Yarkon River

The Yarkon is the principal perennial stream flowing almost entirely within Israel and marks the division between the Plain of Sharon to the north and the coastal lowlands to the south.[6] Together with the Kishon, it is one of the Mediterranean coastal plain’s two streams identified as having permanent water flows.[7] Its basin became a center of modern Jewish settlement, while its lower course became part of the expanding urban landscape of Tel Aviv.[1][8]

Rising near Tell Aphek and Rosh Ha-Ayin, the river runs west toward the Mediterranean.[1] Its course is approximately 26 kilometers in geographical reference accounts, while a 2018 Israeli government map gives a length of 28 kilometers.[6][9] It passes near Rosh Ha-Ayin, Petah Tikva, Hod HaSharon, Ramat HaSharon, Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv; the Nofarim Pool near the Rosh Ha-Ayin springs is identified as its starting point in a detailed account of the river.[2]

The Yarkon springs are connected to the Mountain Aquifer, whose westward flow reaches both the Yarkon and Taninim springs.[10] Principally replenished by rainwater, that aquifer extends from the foothills of Mount Carmel to the Beersheba Valley and from the Judean and Samarian Hills toward the Mediterranean.[10] Seasonal watercourses forming part of the Yarkon drainage system extend eastward into the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[6] They include the Shillo River in the east and the Ayalon in the southeast; some geographers regard the Shillo as a boundary between historic Judaea and Samaria.[6]

Other tributaries include Naḥal Natuf, also known as Wadi Deir Ballūṭ, entering from the north, and Naḥal Aijalon, or Wadi al-Muṣrā, from the south.[1] A sandy spit bars the river at its outlet, although it was navigable for some distance in ancient times.[1] Heavy rains can also make the river a source of flooding: at the beginning of 1992, the Yarkon and Ayalon overflowed their banks, closing roads and flooding many homes in low-lying parts of the coastal plain.[11]

The Yarkon, also called Me-Yarkon, appears in Joshua 19:45–46 among places on the boundary of the tribe of Dan.[1] The biblical name is generally identified with the river subsequently known in Arabic as Nahr al-ʿAwjā.[1] Its Hebrew name derives from the root yarok, meaning “green,” in reference to the color of its waters, while the Arabic name means “the tortuous river.”[1] In the Mishnah it is called Me-Puga, after the Greek name of Tell Aphek, where it rises.[1]

Ancient navigation supported a port and storage center at Tell Qasile, approximately three kilometers inland on the north bank.[1] The difficulty of crossing the river also shaped overland travel: the Via Maris was diverted to pass Tell Aphek, contributing to that site’s importance.[1] The river thus functioned both as a transport corridor and as an obstacle across the coastal plain.[1]

At different times, the Yarkon served as a boundary between the territories of Jaffa, Philistia, and Judea.[1] Alexander Yannai fortified its line against a southward advance by a Seleucid army, and remains of those fortifications have been found at several locations in Tel Aviv.[1] The battle of al-Tawwāḥīn was fought on its banks in 885.[1]

Its changing names reflected the settlements and political geography around it.[1] In early Arab times it was called Nahr Abu Fuṭrus, a name associated with Antipatris at Tell Aphek; during the Crusader period it was known as the River of Jaffa, or Flum de Japhe.[1] The first accurate mapping of the river was undertaken by Jacotin in 1799.[1]

In 1878, religious Jews seeking to establish an agricultural settlement purchased 3,400 dunams near the Yarkon and the Arab village of Mulabbis, after Ottoman authorities refused approval for their original land plan near Jericho.[12] The resulting settlement, Petah Tikva, experienced disappointing harvests and malaria.[12] By 1882 it contained only ten houses and 66 residents, and worsening health hazards led its inhabitants to abandon it.[12]

New immigrants associated with the Bilu movement settled there in 1883.[12] Edmund Rothschild provided money to drain nearby swamps, enabling citrus cultivation and helping the settlement grow.[12] The wider Yarkon basin subsequently became a center of Jewish settlement that included Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, and Tel Aviv, with communities using river water for irrigation and other purposes.[1] An attempt to harness the river for electricity generation was abandoned.[1]

