Is the Dead Sea Dying?

There is a battle among Jordan, Israel and the Palestini­ans over how to rescue the bib­lical and environmental treasure, the Dead Sea.  However, three things are certain in this life; death, taxes and conflicts in the Middle East.  According to ABC News the dead sea is “evaporating and shrinking.” Progress to refurbish the sea is slow because of the intertwining of disputes and suspicions, but the snail’s race is on!

1. It mystifies us because it is at earth’s lowest point, 1300 feet below sea level.

2. It is the closest to all the deep earth’s minerals.

3. It has salt cakes on its shoreline like unto snow drifts!

4. The Dead Sea has three times more salt that the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

5. It is 10 times saltier that the great Mediterranean sea.

6. It is interlinked throughout the Bible, Jericho, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah.

7. Its future is problematic: It has retreated by estimates of three feet a year for the past 25 years.

8. Jordan and Israel warn that if the tendency continues, it will vanish by 2050 along with its only one of a kind ecosystem.

9. The reasons for its decline are several: river diversions, mineral extrac­tion, and with natural explanations, like evaporation.

10. The Jordan river flows into the dead sea, but its overuse and diversions just compound the problem. 

The situation is very critical. This urgency is brought clearly in focus by the presence of sinkholes, a natural but dramatic side effect of diminishing water levels. These pits open suddenly and may be more than 100 feet deep. Scattered huge holes already dot the vegetable fields.

After Jordan and Israel signed peace in 1994, they began think-tanking ideas to save the sea. A major plan is to drain some water from the Mediterranean (about 50 miles to the west). This project was tabled because of cost. The next goal was to expand water levels by piping in water from the Red Sea, but the conflicts among Israel, Palestine and Jordan have held up most of the progress. However, the magnitude and urgency of the crises may force them to cooperate!