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The Dead Sea is Dying
Who will save the Dead Sea? Latest studies indicate that the Dead sea level is declining continuously. In the 1960 the level was 392 meter below sea level with a total area of over 1000 kilometer, while now it is 412 m below sea level. The study also indicate that reason for the declining level is the diversion of water coming from The Jordan river by the Israeli government & building of dams. It is estimated that in the next 50 years the Dead Sea will loose 1/3 of its total area. The latest study is suggesting pumping water from the Red Sea. June 21, 2003:Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians are hoping
that world leaders gathered on the shores of the Dead Sea this weekend will back
their efforts to help save the lowest body of water on Earth. Over the past three years the Dead Sea has decreased by three
meters and the whole area is currently one third less than it used to be in the
1960s due to the diversion of the Jordan River water for irrigation, experts
said. A goldmine for potash extractors and a magnet for tourists who come
to bathe in its salty waters, the Dead Sea could disappear in 50 years. To contain the damage, Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian
officials will submit a project to channel water through a canal from the Red
Sea to the Dead Sea, at the weekend meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Saving the mineral-rich Dead Sea was a large-scale project that would not just
happen overnight. The project, which the sides hope to fund through the World Bank
and the private sector, is estimated to cost 1.5 billion dollars. Experts warn
time is running out. “The Dead Sea is now 415 meters (1,366 feet) below sea
level,” according to Jordanian geology professor Elias Salameh. “It is still decreasing because the riparian countries are
using more of the fresh water and the water resources which usually feed it. “The Dead Sea’s fate is clear: it will dry out and shrink to
a very small pool, consisting of very, very salty brine. There is no hope unless
man brings water into it from the Red Sea or the Mediterranean,” he said. According to Salameh, the Red Sea-Dead Sea project is “vital
and essential because it will also conserve the groundwater resources of the
different riparian countries such as Jordan, Palestine and Israel. “I don’t think that nature will assist much because if you
have increasing rainfall then you have five or six percent but that will not
help the Dead Sea,” he said. The geologist also noted that the Dead Sea was hostage to the
industrial and tourism sectors that have mushroomed along its shores, both in
Jordan and Israel. Potash factories and other industries on the southern shores of
the Dead Sea have contributed to the drop in the body of water “and are
causing too much damage to the coastal areas in the form of sink holes”,
Salameh said. Further north, water feeding the Dead Sea is diverted for
agriculture by Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians. “Every riparian country is trying to extract as much water as
possible for its economy which is quite alright but we still have to find a
solution for the Dead Sea,” he said. Salameh warned if the world waited much longer, it would be too
late. Sept. 1,2002: Israel and Jordan announced their largest
joint project ever, a $800 million pipeline intended to save the shrinking Dead
Sea from environmental devastation. Finally
someone is doing something good for the environment. The
level of the sea, shared between the two countries that signed a peace agreement
in 1994, is sinking at the rate of nearly a yard a year and could disappear in a
few decades, damaging tourism in both countries and indirectly draining scarce
water supplies in the region.The two governments hoped to work together to build
a 190-mile-long pipeline from the Red Sea through both countries to halt the
decrease in water level in the Dead Sea.
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