'Should stop baptism on the holy river'

An environmental protection organization in the Middle East has called on people to stop carrying out a ritual of purification on the Jordan River because the level of water pollution here could be dangerous to health.

Religious believers come to the Jordan River every year to purify.Photo: greenprophet.com.

'We call on officials in the area to ban people from performing the baptism ritual downstream of the Jordan River until the water quality is up to the standards for tourism' , AFP quoted the statement of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) - an organization founded by environmentalists from Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

AFP said that FoEME's call was made after newspapers reported that the Israeli Ministry of Health recommended the Ministry of Tourism to prevent people from bathing or performing a baptismal ritual in the Jordan River because it could harm to health.

The Jordan River stretches from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea with a length of 217 km. Its branches pour into Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank. Christians believe that Jesus experienced the ritual of purifying with water in this river about 2,000 years ago. In recent years, Jordan River water has become more and more dirty due to increased wastewater and reduced clean water. Today its width is only a few meters.

Despite the heavy pollution of the Jordan River, several thousand Christians still come here every year to perform the ritual of purification. Meanwhile Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the river bank - a total of about 34,000 people - dump their garbage daily.

FoEME's announcement said that because Israel, Syria and Jordan both exploited the flow of the Jordan River, it took up to 98% of the clean water. Meanwhile, untreated wastewater, agricultural waste, salt water and fish pond water continuously increase over time. If the situation continues, FoEME worries that the river will run out in 2011.

Jordan and Israel both affirmed the location where Jesus baptized under the Jordan River about 2,000 years ago in their territory. So both countries encourage building hotels and infrastructure to attract tourists and religious believers.