The Jordan River is dying and the Jordanian and Israeli governments are failing to come to its aid, according to local officials and environmentalists from both sides of the revered river, scene of many events of Biblical history. The international community needs to make saving the river a priority, a delegation from the region told a Washington DC audience, and should encourage Jordan, Israel, Syria and the Palestinian Authority to develop a regional environmental and economic rehabilitation effort. "We cannot say our governments are doing nothing, but they are not doing enough," said Dov Litvinoff, mayor of the Tamar Dead Sea Region Council in Israel. "We came here to shout loudly – all the mayors – for the world to help us." He was joined at the forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars by two Jordanian mayors, a fellow Israeli mayor, the mayor of Jericho, and three directors of Friends of the Earth Middle East. FOEME is lobbying to see the Jordan River Valley declared a World Heritage Site.

Related news: Middle East: Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Mayors plunged into Jordan River, Source Weekly, 14 Jul 2005

Web site: FOEME - Jordan River Project

Contact: FOEME, Jordan, foeme@go.com.jo

Source: Environment News Service, 16 May 2006

Tags: information and communication, water resources management