An international research team's report on pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba lays the majority of the blame on Jordan, said Haaretz newspaper on Sunday.
The report, published two weeks ago, was the work of a committee invited to undertake the study by the government of Israel.
The authors of the report, Marlin Atkinson, from the United States and Harald Rosenthal, from Germany, say the prime causes of pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba are “sewage and dust particles from phosphates that are poured into the gulf on the Jordanian side.”
The report, said the paper, will be at the crux of inter-ministerial discussions in Israel on ways of safeguarding the environment in the Gulf of Aqaba in coming years.
Philip Warburg, an Israeli expert on matters of the environment, with extensive work experience in Jordan on the problems of pollution surrounding the port city of Aqaba, said the report “unjustifiably lays the responsibility on the Jordanian side.”
The report has also received a cold reception in Jordan where sources say it is based on inaccurate data, said the paper, adding that there has been no official reaction.
Warburg, who currently heads the green organization Adam, Tevah V'Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense), worked on environmental issues in Aqaba on behalf of the World Bank during the 1990s.
"For a number of years now, sewage has not emptied from the city of Aqaba into the gulf, and therefore there is no basis for the conclusions of the experts," Warburg said.
"The Jordanians have set up specially designed pools near the city where the sewage undergoes partial purification. It is then used for watering trees planted in the area. It is true that the sewage which has not been fully purified seeps into the ground and pollutes underground water sources, but it does not reach the sea," Warburg told the paper.
Regarding the dust particles of phosphates, Bilal Basheer, an official in the Aqaba local authority, told the paper that a Jordanian team was gathering data on the measures which have been taken to prevent the spread of phosphate particles to the sea.
In mid-June, a sewage spill leaked into the Gulf of Aqaba near the Israeli Port of Eilat.
The spill was caused by the leakage of 1,500 cubic meters of wastewater from an Israeli water treatment plant in Eilat.
The Israeli authorities contained the spill before it spread.
Similar incidents have taken place in the past and the Jordanian authorities have conducted tests.
“In not a single instance was the Jordanian side affected,” a Jordanian official said at the time.
The kingdom's seawater is under regular observation, and when there are any suspicions, the Aqaba pollution-control authorities conduct precautionary tests, said the official – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