In a personal family account, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recalled his great-grandfather’s connection to the malarial valley beside the river, describing settlers’ departure after contracting malaria and a return led by his great-grandfather in 1882.[13] Sacks associated the name Petah Tikva with the biblical transformation of a “valley of trouble” into a “gateway of hope.”[13] This family recollection connected the settlement’s hardships with a religious language of renewal.[13]

The river was also a military crossing during World War I.[6][1] Allenby’s army crossed it in 1917, marking the culmination of the first British campaign in Palestine, and the river was the scene of important British victories over the Ottoman Empire.[6][1] Over subsequent decades, Tel Aviv expanded north beyond the Yarkon, developing residential and commercial districts outside the city’s earlier extent.[8]

The first Maccabiah took place on the Yarkon’s banks in spring 1932, with a stadium constructed for the event.[3] Large crowds watched athletes who had traveled to Palestine from numerous countries.[3] The riverfront consequently formed part of an international Jewish sporting gathering before the establishment of the State of Israel.[3]

The Second Maccabiah stadium stood at the Yarkon estuary.[14] Participant Rivka Rabinowitz recalled the procession moving from Tel Aviv toward the beach and stadium, remembering the surrounding landscape in stark terms: “The entire area was empty, it was all just sand dunes.”[14] Her recollection preserves an image of the river mouth before the later expansion of the surrounding urban area.[14][8]

A shallow-draft port was built at the river mouth during the prolonged 1936 strike by Arab port workers in Jaffa.[6] It was abandoned after World War II.[6] Until the 1950s, the river itself remained a pleasant stream frequented by boaters, while residents also walked, swam, and rowed along stretches including the Seven Mills area.[6][15]

During the opening ceremony of the 15th Maccabiah in 1997, a bridge over the Yarkon collapsed. Four people were killed and dozens were injured.[14] A court attributed the disaster to serious negligence by the bridge’s engineers and contractors, and five people were convicted of causing death and injury by negligence.[16] Published accounts differ over the respective roles of drowning, infection, naturally occurring fungus, and pollution in the deaths and illnesses following the collapse.[17][18]

The Yarkon–Negev pipeline opened on 19 July 1955 as Israel’s largest irrigation project to that date.[19] Funded largely by the Jewish Agency, it served the expansion of towns and agricultural settlements during the large immigrant influx of the 1950s.[19] The project’s historical account describes nearly three billion gallons of fresh water carried annually from the Kinneret to 200 new towns and settlements.[19]

Diversion of the Yarkon’s freshwater supplies from 1955 onward sharply lowered its water level and increased pollution.[6][4] Water from the Rosh Ha-Ayin springs was captured for the Yarkon–Negev project, while sewage replaced much of the river’s natural flow.[15][17] A 2011 account reported that the springs had supplied approximately 25,000 cubic meters per hour until the late 1950s, after which spring water was pumped for drinking-water use.[20]

The loss of freshwater damaged habitats and caused plant and animal life to disappear.[4] Industrial effluent and municipal sewage compounded the effects of diversion: nutrient-fed algae consumed oxygen, further harming surviving river life.[21] A 2010 report stated that less than two percent of the Yarkon’s original flow reached the sea.[17] Another historical estimate placed earlier annual rainwater flow through its channel at about 100 million cubic meters.[22]

The decline affected different stretches differently.[1] An account of the river described running water remaining near the eastern sources, substantial seawater influence in the west, and drastic drying of the riverbed after diversion.[1] Even after a dedicated river authority was established, pollution continued.[1] A sewage-treatment system failure in summer 2017 again demonstrated the river’s vulnerability, leaving hundreds of dead fish visible in the water.[2]

The Yarkon Authority was established in 1988 to improve the river’s condition, bringing together representatives of 19 organizations and local authorities.[4] Its responsibilities included cleanup, restoration, and development for leisure and recreation, with sailing, fishing, and swimming among the intended activities.[4] These objectives did not mean that all river sections subsequently became suitable for swimming.[23]

