During the sultry days of July and August, Beit She'an National Park manager Nissim Badus loves wandering among the ruins of the ancient Roman town with his guests. While they mop their sweaty brows, he quotes the third-century Talmudic sage Reish Lakish, who said that if Paradise was in the Land of Israel, Beit She'an was its gateway. This thought makes Badus' guests chuckle, but as they look for a bottle of water or a sliver of shade, he explains, "Look how much greenery is all around. This valley has many springs, flowing with abundant water."

Badus continues to cite other talmudic sources that mention the quality of the wheat and flax grown in the Beit She'an Valley, "all thanks to the quantity and quality of the water here." To this day, the Beit She'an valley is verdant and blossoming, thanks to those springs, but Harod Stream, which flows through the heart of the valley and once fed from the underground springs, no longer flows deep and clear. Motke Krin, a planner for the Southern Jordan Drainage Authority, points to the mill and its two piers, which used to channel the water that powered the flour mill, evidence of the strong current that used to flow here. Advertisement

"The water that flows here today in Harod Stream is sewage, agricultural waste and drainage from fish ponds," says Krin. "Downstream the raw sewage from Beit She'an joins the flow and most of the floodwater is collected in reservoirs, so only in very rainy years is the surplus flow along the stream strong enough to clean it."

Turning point

Harod Stream feeds from the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley, Harod Valley, Beit She'an Valley and the mountainsides of these valleys. The stream is some 35 kilometers long and the drainage basin covers 192 square kilometers. The height differences along the stream are significant, with its highest tributary starting at 500 meters above sea level, on Hamoreh hill in the Gilboa range. Harod Stream eventually empties into the Jordan River at 280 meters below sea level.

Along its upper section, from Afula to Jezreel Spring, the stream always had a very strong current, and flowed year-round from Jezreel Spring to the Jordan, gaining strength as it was joined by springs along the way.

"Ever since the return of Jewish settlers to the valley about 80 years ago," explains Hillel Glazman, head of stream monitoring for the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INNPA), "the sources of sweet water, such as those that feed the Harod Spring, were pumped for drinking water for the residents and the saltier wells, like Sakhne, were diverted for agriculture - field crops and fish ponds."

The fisheries industry in the Beit She'an Valley consumes about 20 million cubic meters of water a year. A few of the streams, such as Hakibbutzim Stream (Migdal) and Amal Stream still have stretches of naturally flowing water, before they are channeled for agricultural use.

In addition to the exploitation of the stream's fresh water, since the 1950s ever-increasing quantities of waste water have been being dumped into the stream. The combination of these factors has led to a deterioration of the stream, the pollution of its waters, a decline in the water level and a sharp drop in the variety of species living in it. Significant steps toward the rehabilitation of the stream only began in the 1990s, with the establishment of the Southern Jordan Drainage Authority and the Harod Stream Administration.

The engineers of the stream's rehabilitation program hope that the plant and animal life will return. Various steps have been under way for the past several years to remove the pollutants from the water. A number of factories have improved the treatment of their waste water and the next essential stage is the construction of a water purification facility for waste water from Beit She'an and the surrounding area - the Beit She'an and Gilboa regional councils. Green organizations hope that the government will allocate the funding required to build the facility, and that it will be operational by 2010.

Return of fresh water

The second stage of the rehabilitation plan will focus on the development of the natural landscape and the return of fresh water to the stream. In the meantime, for a few years now the Drainage Authority has been developing the banks of the stream, with help from the Jewish National Fund, the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Government Tourism Company. Sections of Hakibbutzim and Amal streams, like Harod Stream from Tel Zohara to the west of Beit She'an all the way to the basalt canyon to the east of the city, are hiking and picnicking sites that are well tended and attract over 100,000 nature lovers annually.

"The last stage in the rehabilitation of the stream," explains Krin, "will be the channeling of fresh water into it, in accordance with legislation approved by the Knesset, but this is still a controversial issue whose opponents say it is too costly an investment and that keeping the stream free of sewage is sufficient."

Glazman, however, views this step as essential. "Supplying water to the stream is an inseparable part of its rehabilitation," he says.

A sub-committee at the rehabilitation administration is in charge of the water issue and will have to propose solutions. One such solution involves diverting runoff water to agriculture, to free up spring water for the stream. "We realize we will never recreate the stream's original state," admits Glazman, "but we must guarantee at least a minimum existence for the natural habitats."

Glazman and Krin say that the abundance of water in the springs is declining due to lower rainfall levels and over-pumping by the Palestinians in northern Samaria.

Another idea suggested is the use of water from wells in the Gilboa, whose water has become salty can be pumped to the stream. "The request for water for nature amounts to 8-10 million cubic meters a year," says Glazman, "when 70 million cubic meters used to flow here. We want to return to about 10% in order to rehabilitate the stream's ecosystem."

Still, even though Glazman dreams of 1,200 cubic meters of water an hour flowing down the stream, Krin points out that the water and environmental protection commissioner has approved the infusion of only 600 cubic meters of water an hour to the stream.