Shlomi Peer
Tel Aviv, NFAPost: Yarkon River is flowing as usal to the Mediterranean sea as usual despite the political upheavels in Israel.
Yarkon River, also pronounced as Yarqon River or Jarkon River, is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon (“Greenish” in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva.
The Yarkon River is the second largest river within the State of Israel, after the Jordan River. The Yarkon River is a steady-flowing river, in the past, its stream was natural, and today the water flowing through it is sourced by deliberate pumping. Like all rivers, it is a natural creation, a result of millions of years of rainfall and flows which carved flow streams on their way to the drainage basin, the sea.
It flows west through Gush Dan and Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park into the Mediterranean Sea. Its Arabic name, al-Auja, means “the meandering”. The Yarkon is the largest coastal river in Israel, at 27.5 km in length.
The Yarkon is mentioned in the bible as part of the inheritance given to the Tribe of Dan (Joshua, 19): “ The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the people of Dan, according to their clans. And the territory of its inheritance included Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh, Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, Elon…Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon, and Me-jarkon and Rakkon with the territory over against Joppa.”
The Israel government formed the statutory body Yarkon River Authority in 1990 following the Streams and Springs Authority Law (1965) and the Yarkon Stream Authority Order (1988). The Yarkon River Authority is a syndicate of 18 public entities including 7 local authorities located along the stream, government offices and additional syndicates.
The Authority’s mission includes activity in the fields of preventing pollution, rehabilitating the stream and adapting it for recreation and leisure purposes. Since the authority began its activity, a significant improvement in the quality of the Yarkon’s water and its surroundings has been achieved. The efforts to rehabilitate and maintain the Yarkon River hold an important and central place in the Authority’s work.
The Authority regularly works to care for the channel and its riverbanks, rehabilitate flora and monitor the area for the good of local fauna, remove sediment and clean the channel and promote community activities for learning, enjoying and protecting the Yarkon area.
The Yarkon River Authority promotes development plans along the Yarkon, with an emphasis on ecological rehabilitation and regulation of public activity in the open areas along the stream. Additionally, the River Authority takes an active part in planning committees and is involved in promoted plans for the area in order to safeguard the environment and local civilians.
Quoting Ecclesiastes the Hebrew Bible, Mayor of Tel-Aviv- Yafo Municipality Ron Huldai, who is also the Chairman of Yarkon River Authority said “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.”
“This description of the cyclical nature of water’s movement is still accurate 3,000 years after the days of King Solomon. However, he could not have imagined the technological developments human society would lead. Even “the wisest of men ” could not have anticipated phenomena such as accelerated urbanisation; the building of advanced water and sewage systems; mass consumption; climate change and surely not foresee the effects of these rivers going to the sea,” said Mayor of Tel-Aviv- Yafo Municipality Ron Huldai.
Mayor of Tel-Aviv- Yafo Municipality Ron Huldai made it clear that the past use of the river’s waters to irrigate the Negev and the discharge of sewage from the crowded urban area that has grown around it, had made the Yarkon an environmental hazard.
“Today, following an effort of over fifteen years, we are very close to completing the “Yarkon Redemption” project. We have achieved a dramatic improvement in the quality of its flowing water and brought the river back to life. The Yarkon is no longer a polluted “back yard”, but a green lung, a vibrant place of recreation and leisure which serves the metropoline’s residents,” said Mayor of Tel-Aviv- Yafo Municipality Ron Huldai
(Picture and story by Shlomi Peer from Tel Aviv)
