River Jordan, Jordan - 1963 Transjordan stamp surcharge issue

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  The River Jordan in Jordan
• Publisher:  Joseph I. Bahous & Co.
• Postally used:  yes?
• Stamp:  1963 Surchage issue 25f on 35f blue (SG544)
• Postmark(s):  not franked [either not posted or escaped franking]
• Sent to:  Oriel Colleg, Oxford, England
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Jordan River (American English) or River Jordan (British English) (Hebrew: ??? ????? Nehar haYarden, Arabic: ??? ??????? Nahr al-Urdun, Greek Iordà nes, ???d????) is a 251-kilometre (156 mi)-long river in West Asia flowing to the Dead Sea. Israel and The West Bank border the river to the west, while Jordan lies to its east. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan takes its name from this river.

The river has significance in Judaism and Christianity, it being the site where the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land and where Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John the Baptist.

Tributaries

• The Hasbani (Arabic: ????????? Hasbani, Hebrew: ???? Snir), which flows from Mount Lebanon.
• The Banias (Arabic: ?????? Banias, Hebrew: ????? Hermon), arising from a spring at Banias at the foot of Mount Hermon.
• The Dan (Hebrew: ?? Dan, Arabic: ?????? Leddan), whose source is also at the base of Mount Hermon.
• The Iyon (Hebrew: ???? Iyon, Arabic: ????? Dardara or ?????? Braghith), which flows from Lebanon.

The river drops rapidly in a 75-kilometre (47 mi) run to swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Exiting the lake, it drops much more in the 25 kilometres (16 mi) down to the Sea of Galilee. The last section has less gradient, and the river meanders before entering the Dead Sea, about 422 metres below sea level, which has no outlet. Two major tributaries enter from the east during this last section: the Yarmouk River and Zarqa River.

Its section north of the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: ???? Kinneret, Arabic: Bohayrat Tabaraya, meaning Lake of Tiberias) is within the boundaries of Israel, and forms the western boundary of the Golan Heights. South of the lake, it forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan (to the east) and Israel and The West Bank (to the west).

In 1964, Israel began operating a dam^{[citation needed]} that diverts water from the Sea of Galilee, a major Jordan River water provider, to the National Water Carrier. Also in 1964, Jordan constructed a channel that diverted water from the Yarmouk River, another main tributary of the Jordan River. Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouk's waters. Environmentalists blame Israel, Jordan and Syria for extensive damage to the Jordan River ecosystem.^[2]

In modern times, the waters are 70% to 90% used for human purposes and the flow is greatly reduced. Because of this and the high evaporation rate of the Dead Sea, the sea is shrinking. All the shallow waters of the southern end of the sea have been drained in modern times and are now salt flats.

Small sections of the Jordan's upper portion, near the Sea of Galilee, have been kept pristine for baptisms. Most polluted is the 60-mile downstream stretch - a meandering stream from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Environmentalists say the practice has almost destroyed the river's ecosystem. Rescuing the river could take decades, according to environmentalists.^[2] In 2007, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) named the Jordan River as one of the world's 100 most endangered ecological sites, due in part to lack of cooperation between Israel and neighboring Arab states.^[3] The same environmentalist organization said in a report that the Jordan River could dry up by 2011 unless the decay is stopped.^[4] The flow rate of the Jordan River once was 1.3 billion cubic metres per year; as of 2010, just 20 to 30 million cubic metres per year flow into the Dead Sea.^[4] For comparison, the total amount of desalinated water produced by Israel by 2012 will be about 500 million cubic metres per year.

The waters of the Jordan River are an important resource to the dry lands in the area and are a source of conflict among Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians which began with 1951 Syrian border clashes.^{[citation needed]} Mediation by the Eisenhower administration failed because Arab states would not agree to diverting 33% of water to Israel while only 23% originated there.^{[citation needed][5]}

For Israel the Jordan, including the Yarmouk, supplies 40% of its fresh water,^{[citation needed]} of which 70% is used in agriculture, while 80% of the water derived from renewable resources of the mountain aquifers in the region are also used by Israel.^[5]

The National Water Carrier Project was begun in 1956^{[citation needed]} and completed in 1964; it combined all previous water projects^{[citation needed]} and delivered water to the dry Mitzpe Ramon^{[citation needed]} in the south. Soon after, Syria and Jordan decided to exploit and divert the Jordan water at the source. The diversion works would have reduced the installed capacity of Israel's carrier by about 35%, and Israel's overall water supply by about 11%.^[6]

In April 1967 Israel conducted air raids into Syria to halt this work, and two months later the Six Day War followed.

The use of Jordan River's water as a vital regional resource was a cause of the war^{[citation needed]} per Ariel Sharon, who said,

People generally regard June 5, 1967, as the day the Six Day War began. That is the official date, but in reality it started two and a half years earlier on the day Israel decided to act against the diversion of the Jordan River.^[5]

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: rest of the world

sub-theme=middle east

county/ country=jordan

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=posted