'Pollution
killed my men. Now “Israel” must pay'
Yuval
Tamir is all too familiar with the threat of death. He spent two decades as an
“Israeli” naval commando conducting underwater missions along the
Mediterranean shores of enemy neighbours. Yet the chief risk to his life turned
out not to be the Arabs, but the country for whom he fought.
Mr Tamirought today to be in the prime of his life. A lieutenant-colonel in a diving unit, he was the creme-de-la-creme of the “Israeli” military. Yet last year, aged 41, he was forced into retirement after contracting colon and skin cancer.
He has no doubt of the cause: the polluted waters of the Kishon River, on the edge of the industrial port of Haifa in northern “Israel”, where he and his unit trained up to twice a day.
His research has established that 40 other naval commandos who trained in the same place have also developed cancer; of them, 15 have died – a high number for a group that comprises less than 1,000 men. Ten of the local fishermen have also died from ailments which their families believe were caused by the poisonous waters.
The root cause of the plight of these men is a national attitude of arrogance and dereliction in the approach to the environment. For decades, “Israel’s” rush to become an industrial and military power became top priority.
As a result, a clutch of petrochemical plants and chemical factories along the Kishon have used the river as a lavatory bowl. Parts of the Kishon, one of only a few rivers in water-starved “Israel”, are now dead.
Yet the commandos knew nothing of the perils of the river. Mr Tamir has launched a campaign to stop further pollution of the river, and to persuade the “Israeli” military to cover the cost of treatment – which includes regular chemotherapy. "I want them to take care of me," he said, "I went to fight for them without asking questions, so I want them to do the same for me and all the families of the guys who have died."
Lawyers for the local fishermen are preparing a lawsuit demanding compensation.
Under mounting pressure, the “Israeli” government has agreed to an independent inquiry into the cancers. The navy, which says it sharply curtailed training operations in the Kishon at the beginning of the 1990s, has stopped all diving there. One of the big Kishon polluters, Haifa Chemicals, the world's largest potassium nitrate fertiliser supplier, says it is spending $15m over four years to reduce the quantity and toxicity of its effluence. “Israel’s” environment ministry is pressing for funds for a big clean up.
“Israel’s” other major rivers – the Jordan, Yarkon, and Alexandria – are also all heavily polluted. This is all the more shocking given the region's lack of water. “Israel’s” limited reserves (some 2bn cubic metres) have become increasingly inadequate, whittled away by a fast growing population, drought, water-guzzling crops, and profligate misuse.
This summer, after a severe drought last year, the shortage has turned into a full-blown crisis. “Israel” has stopped pumping water from the Sea of Galilee – source of a third of its supplies – because levels have dropped too low. Quantities are also dwindling in its contaminated coastal aquifer, source of another third of “Israel’s” water.
As the levels plummet, so does the water quality; “Israel’s” environment minister, Dalia Itzik, has warned that more than 40 per cent of the water supplies is not fit to drink.
The government has launched an advertising campaign to persuade its citizens to save water. It has dispatched a delegation to Turkey to discuss buying extra water.
However, environmentalists say that attitudes still need to change. "The guys who make decisions in this country from the top on down have always been driven by a model of economic development that looks on resources as something to be exploited rather than preserved," said Dr Elihu Richter from the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health in Jerusalem,, "Their mind-set is 'do it now, don't worry about tomorrow'.
But Mr Tamir is worrying about tomorrow, about whether he will be there to see it.