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2019 ended with a big win for the Kishon river. After a long public battle, the plan to establish the Kishon Park in Haifa Bay has finally been approved.

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The Kishon river is one of the longest and most important rivers in Israel. The outstanding natural wealth of the Kishon basin and mouth, where the river meets the sea, are unique in Israel and are a source of local identity and pride. The Kishon river also has tremendous importance for conservation: its broad riverbeds and the river views of the “Lagoon” area and the “Appendix” are part of its ancient route and are the last remnants of a unique landscape comprised of shallow lagoons that intermittently flood with the tide. It is also one of the last, fast-disappearing coastal salt flats in Israel.

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The Kishon river has suffered from serious pollution (its tributaries, the Saadia and the Gadara, remain polluted). The Israeli government, through the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Kishon Drainage Authority, and the Kishon River Authority, have invested and continue to invest large sums of money, totaling hundreds of millions of NIS, to restore the river and to remove and treat contaminated sludge from its riverbed. However, plans to create a park were opposed by the Israel Port Authority (IPA), which wanted to earmark part of the area for containers arriving from the Haifa Port. After a protracted public battle, the IPA’s request was rejected, and in September 2019, the plans for the park were granted validation—the final stage in their approval.

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SPNI is now calling on the Haifa Municipality and the Israeli government to invest the resources required so that the public can benefit from the park’s establishment, the Kishon river’s ecosystems can be restored, and contamination of its tributaries can be prevented.

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For a long time, Israel has suffered from severe water shortages. However, in recent years, Israel has desalinated large quantities of seawater, and, thanks to this, has been able to avert the water crisis. The desalination of seawater provides a window of opportunity for us to halt the trend of destruction of Israel’s rivers. 

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Around a year ago, the Israeli government approved a plan to restore the natural flow of seven rivers in the north of the country, at a cost of over 80 million NIS. This followed our long-standing work with decisionmakers, which included laying out an achievable vision for restoring rivers. Our vision includes the following principles: sustainable management of natural water resources, releasing and restoring springs, establishing criteria for groundwater extraction, adopting an eco-hydrological approach, and changing the management structure responsible for managing rivers.

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In the past year, as a result of the Knesset’s dissolution and the resulting political turmoil, there has been a delay in implementing the plan. We continue to lobby the government to implement its pledge to restore water to eight coastal rivers.

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Educating the Next Generation of “River Guardians”

For a number of years now, SPNI has worked with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Drainage Authorities to develop and run the “River Guardians” educational program. Under the program, dozens of student groups are undertaking projects involving various rivers and streams across Israel. The program helps communities develop a connection to their local rivers, the local natural resources, and their environmental heritage. The program promotes environmental responsibility in a variety of ways, including through a river rehabilitation project.

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Communities Advocating for Rivers

We support local residents and activists taking public action to rehabilitate and improve rivers and other bodies of water. Our work in this area includes an ongoing project to rehabilitate the Taninim river, led by a group of local activists and supported through extensive educational activities at SPNI’s Hof HaCarmel field school.

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We are particularly proud of our work this past year in Golden Park in Kiryat Shmona. There, students from Kiryat Shmona’s Rambam School undertook field activities as part of an integrated sustainability education program run by the Ministries of Education and Environmental Protection, and led by staff from our Eastern Galilee Field Studies Center. The students learned about the amazing river that runs through their “backyard,” took part in research projects, and even carried out some impressive clean-up work. Their activities attracted the attention of the local community, and we partnered with the Kiryat Shmona Local Council and the Ministry of Environmental Protection to organize a large public event celebrating their work.

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In the upcoming year, we plan to increase our efforts by:

• To raise public awareness about the importance of rehabilitating Israel’s springs and rivers on a national and a local level;

• To obtain consent for the eco-hydrological management of river basins;

• To transform Israel’s Drainage Authorities into River Basin Authorities;

• To implement an effective treatment system for cross-border river pollution, which begins in Judea and Samaria and pollutes local and coastal rivers as well as mountain and coastal aquifers;

• To restore the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s role as a leader in river rehabilitation, under the Rivers’ Law;

• To empower Israel’s Drainage Authorities to be major players, while strengthening the environmental aspects of their work, under the Drainage Law;

• To continue our work with communities to rehabilitate rivers and streams.