|
Peace and Pollution
By Danny Ben-Tal
Pollution recognizes no borders, as delegates to the ongoing Middle East peace talks know well. "The
greatest enemy of the environment is war," notes Dr. Uri Marinov, founding Director-General of
Israel's Environment Ministry. "To change from a war environment to a peace environment is the
only way to save our planet. All the countries involved in the ongoing peace talks understand that, and
are learning to work together."
The dawning of a new era of peace is producing a new set of challenges for those entrusted to protect
the area's delicately balanced environment. The Gulf of Aqaba - an extension of the Red Sea bordered
by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Egypt - is particularly under threat as its coastline gears up from
for a massive tourist influx, while increased sea traffic to its ports threatens the sea itself.
The Israeli resort Eilat is booming, with further construction plans including additional hotels and an
inland deep-water port. Meanwhile its Jordanian neighbor Aqaba port is being expanded. The
construction process will probably continue for many years to come - Jordan has yet to exploit its
concession to develop some 25 km of Saudi Arabian coastline bordering on Aqaba town.
While environmentalists are haunted by visions of a filthy sea, polluted beaches and endless traffic
jams, not everyone views the situation pessimistically. "There is a general recognition of the inter-
dependence of the countries' economic development and the environment," explains Ellik Adler, head
of the Israeli Environment Ministry's Coastal and Marine Environment Division. "Such development
must be conducted under the concept of sustainable development, or the results will be catastrophic.
No-one wants to cut the branch on which tourism is perched."
Both Eilat and Aqaba ports were constructed with little consideration for the environment, claims
Adler. At both ports, massive amounts of phosphates mined near the Dead Sea are loaded onto Africa-
bound ships, releasing plumes of chemical-rich dust into the air and polluting the air throughout the
region. The Israeli side is said to be especially guilty.
Particular concern has been voiced for the coral reefs which lie along the Sinai coastline, famous for
their keleidescopes of textures, shapes and colors and myriad varieties of fish, crustaceans, plankton,
and anemones. The reefs' ecosystem - one fifth of the area's species are unique to the Red Sea - is
under threat. "Tourist kill the corals by trampling on them, or by dragging up sand from the sea floor
while diving," claims Baruch Rinkevich, an expert on corals at the Haifa-based Israel Oceanography
and Limnological Research institute (IOLR). "Such sedimentation, which is also caused by road
construction near the coastline, is deadly to the coral's delicate environment."
Israel is the only country to ship oil via the Gulf of Aqaba (the town of Aqaba receives its Iraqi fuel by
truck). Under the 1978 Camp David agreements, Israel buys 2.5 million tons per year from the
southern Sinai desert's Abu Rodeis oil fields, which also supplies the SOPED Suez-Mediterranean
pipeline in Egypt. The oil is pumped to refineries in the center of the country via the Eilat-Ashkelon
pipeline, built by the Shah's Iran in the seventies when the Suez Canal was closed.
What Adler fears most is an oil spill from one of the tankers. Connected to the Gulf of Aden and rest
of the Red Sea via the narrow straits of Bab al Mandab, the long, narrow Gulf's ecosystems would
absorb a body blow. "A 2,000 ton slick is large enough to be catastrophic," he warns. "The Red Sea
coastline's natural beauty could be wiped out overnight. We must be prepared." The disastrous Exxon
Valdez spill off Alaska, by comparison, measured 45,000 tones.
A regional contingency plan for the region has been drawn up, under which Israel, Egypt, Jordan and
- it is hoped - Saudi Arabia will coordinate efforts in the event of an oil spill. An extensive program of
scientific research has to be carried out before the details of such a contingency plan can be drawn up,
explains Adler. "We have to decide which places receive immediate action in the case of an oil spill -
the Sinai's coral reefs, lucrative fish cages and sea agriculture, or the resorts with their beaches?"
An oil slick would probably be pushed south - away from Eilat and Aqaba - by winds. "But we still
lack basic oceanographic information about the Gulf," notes Dr. IOLR Director-General Yuval Cohen.
"For example, we don't know enough about how the sea water actually flows, which is imperative for
successful prediction of oil slick behavior in various metrological conditions."
Another issue to be studied is how to efficiently deal with oil spills. One option utilizes chemical
dispersals sprayed from planes, causing the oil to break up and sink to the sea bed, possibly damaging
the corals. Yet it may prove more beneficial to allow the oil to settle on beaches, then concentrate
efforts on cleaning the sands and rocks. "On the technical and professional level, there is tremendous
will to cooperate," notes Adler. "But so much is still unknown: What is the environmental capacity of
the Gulf? How many hotels and sewage outlets can it take? How many sailing vessels on its
waters?"
Under the contingency plan, a network of sea pollution prevention stations, complete with trained
personnel and state-of-the-art equipment, will be set up, each designed to treat 2,000-3,000 ton oil
slicks. One such station already exists in Eilat. The project is being supported by the World Bank,
Japan and European Community, while each country is putting up about $10 million - a relatively
paltry sum, yet one which Jordan and Egypt have experienced trouble raising.
|
The Business of Peace
Visions: A 'Zine
Peace Links
at Ariga
Write to
Ariga |
