The local committee this week approved the placing of containers on a surface near the Kishon bank, the Kishon River Authority will appeal
A new initiative threatens the destruction of the southern bank of the Kishon stream: the construction of a 95 dunam container yard.
The Haifa Local Planning and Construction Committee approved this week (22.3) the use of a complex established near the bank of the Kishon River for the purpose of storing containers. This is a huge area of 95 dunams on which the Israel Ports Company established storage docks despite strong opposition from the Kishon Stream Authority and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Watch the visualization - the park downstream of the Kishon river and the threat of the containers. Mr. Michael Lubovicov, for the Nahal Kishon Authority:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSAL4VPR7eQ
Nahal Kishon has been undergoing conservation and restoration in recent years. The Kishon River Authority is headed by CEO Sharon Nissim. Opposing her are powerful forces with conflicting interests:
The polluting factories, which are motivated to hide sporadic incidents of pollution.
The Port of Haifa and the Israel Ports Company (Hanai) who have recently been trying to take control of the open areas around the creek. They are interested in allocating the area for storage of containers near the port (operational rear). In the previous round, Chanai's request to store stone deposits on the banks of the creek was rejected. Now there was a move in which the local committee for planning and construction approved an "extraordinary use" that allows the storage of containers on the banks of the stream. The local committee for planning and construction is controlled by the municipality of Haifa and its head, Mr. Yona Yahav.
Apparently, a situation arose in which The Haifa municipality is jeopardizing the future of the Kishon project in making this decision.
system "live here" closely follows the developments. We will try to bring here all the related news as well as interpretations.
The Kishon River Authority believes that placing tens of thousands of containers next to the banks of the river will cause severe damage, ecologically and scenically,
In the most sensitive area of the Kishon stream, damage to habitats as well as its attractiveness for recreational uses.
In Hani they say - "We own the territory":
According to the Israel Ports Company (Hani) the complex is owned by it and NIS 75 million was invested in its development, it is not included in the areas declared as part of the Kishon River strip and the Kishon Park. Hani claimed that preventing the use of the complex for container storage would be a significant economic damage to the city's economy and the port's operations, And now the surface will allow storage of 100 thousand containers. According to her, "the area was unused".
The Kishon River Authority says - "a significant deviation from the zoning of the area":
The Kishon River Authority, on the other hand, claims that the claim that the complex is owned by Hani is incorrect. Also, storing containers is not a temporary use, but rather a significant deviation from the area's zoning, so a request for an unusual use should not be approved. The authority also claims that the Israel Ports Company is in contempt of a judicial decision by not complying with the appeals committee's requirements Take back the fence she built and return the situation to its original state - and do not grant TL to those who do not uphold the law.
According to the Kishon River Authority, Hani did not comply with previous decisions of the committee, which required as a condition the preparation and implementation of a landscape plan for the surface.
The Kishon River Authority intends to file an appeal against the local committee's decision.
The director of the Kishon River Authority, Sharon Nissim, told Lahi Pa:
"In light of the reservations of the two members of the sub-committee for planning and construction, the final decision will be brought before me
Haifa City Council Plenum. The Kishon River Authority will wait for the decision of the plenary session and will consider the continuation of its steps, including the courts. The Israel Ports Company uses the salami method, a dunam and another dunam. Hani did not wait for the approval of the Kishon Park plan according to TMA 13/b/1 for Haifa Ports and it takes over the area, thus putting pressure on the local committee to flex its conditions, an assumption that the Nahal Authority's willingness turns out to be correct.
200 professors and senior academics joined the struggle for
Conservation of the Kishon River and its surroundings
Academics signed a petition calling on the Minister of Finance, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Transportation and Road Safety, and the Minister of Construction and Housing (who is in charge of the Israel Lands Administration) to maintain the lands downstream of the Kishon River as an area open to the public, to do social justice and to protect the rights of the public and future generations.
More on the same subject:
A request to write letters for the Kishon. will be delivered centrally to the government ministers
Senior researchers from all the universities in Israel have joined the struggle led by the Kishon River Authority and the environmental organizations: Haim and Environment - the roof organization, the Society for the Protection of Nature, Adam Teva and Din, Magma Yerok, Shetil, Haredim for the Environment, the Coalition for Public Health.
The petition calls on the ministers to support the demand to preserve the environment downstream of the Kishon River, a rare natural resource and a green lung in the industrialized Haifa Bay and to develop a park for the benefit of the general public and to oppose the agreement to transfer rights in Haifa Bay lands along the downstream of the Kishon River, from the State Authority, the Israel Lands Administration, to the Israel Ports Company (Han J).
The area of the dispute, east of Kishon Park - the natural development area of the park:
In the petition, he stated that the future of the Kishon River, as a natural area, is threatened by the lease agreement to Hani. The academics called for leaving the decision on the rights to the land until the decisions of the planning institutions on the zoning and uses of the land in Haifa Bay and to allow for balanced decisions that also take into account the needs of future generations .
There are alternatives in the area for the areas that Hani requires for the establishment of a harbor front and container areas, while the Kishon stream and its surroundings have no substitute.
According to Sharon Nasim, CEO of the Kishon River Authority: "In recent years, many resources have been invested in the restoration of the river and its surroundings and it must be prevented from becoming a container warehouse. The ecosystem in Kishon is being restored following the activities of the Kishon River Authority and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the public's right to enjoy the fruits of the restoration must be preserved."
According to Ella Alexandri, director of activities of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Haifa: "I am happy that senior academics have joined the call to preserve the Kishon as a green and open area. The Society for the Protection of Nature will continue and fight for the preservation of natural resources as a public asset today and for generations to come."
