A very sad story from the Guardian on the state of the Jordan River.
Once it was the mighty Jordan river, a crossroads of civilisations and continents, and a favourite of pilgrims seeking baptism in its waters. Now just about the only thing that flows for large parts of the year, keeping the river alive, is sewage.
Decades of competition for water have turned the lower Jordan river, running between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, into little more than a drainage ditch.
Dams and pumping stations have diverted almost 90% of the river's water to leave parts of the surrounding valley and the Dead Sea on the brink of ecological disaster.
