Planned pollution

greens are seeing red at the proposed plan of Israel to dump treated factory wastewater into the Mediterranean Sea. For many years now, industrial effluents have been finding their way into the Kishon river which empties into the Mediterranean at Haifa Bay in Tel Aviv.

But as per a new plan to clean the river, a bypass pipe would be built to carry factory wastewater with certain types of salts directly to the sea. It is alleged by environmental groups that the ministry has failed to research possible harm to marine life.

"There are organic wastes, poisons and metals in that water,' points out Sharon Shemesh-Rosenbaum, a spokesperson for the Israeli branch of international ngo, Greenpeace, adding, "we don't trust the factories to let only salts flow through the pipe into the sea.'

The ministry contends that it is studying the environmental affect to determine the length of the bypass and a best location to minimise harm to the sea. A ministry statement says that releasing effluent into the sea will not damage the quality of the sea water. About 700,000 cubic feet of untreated waste are being dumped every day into the Kishon river.