[ti:Jordan River Water Levels Continue to Decrease] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.40]The Lower Jordan River is extremely important [00:05.48]to many people around the world. [00:08.28]But the once powerful river has decreased [00:12.36]– a result of conflict, competition, [00:15.44]and a changing climate over many years. [00:19.32]Visitors come to the river from all over the world. [00:23.92]Many are driven by religious beliefs to touch the river's water. [00:29.04]The Bible says Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. [00:33.72]But the river has also been the center of conflict. [00:38.12]Part of the river was once a dividing line [00:41.84]between Israel and Jordan when they fought each other. [00:45.92]River water separates Jordan from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, [00:51.00]seized by Israel in a 1967 war. [00:56.24]Yana Abu Taleb is the Jordanian director of EcoPeace Middle East, [01:02.24]an environmental group that brings together Jordanian, [01:06.12]Palestinian and Israeli activists. [01:09.52]Abu Taleb said this about the river: [01:13.04]"It's a victim of the conflict, definitely. [01:16.52]It's a victim of people, because it's what we did [01:20.36]as people to the river...and now adding to all this [01:24.76]it's a victim of climate change...it's a victim in every way." [01:30.28]EcoPeace has said that the Lower Jordan River, [01:34.12]which runs south from the Sea of Galilee, [01:37.24]is threatened by many years of water diversions [01:40.80]for agriculture and development , as well as pollution. [01:45.72]Only a small percentage of its historical water flow [01:50.40]now reaches the Dead Sea to the south. [01:53.60]That is one reason the Dead Sea has been shrinking. [01:57.88]The river's eastern bank, modern-day Jordan, [02:01.96]and its western one both have holy places, [02:05.84]where religious events take place. [02:08.56]The river holds further importance as the scene of miracles [02:13.52]in the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible. [02:17.96]Rustom Mkhjian is director general [02:21.56]of the Baptism Site Commission in Jordan. [02:24.92]In a talk with the Associated Press, he said: [02:29.36]"Every year we celebrate interfaith harmony, [02:32.76]and among my happiest days in my life [02:35.48]is days when I see Jews, Christians [02:38.84]and Muslims visit the site and the three of them cry." [02:43.68]EcoPeace Middle East has been urging cooperation [02:47.16]between sides that have reasons [02:49.36]to get as much water from the river as possible. [02:54.40]Gidon Bromberg is the group's Israeli director. [02:58.52]He said, "Any fresh water left in the river [03:02.20]would have in the past been seen as empowering the enemy. [03:06.60]... You take everything that you can." [03:09.96]Bromberg added, "There's legitimate need for the water. [03:14.32]..But the conflict creates an incentive to take everything." [03:18.72]The result is that the Lower Jordan's yearly flow into the Dead Sea [03:24.48]was estimated at 20 million to 200 million cubic meters. [03:30.24]That is much less than the historic amount of 1.3 billion cubic meters. [03:37.20]That information comes from a report published in 2013 [03:42.08]by a U.N. commission and a German federal institute. [03:47.44]Bromberg puts the current number at no more than 70 million cubic meters. [03:54.12]"Israel, from a historical perspective, has taken about half the water, [04:00.36]and Syria and Jordan have taken the other half," Bromberg said. [04:05.44]He added, "The pollution that's coming into the river [04:09.08]is coming from Jordanian, Palestinian [04:12.00]and Israeli sides and a little bit also from Syria." [04:17.36]Water use in the Jordan River basin is unevenly developed, [04:21.84]the U.N.-German report said, adding that the Palestinians [04:26.28]can no longer access or use water from the Jordan River itself. [04:32.60]Syria does not have access to the river [04:35.72]but has built dams in the Yarmouk River sub-basin, [04:39.84]which is part of the Jordan River basin, it said. [04:43.84]For Palestinians in the West Bank, [04:46.96]the only way to see the Jordan River [04:49.92]is to visit the Israeli-run baptismal site there, [04:53.28]said Nada Majdalani, EcoPeace's Palestinian director. [04:59.52]"The Jordan River in the past, for Palestinians, [05:03.04]meant livelihoods and economic stability and growth," she said. [05:08.24]The river's decline, she added, [05:11.32]is especially disappointing to elderly Palestinians [05:15.20]"who remember how the river looked ... and how they used to go fishing, [05:19.72]how they used to have a dip in the river." [05:22.60]Bromberg said EcoPeace has been documenting the river's condition. [05:28.80]"From a Jewish tradition, you know, the river [05:31.92]and its banks are a place of miracles," he said. [05:35.80]"Well, it doesn't reflect a place of miracles in its current...state." [05:42.40]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM