Some experts believe the saltiest sea on earth will dry out by 2050, while others predict it will just end up a fraction of its current size.
By Linda Givetash
AMMAN, Jordan — At the southern tip of the Dead Sea, Sameer Mahadin recalls when the shoreline was visible from the shaded veranda of his farmhouse. The once 10-minute walk to the water’s edge now takes an hour trekking over cracked, salt-encrusted soil.
The Dead Sea is dying rapidly. The biblical body of water lying between Israel and Jordan is retreating by more than three feet a year, creating sinkholes that swallow up buildings and roads, and forcing the rich seaside landscape on which the tourism industry relies to fade into memory.
It is the saltiest sea on earth. Some experts believe it will be gone by 2050, while others say it will never fully disappear but survive at a fraction of its current size.
But after two decades of discussions about how to resurrect the Dead Sea, there is a glimmer of hope but with a huge price tag: a $1.5-billion project to build a desalination facility in Jordan to transform Red Sea water into drinking water, while pumping the remaining salty brine into the Dead Sea.
Meetings to finalize the technical details and its design are expected within weeks — a major step forward for the project.
There are references to the Dead Sea in the Old Testament and the Quran, making it significant to Christians, Jews and Muslims. One of the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, were found in the region, and a section of the Jordan River about six miles north of where it flows is also considered the baptism site of Jesus Christ.
The sea is not disappearing without vengeance, though, as roughly 6,000 sinkholes have formed.
“Even the devil is not here,” said water management and environmental engineer Eshak Alguza, as the parched earth that was once underwater crunches and shatters like breaking tiles beneath his feet.
The heavy price of sinkholes has become apparent both in Jordan and on the sea's Israeli side.
At least two of the Israel's beaches and one tourist resort have closed, while parts of Highway 90 have vanished into the earth.
Residents in the community of Ein Gedi have turned into activists, demanding assistance as they watch the land crumble around them. “They feel that their government has abandoned them,” said Clive Lipchin, director of the Transboundary Water Management Center at the Arava Institute in Israel.
There are a multitude of reasons contributing to the decline of the Dead Sea, ranging from damming to mineral extraction. The region’s combative politics are stirred into all of them.
"This is a man-made catastrophe," said Alguza, who is a project manager with EcoPeace Middle East, a nongovernmental organization that works with Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian officials.
The sea is fed by the Jordan River and other smaller waterways. Ali Subah, general secretary of Jordan’s water and irrigation ministry, said the flow of the Jordan River has dropped by more than 90 percent from its recorded peak.
The river has been diverted by Israel upstream, while Syria built dams along the Yarmouk River, substantially cutting off the flow that converges with the Jordan.
Data from Jordan’s water ministry shows that rainfall in eight of the 10 years from 2004 to 2014 were below average in volume, depriving rivers and aquifers that rely on it.
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