Locals and holiday makers who love the beautiful Gordon Beach will have to leave their bikinis at home.
Contaminated waters off Gordon Beach and Charles Clore Beach in Tel Aviv are stinking up plans to get the summer fun started. Leaked sewage has forced the municipality to shut down the beaches, and signs have been posted discouraging bathers from entering the polluted water.
Considered one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in Israel, Gordon Beach recently received a major thumbs up from the Environmental Protection Ministry’s Blue-Green Flag campaign. An initiative launched to monitor beaches throughout Israel, the campaign awards a 0 to 3 ranking for beaches according to their cleanliness, accessibility, and popular appeal.
Gordon Beach received a 3, while Charles Clore Beach received a 2. Both beaches are likely to score much lower when officials next inspect the beaches. These visits occur every two weeks.
A similar incident in 2009 caused Tel Aviv beaches to shut down for a month. In separate incidents, two “conservative” beaches have also been closed as a result of storm damage.
The city explained to the Jerusalem Post that the Nordau and Aviv beaches popular among Israel’s Orthodox Jews sustained major damage following a violent December storm last year. Renovations began in April and are expected to be complete some time in July.
The municipality will announce when holiday makers and sun-loving locals can return to a blue (not brown) Mediterranean Sea.
:: JPost
More on Water Contamination in the Mediterranean:
NATO’s Steel Fish to Protect Med from Oil Spills
Lebanon Pours the Country’s Sewage Into the Sea
Lebanon’s Mediterranean Apocalypse: Scuba Diving in Water Devoid of Life
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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