Mideast ecosystems under assault, activist says in S.F.

The Dead Sea is dying.

Sucked down by evaporation-mining operations and choked with unbridled flows of raw sewage, the world's best briny bath is a shadow of its former self, Mideast environmentalists have said.

The plight of the legendary lake and other fragile Mideast ecosystems came across loud and clear at a meeting of the San Francisco Planning and Research Associations and the World Affairs Council last week. Gidon Bromberg, secretary-general of the environmental nonprofit EcoPeace, briefed the group on a different kind of Mideast battle -- the battle to find a balance with nature.

Comprising Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmental groups and individuals, the Jerusalem-based organization is working to preserve failing Mideast ecosystems, including the Dead Sea.

"The understanding of environmental problems in the Middle East is that you cannot separate," the Israeli activist said, noting that most ecosystems are shared by several bordering countries. "And they are in crisis."

But at a time when Mideast governments are hardly talking, EcoPeace's goals, which require the governments to cooperate through environmental regulation and enforcement of those laws, seem remote.

Funded by individual philanthropists, foundations and some governments, EcoPeace has found common agendas with environmentalists and academics throughout the Middle East and the world.

In addition to preserving ecosystems, they aim to recruit more experts, form a multinational board on water use and develop renewable energy systems, such as solar power.

In San Francisco, Bromberg warned that the final death blow to the Dead Sea may be in sight as area development and infrastructure plans forge recklessly ahead.

Eighteen new water diversion projects are planned for the Dead Sea's main feeder, the Jordan River, which could reduce the river's flow to 5 percent of its present volume, he reported.

Adding extra salt to the wound, 50,000 hotel rooms are intended for the lake's western shore, though there is neither a master plan nor an environmental impact analysis for development there.

Things could hardly get worse.

Or could they? The water diversion projects and hotels are part of a development trend across the country that began in the wake of the peace process, the Israeli activist explained in an interview.

"Development has been sold as the fruits of peace. We see dams and roads being built, but the [regulatory] institutions that the peace process was supposed to create" never came to pass, he said.

Breakneck development may come as no surprise to those who remember how quickly the romantic notion spread of turning Israel's deserts into lush forests and food-producing fields of plenty, Bromberg said.

"We've learned that that philosophy doesn't work. The desert was never meant to bloom. It's a desert because it's a desert. We've got a water shortage and we are using [the water] to grow food for export. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Bromberg said other industries such as high-tech and tourism yield greater returns than agriculture, which provides only 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product in Israel.

Agriculture and livestock-rearing are particularly hard on failing ecosystems, which are growing in number all the time.

In addition to the Dead Sea, other endangered Mideast hot spots include the Gulf of Aqaba, the Sea of Galilee, the Nile River, the Mediterranean Sea and its beaches as well as wetlands throughout the region, which serves as a rest stop for more than one billion birds migrating to and from Europe and Africa.

"The big picture is that the Middle East has a unique environment," Bromberg said. "It has been a crossroads for civilizations but also a crossroads of biodiversity."

He cited some 1,000 fish species and 200 varieties of coral in the Gulf of Aqaba, second only to the rain forest in biodiversity.

And Israel, he said, is the northernmost place to find certain indigenous African plant species.

National governments are somewhat enthusiastic about EcoPeace. In some cases, the organization is the only open channel of communication between countries whose governments are constantly positioning themselves against each other.

"Sometimes the governments will talk to us when they won't talk to each other." For that reason, Bromberg said EcoPeace ultimately is a force for peace in the Mideast.

The organization has helped to organize public awareness and cleanup campaigns in Israel and Jordan. It is trying to persuade Israeli municipalities to build water treatment plants in cities whose waste flows directly into adjacent deserts, rivers and seas.

"It is illegal to pollute rivers in Israel, but there is no enforcement. Every municipality says, `We have no money to build a water treatment plant.'

"The sewage of Tiberias flows untreated into the sea of Galilee. Sewage flows untreated into the Jordan River. The sewage from Jerusalem is running untreated toward the Mediterranean.

"Israelis would be shocked," he said, although most are unaware of the situation.