Jordanian officials rejected as baseless on Tuesday, claims by environmentalists that pilgrims who immerse themselves in the Jordan River risk catching serious disease due to high pollution levels in the biblical river.

Officials from the Baptism Site Commission moved quickly to quell fears that the waters cause skin diseases, insisting that hundreds of thousands come to be baptized every month without effects on their health.

Dia Al-Madani, director of the Baptism Site Commission, said the government conducted tests on samples of the Jordan River to find that pollution is within accepted levels. They revealed the findings at a press conference held at the site.

"Test results showed that the water of the river is safe for pilgrims and couldn't be harmful as has been alleged," he said on the banks of the Jordan River.

"Tens of thousands of pilgrims have been baptized in this place since 2002 and we have never received any comments about pollution or any health problems caused by its water," he said in remarks to The Jordan Times.

Madani said most water used to baptize people is purified in a special plant before being pumped back to the river. He insisted that children are only baptized in clean water used by priests.

Environmentalists from Friends of the Earth Middle East have recently warned that the depletion of the Jordan River by countries on its shores, along with the dumping of sewage, had raised the concentration of disease-causing pollutants in the river to dangerous levels.

According to the group, the river contains high levels of coliform bacteria, a group of microorganisms including E. coli that serve as a standard indicator of water and food sanitation.

The river, shared by Jordan, Israel and Syria, has lost much of its water after these countries, mainly Israel, diverted its tributaries for agricultural and industrial use.

Environmentalists also complain that run-off and sewage are having a detrimental impact on life in the river.

They claimed that pilgrims immersing themselves in the Jordan risk rashes, stomach upsets, or even polio.

Priest Feras Hijazin from Hebron brushed off these claims, saying many visitors come regularly to be baptized.

“We are not concerned about what is being said about the riverة we will still come to be baptized or renew our faith,” he said after helping a number of Italian tourists immerse themselves in the waters.

Maan News