convinced that Mayor Yahav will comprehend that he must follow the wishes of the citizens of his city and join in this public struggle.”

This article was published at the end of October and somehow only crossed our desk today, but the content is still relevant and we really loved the way the Israel’s environmental problems were put into perspective (small country + lots of pollution = big problems).  The article is both critical and hopeful, citing some of the plans the government has for river rehabilitation while also pointing out their failure to stand up to industrial polluters.  Have a read by clicking on the photos above.

We’ve blogged about it before and we’ll blog about it again. But today, we have some pictures to show you just how disgusting the water pollution in Haifa really is.Staff members Ezer Fischler and Shahar Brinenberg toured some of the more foul smelling sites in the northern part of Israel today and documented their visit.Here are some highlights (check out our Flickr site for more photos):

Ammonia, phosphorous and unhealthy organic matter-filled wastewater being discharged to the sea.

Another view of the toxic waste being released along the coastline.

The waste is fed to the sea via this crafty pipeline. Unilever is the company discharging the waste and it has a legal permit to do so from the Sea Spillage Permit Committee (we’d like for that to stop, wouldn’t you?)

Moving inland a bit, this foamy wastewater comes from the Bazan Oil Refinery and is filled with mineral oils, ammonia and phosphorous in the background which spills it straight into the Kishon River.

The zoomed-out shot, in which you can see the lovely, scenic towers in the background.

Visit our Flickr site for more photos

Haaretz Daily News. June 8, 2007.

After years of work by Zalul and other environmental organizations to push for the clean up of the Kishon River, the lack of follow-through by government agencies has made all the effort seem futile. The Haaretz article published this Friday says it well:

More than five years ago the government ordered a stop to the dumping of industrial effluents into the Kishon, yet these continue to pollute the stream. The adoption of strict pollution standards also remained on paper, while the pollution is growing.

On our tour of polluted areas in the North with members of the Socio-Environmental Caucus in the Knesset, we got a good look at the Kishon and heard a great deal about its problems. People seem to care, but no one in the government is out there holding the factories accountable.

Factories along Haifa’s Kishon River

Here at Zalul, we want to know, when will the government start taking this problem seriously?

Yesterday, Zalul took members of the Knesset Socio-Environmental Caucus on a tour of some of the most pollution affected areas of northern Israel. It began bright and early with a bus ride from Tel Aviv up to Haifa, picking up officials and press members along the way, and meeting to start the tour at the Haifa Port.

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