Early rehabilitation work removed hundreds of tons of garbage to restore depth and natural flow.[4] Banks were cleaned and reinforced, hiking and cycling paths established, and trees and other vegetation thinned.[4] Monitoring and biological pest-control methods included gambusias and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, commonly abbreviated BTI.[4] Cleanup remained an ongoing task: river crews were later reported to remove between dozens and hundreds of truckloads of waste annually, using machinery as well as hand collection.[2]

The central section posed particular difficulties because neighboring Kfar Sava, Hod Hasharon, and Ramat Hasharon discharged approximately 25,000 cubic meters of effluents into it.[4] The Kfar Sava–Hod Hasharon sewage-treatment plant opened in 1996, followed by the Ramat Hasharon plant in 1999.[4] Cleaner water and fish returned after those facilities began operating.[4] Dredging, bank reinforcement, and recreation paths accompanied the sewage-treatment improvements.[21]

In January 2003, the government approved a restoration plan with a reported budget of approximately NIS 85 million.[24] It called for improved water quality, pollution prevention in the upper river, and riverbank development for recreation and leisure.[24] Funding was to come from local authorities, the Jewish National Fund, the environment ministry, and other government ministries.[24] The Greens criticized the plan for not addressing pollution entering from the Ayalon River.[24]

By 2011, a restoration program led by the river authority with approximately 18 local and government authorities and other bodies had invested tens of millions of shekels over the preceding decade.[25] Water passed through planted “green basins,” intended to assist treatment, provide habitat, and offer protection against failures at wastewater-treatment plants.[25] Swimming remained prohibited despite reported improvements in cleanliness.[25] A 2018 government publication identified the Yarkon and Kishon as examples of rehabilitated rivers, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested, and continuing to be invested, in their combined cleanup projects.[9]

The Clean Yarkon plan reported in December 2023 addressed potential pollution from wastewater-treatment plants, agricultural runoff, drainage outlets, industrial zones, and other sources.[26] Proposed holding areas would delay runoff and help reduce flooding, while coordinated water-management measures sought to replace treated wastewater with freshwater.[23] The planned freshwater supply from local wells would rise from 14–15 million to 22 million cubic meters annually.[23][26] Participating bodies included the Water Authority, Mekorot, the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Nature and Parks Authority, and planning representatives.[23]

The plan also proposed reusing water extracted before it reached the lower river for urban gardening and agriculture.[26] At the time, two-thirds of the river was described as still unsuitable for swimming.[26] The measures were therefore proposals for further improvement, rather than evidence that the river’s water-quality problems had been eliminated.[26]

A 2023 water-management account divided the Yarkon into three sections according to water quality.[23] The upper section extends from the springs near Yarkon National Park and Nofarim Pool to the confluence with Nahal Kaneh near Hod HaSharon, receiving freshwater from Mekorot wells.[23] Earlier reporting described this cleaner upper stretch as approximately seven kilometers long.[20]

The middle section runs from the Nahal Kaneh confluence to Seven Mills in Tel Aviv, mixing freshwater with treated wastewater.[23] A 2011 description placed Seven Mills at roughly kilometer 16 of the river’s course.[20] The lower, or “salty,” section extends from the Seven Mills dam to the Mediterranean, combining water arriving from upstream with seawater.[23] It forms a broad channel through Ganei Yehoshua before reaching the sea.[20]

Reported uses depend on these differences.[23] In the 2023 account, treated wastewater in the middle section permitted boating and incidental water contact, but sustained contact such as swimming was described as dangerous, and the water was unfit to drink.[23] These were conditions reported at that time, not a guarantee of safety throughout the river.[23]

Historical monitoring illustrates the variability of water quality.[18] Beneath Tel Aviv’s Ibn Gvirol Bridge, a sample on 15 January 2023 registered 77,000 bacteria per 100 milliliters, compared with 16,000 on 11 December 2022.[18] The reported indicator system classified readings above 10,000 as red, 4,000–10,000 as blue, and below 4,000 as green.[18] Winter sampling occurred monthly, and the information was supplied to boaters assessing water-contact risks; these figures are historical measurements rather than current readings.[18]

