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Commendable initiative

Apr 27,2015 - Last updated at Apr 27,2015

One hundred fourteen US and Canadian mayors of major cities on the North American continent decided to take action to save the Jordan River from imminent “death”, aware that the international community is oblivious to the dire condition of this historic river.

The mayors recently signed a memorandum of understanding in Chicago, in the presence of Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian officials, purporting to rehabilitate the river and revive it after decades of neglect.

The volume of water in the Jordan River has dropped considerably over the years, due in no small part to Israeli diversions of its water to Lake Tiberias.

The river is now heavily polluted with raw sewage from various sources, making a mockery of the sacred waters.

The main victim, after the river itself, of course, is the Dead Sea since less and less water from the river reaches this body of salty water that is in dire need of tributaries to restore its fast-dwindling level.

The Jordan River is a very important religious site, the place where Jesus Christ was baptised, and if only for this reason, the world should not sit idle by, indifferent to its fate.

Jordan has been working to restore and bring life to the Baptism Site by encouraging various Christian denominations to construct churches at the site, and by laying vital infrastructure at the place.

It is now an important centre where worshippers from all over the world congregate; quite recently, it received the illustrious presence His Holiness the Pope.

An immediate task to help the river is to clean it up and stop the sources of pollution.

Then, the international community needs to monitor the amount of water allocated to each of the riparian countries, to ensure that all get a fair share and that no abuses occur.

The river is a patrimony of humanity that all have the duty to preserve for future generations.

The concerned mayors took the initiative, but it is the duty of all mankind to work to make it successful.

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