An article in YNET on the subject:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3921967,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Academics against placing 100,000 containers in Kishon
Minister of Science and Technology at the Nahal Kishon Authority
The Minister of Science and Technology, MK Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkovich, during his visit to the Kishon stream, expressed his commitment to the restoration of the stream and the development of the area for the public's welfare.
Recently, Minister Daniel Hershkovich visited the Nahal Kishon Authority together with the senior staff and his advisers to the ministry, Zion Yarom, Yossi Dolinsky and Asher Litbek. As part of the visit, the CEO of the Kishon River Authority, Sharon Nissim, and the chairman of the board, David Tatarsky, presented the authority's activities for the restoration of the river and the facts about the biological diversity found in it, after which there was a cruise along the river.
In his words, the minister emphasized the importance of natural resources in the State of Israel, especially when it comes to a solid stream such as the Kishon, which is an ecological, touristic natural resource and is a green lung.
Regarding the conflicts between the preservation of the river and the plans of the Israel Ports Company and the Municipality of Haifa to establish storage areas for containers next to the river, Minister Hershkovich stated "When talking about containers, since they do not need the nesting areas of the turtles and birds, logic says that it is easy to find solutions without harming nature." He also added that "today science is very sensitive to damage to nature and is aware of the existing complexity."
The minister expressed his overwhelming support for the restoration work and the development of the area "As far as this depends on me and it comes to legislative matters, I am committed to Kishon."
According to the CEO of the Kishon River Authority, Sharon Nissim, "The Kishon River Authority raises at every opportunity the need and importance of preserving the banks of the Kishon River for the benefit of the public and I am glad that the government ministers are mobilizing in favor of this important goal."
Photo: Gil Gutman, Nahal Kishon Authority
A good article about the Kishon, from Zeman Haifa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxKK1z9TtM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmhNX9uek0s
Biodiversity event in Nahal Kishon
The United Nations declared the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. To mark this, the Kishon River Authority held an event this week (June 15.6.2010, XNUMX) in which the importance of the habitats and the variety of species that are already present in the recovering Kishon River, thanks to the restoration and conservation procedures carried out by the Kishon River Authority, were presented and emphasized In cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
At the event that took place in the Kishon Park near the fishing dock, in the capacity of the Minister of Environmental Protection, MK Gilad Erdan, there were present academics from the Technion, Haifa University and Tel Aviv University, members of green, civic and social organizations, industry people and officials in the government ministries and senior representatives of the local authorities in the area , including the mayor of Nesher, Mr. David Amar, the head of the Zevlon Regional Council, Mr. Dov Yeshuron, the mayor of Kiryat Yam, Mr. Shmuel Siso and more.
The event opened with a guided walking tour along the banks of the river and continued with a professional conference. Many of those present at the event expressed their surprise at the variety of birds and birds that were seen on the tour held for the invitees before the gathering.
The event was opened by the CEO of the Kishon River Authority, Mrs. Sharon Nissim, who emphasized the importance of preserving the stretch of the river as the last green area in the Haifa Bay. After that, speeches were made by the chairman of the authority's management, Dr. David Tatarsky, and the CEO of Haim and Environment, Mr. Naor Yerushalmi.
The Minister of Environmental Protection, MK Gilad Erdan, spoke and emphasized the importance of restoring the Kishon River and also expressed his support for the protection of the area downstream of the river and its preservation as an area open to the public, while ensuring the restoration of the rich ecosystem found there.
According to Minister Ardan, "The Kishon River is the most extreme case in Israel's rivers because it was blatantly exposed to industrial and toxic pollution, therefore I am the Minister of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Environmental Protection see it as the most important and central environmental challenge in the restoration of the rivers because it is our ability to demonstrate to the general public how with the right thinking it is possible to become a hazard environmental to a resource for the benefit of the general public".
In the context of the development of the Kishon River Park for the benefit of the Haifa public, in the face of the port's hinterland development plans in the areas adjacent to the river's route, The minister said that "the biggest threat to Nahal Kishon is not the historical pollutants because we can deal with them. Today, the real threat to the Kishon comes from the most unexpected place you can imagine, the Haifa Local Committee and the Haifa Municipality..."
Editor's note watch In the controversial vote in the local committee
The moment of the vote - the coalition betrays one person. Photos
The minister expressed his hope that the disputes will be settled in favor saying that "we must not make such a terrible mistake and destroy the only chance that there may be to develop the stream and a sustainable park that will give the public an opportunity to return and enjoy the stream. This will be an irreversible mistake that cannot be corrected, but at the end of logic and reason They will win."
The scientific highlight of the evening was the lecture by Prof. Avital Gazit, winner of the Minister of Environmental Protection's 2010 environmental excellence award, an award he won for his pioneering work in the research and restoration of Israel's streams. Prof. Gazit, who has accompanied the Kishon River Authority for many years as an ecological consultant, talked about the importance of biodiversity for human well-being and emphasized the need to preserve "the pearl of the Kishon" is the appendix branch, which is the remnant of the historic Kishon salt marsh and is under the pressure of developing the areas behind the port, which is planned Israel Ports Company.
In his lecture, Gazit presented the progress of the restoration of the stream in terms of the diversity of species that develops over the years and the health of the stream, which was in the past extremely poor in all its parts and now in certain parts of the Kishon, is even better than that measured in most coastal streams in Israel.
The festive event marks the momentum in the activities of the river authority in recent times. The achievements of the rehabilitation are presented in the current reports on the Authority's website and are available to anyone who requires and is interested.
The Kishon River Authority is fighting in various courts against the realization of the threats to the open public space, in order to preserve the rare and unique natural resource for the public in Haifa and the Bay Area.
The authority invites the general public to come to the river, to walk and relax along its banks.