Posted on 11/03/2003 9:03:22 PM PST by repentant_pundit
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Dead Sea is dying, and only a major engineering effort can save it, Israel's Minister of the Environment said Monday.
The Dead Sea gets its name from its heavy salt content, because no aquatic creatures can live in it. Now there's a new ``death threat'' - the Dead Sea is drying up and disappearing.
An Israeli TV reporter, illustrating the government report, stood on a spot where, just 20 years ago, water met land. Now that point is 2,000 feet of parched ground away, he said, as the sea gradually recedes.
Because it is landlocked in a hot desert area, evaporation is high, accounting for the dense salt concentration that allows bathers to float above the water with no effort. The area is popular for spas and treatments, with luxury hotels on both sides.
For millennia, the balance was maintained by the Dead Sea's only water source, the Jordan River, pouring in from the north. In recent decades, however, both Israel and Jordan have been tapping in to irrigate large swaths of agricultural land along the narrow river that divides the two countries, robbing the Dead Sea of its replacement water.
A five-year drought has added to the woes of Dead Sea, which occupies the lowest point on Earth, 1,320 feet below sea level. The sea is about 38 miles long and about 11 miles wide.
The Israeli study said that without an intensive engineering effort, the sea's water level will continue to recede by as much as three feet per year, adjacent ground water will disappear, surrounding land will buckle and collapse, and nearby wildlife and vegetation will be lost.
Environment Minister Yehudit Neot said she would ask the Israeli Cabinet to hold a detailed discussion on the study's conclusions.
``If the conclusions are not implemented, there is a real danger to the future of the Dead Sea as a world class natural resource,'' Neot said.
The Environment Ministry study said that to secure the sea's future, engineers would have to develop a new infrastructure of bridges and roads leading to its shores. It recommended that resources be applied only in places where remedial engineering efforts would be successful, suggesting that many areas are already beyond repair.
Plans to use the difference in elevation between the Dead Sea and other bodies of water might also help solve the problem. The latest idea is to build a channel between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea, with waters rushing downhill driving electricity power stations.
The water pouring into the Dead Sea from the south would counter the deterioration, but environmentalists warn that water from the Red Sea is salty, while the Jordan River supplies fresh water, and this could have adverse consequences.
However, the Red Sea-Dead Sea channel project is still in planning stages, and experts say it might be prohibitively expensive.
The Dead Sea is dying, LOL.
Aaargh -- you stole my thoughts!
Guess the environmentalists will attribute this to global warming.
The article said that Israel and Jordan use the Jordan River to irrigate crops.
I wonder what happened to the idea of creating a channel in Egypt to bring water to the Qattara Depression (2nd lowest point on earth). This might be a way of moderating the climate in the Egyptian desert.
Think about it - no body of water, no rain to the east.
So explains the desert.
Put the water back, the rain returns - and the Pyramids are again in a tropical forest.
What would it take to do this?
A twenty-eight mile pipe.
The water pouring into the Dead Sea from the south would counter the deterioration, but environmentalists warn that water from the Red Sea is salty, while the Jordan River supplies fresh water, and this could have adverse consequences.
Someone help me out here. What adverse consequences could come from pouring salt water into a body of water too salty to support life?
I had the same thought. Perhaps the introduction of salt water feed where the supply had been fresh water would cause the salinity of the dead sea to increase dramatically, possibly even making a saturated solution so that the bottom of the dead sea would be salt sludge. Of course, if it has no outflow and loses water 100% by evaporation, then the salt sludge is inevitable anyway.
I like the idea of using its elevation to refill it via pipeline, but it obviously requires a far more detailed engineering study before deciding that the project is viable or makes sense.
The palestinians don't want it. That kills it.
And don't ask why, it's none of anyones business
Jordan Accepts Palestinian Reservations Over the Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal
www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2004/Jun/02/19741600.htm
Dead Sea Shore, June 2 (Petra-Jorrdanain Press Agency)--Deputy president of the Water Authority in the Palestinian National Authority, Fadil Kaoush told Jordan News Agency, Petra, that Jordan accepted the Palestinian reservations over the implementation of the Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal project.
These reservations are related to the legitimate rights of Palestinians in water, which should not be ignored when implementation the project.
Kaoush noted that Israel, which does not recognize the rights of Palestinians in the Dead Sea, say that the Palestinians could only benefit from water that would be desalinated once the project is implemented.
He revealed that a specialized technical committee will hold meetings in Israel next week with the participation of Jordan, Palestine and Israel.
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Huh? Pump, divert, channel, fresh water into the Dead Sea so you can go through the hassel and expense of de-salinating it? For the Pali's?
Defies logic doesn't it.
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