Flora and fauna returned to a restored 7.5-kilometer stretch of the Upper Yarkon near Rosh Ha-Ayin.[4] The river and its banks support native fish, softshell turtles, birds, mammals, and insects.[2] Conservation work also reintroduced the blue water lily and native Yarkon bream, both described as having approached extinction.[18]

The recovery of the Yarkon bream involved a captive-breeding program at Tel Aviv University.[27] Drought and water extraction for irrigation had damaged the habitat of this fish, which is found only in Israel.[27] Approximately 120 of the last wild fish were taken into captivity, and 9,000 laboratory-born fish were subsequently released into restored habitats in the Yarkon and other Israeli rivers.[27] Following a substantial population increase, its IUCN status improved from “extinct in the wild” to “vulnerable” in 2014.[27]

A detailed account using the name Yarkon bleak describes an endemic fish of Israeli coastal streams belonging to the carp family, with a maximum reported length of 12 centimeters.[5] It disappeared from the middle Yarkon between Nahal Kaneh and Seven Mills after pollution spread there.[5] By 1999, only a few hundred remained in the surviving upstream population.[5]

The Yarkon Authority, Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and Tel Aviv University transferred fish to artificial ponds for reproduction.[5] Initial reintroductions in 2002 achieved only partial success, but protected breeding ponds at the Yarkon springs, with recreated natural conditions, supported the establishment of thousands of young fish from 2005 onward.[5] A later survey found the fish back in the middle section about 50 years after its disappearance.[5]

The recovery effort accompanied a government decision to allocate water for nature conservation, returning about two to three percent of the springs’ natural flow to the river.[5] The middle section received spring water alongside treated wastewater passed through green basins, and fish and invertebrate populations became established there.[5] These gains nevertheless coexisted with continuing concerns over ecological condition and water cleanliness.[18]

Fishing near the Yarkon’s mouth provided livelihoods that were harmed by river pollution.[28] In 2009, 72 fishermen brought a class-action suit against Sano Bruno’s Enterprises Ltd. and the Hod Hasharon municipality over pollution that killed and contaminated fish.[28] The case linked environmental damage to the economic interests of people working on the river.[28]

An environmental-liability study estimated total damage at approximately NIS 13 million, including NIS 1.176 million in lost fishermen’s livelihoods and NIS 11.094 million in lost nature and recreation benefits for visitors.[28] Those figures were estimates adapted from earlier studies of similar harms, not a survey conducted specifically for that study or a reported court award.[28] The fishermen’s claim represented less than ten percent of the estimated overall damage.[28]

Downstream, Yarkon Park serves as a “green lung” for approximately two million inhabitants of the Dan metropolitan region.[4] The Yarkon River Master Plan proposed a continuous network of parks and open spaces, supported by hydrological and ecological research into water requirements, natural processes, and the sensitivity of different river sections to development.[4] In a literary essay, the Jewish Review of Books portrayed the river’s urban setting through its park, bicycle paths, and a bridge decorated with lovers’ locks, while also calling the waterway a “polluted canal.”[29]

Tell Aphek, near the river’s springs, and Tell Qasile, on its north bank approximately three kilometers inland, connect the Yarkon with ancient travel and commerce.[1] Aphek’s importance reflected the difficulty of crossing the river elsewhere, while Tell Qasile contained an ancient port and storage center associated with navigation along the river.[1]

The restored Upper Yarkon park near Rosh Ha-Ayin includes historic sites, picnic grounds, playground equipment, fishing docks, and riverbank vegetation.[4] Farther downstream, Seven Mills marks the division between the middle and lower water-quality sections and belongs to a river landscape historically used for walking, swimming, and rowing.[15][23]

The Abu Rabah flour mill was established in the late nineteenth century and fitted with two modern German turbines in 1913.[30] Following the Ottoman retreat and destruction of Yarkon bridges in 1917, it gained importance as the river’s only crossing.[30] Its milling operation ended in 1959.[30] Along with the ancient sites, parks, and former port area, the mill preserves a distinct part of the river’s history as a working waterway.[1][30]