page_title: Yarkon River
section_title: State of Israel
hierarchical_section_title: Yarkon River / History / State of Israel
caption_attribution_description: Nuphar lutea carpet in upper Yarkon, Israel
context_page_description: The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River, is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon is at Tel Afek, north of Petah Tikva. It flows west through Gush Dan and Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park into the Mediterranean Sea. Its Arabic name, al-Auja, means "the meandering". The Yarkon is the largest coastal river in Israel, at 27.5 km in length.
context_section_description: The river became increasingly polluted after the 1950s, many blaming this on the construction of the Reading Power Station which is situated near its mouth.
  When the river's headwaters were diverted to the Negev via the National Water Carrier for irrigation purposes, the state of the Yarkon declined. As sewage replaced the flow of fresh water, habitats were destroyed and flora and fauna disappeared. This was exacerbated by continuous discharges of industrial effluents and municipal sewage into the rivers, which allowed algae to multiply. On July 14, 1997, the infamous Maccabiah bridge collapse led to the death of four athletes, three of which died due to infections caused by exposure to the polluted river water. Subsequent and ongoing cleanup projects, some government-run, some benefitting from financial aid from Jewish donors from Australia, and some with regional character supported by the NGO FoEME, helped improve the quality of the water.
caption: Nuphar lutea carpet in the upper Yarkon river.
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