Nablus to Nablus, from Nuisance to a Natural and Scenic Resource in Nablus Stream

Nablus Stream is one of five cross-border streams, originating in the Judean mountains and Samaria. The stream, which serves as the main channel of Alexander Stream which flows through Emek Hefer (Hefer Valley), suffers from continuous pollution from municipal, industrial and agricultural wastewater. The pollution harms the quality of the stream’s water and the surrounding ecosystem along its entire length, to where it flows into the sea. The stream’s pollution is a serious nuisance harming the water resource shared by both Israelis and Palestinians – the mountain aquifer water, used for drinking and agriculture.

The project “Nablus to Nablus” located within the territory of the State of Israel, offers a sustainable solution for treating the wastewater originating in the Palestinian Authority and turning it from a nuisance a pollutant to a resource for the residents of Emek Hefer. The project includes two hydrological systems that will operate side by side for the restoration of the stream. The first, the restoration of Nablus Stream by creating an eco-hydrological cross-section with retention basins next to it, which will help regulate runoff water and prevent flooding; the second, the establishment of the new Zimra Stream, a perennial stream of treated wastewater, an artificial system of green basins that will be established in order to improve the quality of the treated wastewater flowing from Yad Hanna Wastewater Treatment Plant,  using nature-based solutions, such as vegetation and gravity. This system will improve the quality of the water and bring it to tertiary purification, which will allow using it for agricultural irrigation, enhancing biological diversity, and restoring the marshy landscape that once characterized Emek Hefer. In addition, a 15-km-long circular route will be established around an ecological core, between the two streams and the green basins that together create a humid habitat and an ecological park with local vegetation for the general public, a site for leisure, recreation and education activities.