By Abeer Numan AMMAN – The water of the Disi basin is not polluted and is potable, Jordanian Geologists Association President Bahjat Al Adwan said on Tuesday, dismissing a report on a news website claiming otherwise. Adwan, speaking to The Jordan Times over the phone, denied claims that the basin water is radioactively contaminated. Adwan […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Old sewage networks in south Amman will be revamped and new pipes installed starting this year to raise the number of households linked to sewage services by 7 per cent, a senior government official said on Sunday. Under a $2.7 million agreement signed yesterday, sewage services in south Amman will […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Land bordering part of the heavily polluted Zarqa River will be turned into a breathing space by the end of the year under a pilot project designed to address one of the country’s main environment hotspots. Under two agreements signed on Tuesday, a 500-metre section of the riverbank will be […]

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May 19, 2011 03:06 AM (Last updated: May 19, 2011 10:40 AM) By Van Meguerditchian BEIRUT: More than 7,000 Lebanese Red Cross volunteers are working to spread humanitarian and environmental values throughout the country as part of a campaign entitled “Hand to Hand to Make a Greener Difference.” The LRC project, which is in partnership […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 05/16/2011 03:49 Notorious garbage dump near Ben Gurion Airport goes green; when finished the park will be three times the size of Central Park in New York City. Talkbacks (2) As 18-wheeler trucks usher in tons of refuse to a waste transfer station abuzz with flies and foul odors, the brown hilltop […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 05/18/2011 04:35 Teams go door-to-door distributing buckets as part of wider environmental project to reduce landfill mass. Talkbacks (2) Waste separation specialists are going door-to-door in Ra’anana distributing small brown garbage cans and teaching residents how to properly separate their wet and dry waste, part of a larger waste separation initiative beginning […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 05/14/2011 23:59 Construction part of an effort to reduce illegal dumping, the IDF Spokesman’s Office says. The civil administration released a progress report late on Thursday detailing the status of two solid waste facilities to be built in the West Bank – El-Minya in Bethlehem and Ramun in Ramallah – in hopes […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Jabal Masouda has been removed from Jordan’s list of proposed protected areas following local community pressure, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) announced on Thursday. According to RSCN Director Yehya Khaled, plans to announce Jabal Masouda – a region near Petra home to locally and internationally threatened […]

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Syria needs to tackle its growing trash problem. By Muhammad Atef Fares Al-Ghozlanieh plant and landfill outside Damascus processes 250 tonnes of waste daily. It is the only place in the country where compostable waste is treated. In recent years, waste management has become an acute problem in Syria. The country’s rapid population growth – […]

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By Simona Sikimic The Daily Star A two-month training drive for Civil Defense and Lebanese Army personnel has now started in earnest to mitigate the risk of the upcoming annual fire season. A two-month training drive for Civil Defense and Lebanese Army personnel has now started in earnest to mitigate the risk of the upcoming […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – As the rainy season comes to a close, storage levels remain disappointing at the Kingdom’s major dams, which hold 44 per cent of their 217-million-cubic-metre (mcm) capacity, an official at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation said on Saturday. Although several recent khamsini depressions have brought heavy rain, storage at […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 05/13/2011 04:57 Even after the most productive April since 2003, Water Authority warns that the country is still in a critical situation regarding water consumption. As the country continues to get inundated with unseasonable rainfall, the Water Authority warns that the country is still in a critical situation regarding water consumption, even […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 05/04/2011 23:38 Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan is thinking globally and acting locally. Before setting off for New York to take part in the 19th United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, which began this week, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan spoke with The Jerusalem Post about his intended contributions to the conference, […]

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By JORDANA HORN 05/13/2011 05:03 Erdan was in New York to discuss sustainable development, but used his time at the podium to respond to speeches attacking Israel. Talkbacks (1) NEW YORK – Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan on Wednesday slammed Arab states for hurling invective at Israel during a meeting in the UN General Assembly. […]

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BEIRUT: Caretaker Water and Energy Minister Jibran Bassil emphasized Friday the need to rehabilitate the Zouk power station by halting its operations for a minimum of nine months, a move which would increase power rationing by five hours per day. According to Bassil, the plant supplies no less than 25 percent of the total electricity […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – The Ministry of Environment will start today a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of fumes emitted by vehicles, in a bid to curb air pollution, a senior government official said on Saturday. The two-month campaign aims at raising motorists’ awareness about the importance of protecting the environment by […]

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By TOVAH LAZAROFF 05/12/2011 06:14 Human rights group says big disparity in amount of natural resources allocated to settlers versus to Palestinians in these regions. The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea are the two West Bank regions most exploited by Israel, when one compares the amount of natural resources allocated to settlers versus […]

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AMMAN (Petra) – The Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) on Wednesday defended its decision to build a military academy in the forests of Ajloun, stressing that it has altered blueprints to limit the number of uprooted trees. According to a JAF statement released yesterday, blueprints have been “drastically” altered to limit the uprooting of any trees […]

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Forests constitute less than one per cent of Jordan’s total area. This relatively small area is constantly decreasing due to factors like climate change, urbanisation, illegal logging and fires. If authorities and the public cannot do much about climate change, they can do a lot to control the three other elements. Now that the hot […]

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May 11, 2011 02:09 AM (Last updated: May 11, 2011 08:40 AM) By Mohammed Zaatari The Daily Star BEIRUT: Activists in Baabda and residents of eastern Sidon are up in arms about mounting environmental problems and are urging the authorities to step in to provide solutions. Sidon residents, frustrated with mounting piles of trash and […]

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