Environmental Protection Ministry currently lacks power to enforce environmental laws beyond the Green Line. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 25, 2013 Efforts to deal with environmental problems in the West Bank are being severely hampered by the inability of the defense establishment and the Environmental Protection Ministry to reach an agreement on the latter’s enforcement […]

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GAZA CITY (AFP) — Lack of fuel from Israel brought Gaza’s lone power plant to a halt on Friday, days after it was fired back to life following a seven-week shutdown, the electricity company said. “The plant stopped working on Friday morning due to a lack of fuel caused by Israel’s closure of the Kerem […]

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Israel’s offshore oil and gas production are well underway; but on environmental protection, Israel is playing catch up with the world. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 26, 2013 Governmental officials scrambled to a Knesset discussion on drilling “like students who always remember at the last moment that they have homework and that they must do […]

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Why has Israel not learned from history and is instead risking its national security on desalinated water? By Peretz Darr | Dec. 26, 2013 Israel’s megalomaniac rate of construction of desalination plants, besides increasing poverty and deteriorating public health, has created what may be the greatest threat to its national security. The havoc created in […]

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by Hana Namrouqa | Dec 26, 2013 AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has launched a project for the rehabilitation of water networks in Madaba Governorate to improve supply, according to a senior official. Work on the water networks in the governorate is expected to be completed by mid-2015 under an agreement signed […]

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Dec 26, 2013 | 22:11 10 inShare “No, man! Just push in the other direction,” a youth told a person helping him push a car stuck in snow off Wasfi Tal Street in Amman during the recent snowstorm which hit the country. “Yallah, a little bit more and the driver will make it to the […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 12/24/2013 The park will be a home to research and development in energy conservation and environmental protection, among other industries. Aiming to integrate the Israeli innovative spirit with Chinese market capacity, private investors and government officials from China’s Zheijiang province have come together to build a future China-Israel Nanxun Innovation Industrial Park. […]

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Right-wing complaints have no basis; the government is working tirelessly and doing much to settle Jews in Israel’s Negev region. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 21, 2013 Recent right-wing complaints that the government is impotent when it comes to implementing plans to settle Jews in the Negev, supposedly out of fear of public criticism, are […]

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For many Palestinians ‘nature reserves’ means ‘reserved for Israeli settlements.’ By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 18, 2013 Can Palestinians be recruited to fight for the environment? Not as long as preserving nature effectively means settlement expansion, as the case of the Nahal Kaneh nature reserve suggests. Palestinian farmers planted olive trees on part of the […]

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The Gaza Strip’s sewage treatment plants reportedly suffering frequent blackouts due to a dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 22, 2013 Repeated failures of sewage treatment plants in the Gaza Strip has caused significant beach pollution in and around Ashkelon and endangered water quality in the Mediterranean Sea, recent […]

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by Hana Namrouqa | Dec 23, 2013 As the weather warms up, more snow is melting and raising storage levels at the Kingdom’s dams, according to the Water Ministry (JT photo) AMMAN — Eighty-four per cent of the rainwater that entered the country’s dams since the start of the wet season was collected during the […]

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Re-diversion of water, law amendment and desalination operations are having major effect. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 22, 2013 The water flowing through Israel’s nature sites has increased tenfold over the past decade, and it’s expected to continue increasing due to new arrangements for supplying water to agriculture and the growing use of desalinated water. […]

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Dec 23, 2013 | 22:56 Updated: Dec 23, 2013 AMMAN — Jordan and the German Development Bank (KfW) on Monday signed a loan agreement for the project “Climate Protection in the Wastewater Sector”, according to a KfW statement. On behalf of the German government, KfW “will make available 20 million euros of loan financing”. The […]

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Who stands to gain from the historic deal signed to address a critical shortage of water in the region? Inside Story Last updated: 11 Dec 2013 An agreement between Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian ministers to provide new sources of water for the three neighbours, has been sold as a rare example of regional cooperation. And […]

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Op-ed: Rare moments of harmony witnessed in West Bank during snow storm will soon be over Published: 12.16.13 On Sunday I toured the snowy bank. A golden sun was shining, soft and bright, there was barely a tail of a cloud in the sky, the air was crystal clear, and visibility was magnificent – all […]

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MAAN Widespread flooding in Gaza forces thousands to flee homes By Alex Shams BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Gaza Strip was pounded by fierce winds and rain again on Friday as flooding reached dangerous levels in many areas, forcing thousands to flee their homes amid widespread power outages as temperatures plunged into the single digits. The […]

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Jordan to manufacture desalinated water in Aqaba and channel brine waste byproduct to Dead Sea; environmental group questions economics of the deal. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 9, 2013 Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement on a pipeline project Monday in Washington, under which Israel will supply Jordan with freshwater and Jordan […]

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WASHINGTON (AFP) — Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians signed a historic water-sharing initiative at the World Bank in Washington Monday that could protect water resources in the region amid rising demand. The project envisions a new desalination plant at Aqaba as the lynchpin of a sharing deal involving end-users in all three parties to the […]

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AFP After Dutch PM vist went sour because of Gaza related demands, Dutch water company cuts ties with Israel’s Mekorot due to ‘political context’ Dutch water firm cuts Israel ties after tense PM visit After Dutch PM vist went sour because of Gaza related demands, Dutch water company cuts ties with Israel’s Mekorot due to […]

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