Wetlands Lost and Found in the Levant - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 54

adopted strategy in nation building where the first step is to attack and control
water resources as an act of sovereignty (e.g., Norway, on obtaining independence
from Sweden, put Europe's most popular waterfall into a pipe for hydropower gen-
eration; and Quebec, which has its own independence dreams, has concrete plans
to turn James Bay into a freshwater lake by diking it off from Hudson Bay and then
using two nuclear reactors to send the water to southern California for profit). In
short, grandiose (and often environmentally insensitive) water-engineering projects
and nation building are often linked together in hubris. The drainage of the Hula
swamps became a major tourist attraction for the new Israelis, and donations from
Jews around the world were given to help drain the swamps (M. Ukleas, personal
communication).
Today, all that remains of the once extensive Lake Hula are the vestigial wet-
lands in the nature reserve and the small wetlands restoration projects. The pre-
dominant land use is agriculture (Figure 6.2) through which the Jordan River makes
its way, resembling not so much the majestic river of biblical fame as rather a mod-
ern insignificant drainage ditch which is largely filled with reclaimed wastewater
(Figure 6.3).
As a result of drainage, agriculture did flourish, but for only a time. One hun-
dred and nineteen animal species were lost to the region, of which thirty-seven were
totally lost to the country (Hambright and Zohary 1998). Also very troubling is the
fact that the one-time dwellers of the swamps, the indigenous marsh Arabs (who had
had no role in the 1948 war with Syria), were “removed” or left on their own when
their environment was destroyed.
The Hula Nature Reserve, an area of 4 km 2 , was saved in 1964 as a token
museum piece of what once was the extensive marshes. The lobbying by dedicated
environmentalists to save this vestige led to the birth of the Israeli conservation
movement.

FIGURE 6.2 Conversion of the historic Hula wetlands to agricultural fields.