Filed under: Travel and Vacation, Activism, Climate Change
The Dead Sea is truly a unique body of water, serving as a religious, cultural and tourist attraction for thousands of years. However, the salt-heavy body of water is approaching a disastrous point in its life with almost a third of its surface area being lost in the last 30 years. Between diversions for agricultural and domestic use, mineral mining nearby and just plain evaporation, the Dead Sea's current situation is threatening both the economic development of the area and the sea's uniquely sensitive ecosystem.In an effort to fix what's already been broken, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the World Bank are joining forces to create a project that will divert the water from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea. This $15 billion "Red-Dead" project will restore water levels to the ailing Dead Sea, but will also bring with it more problems then you can imagine. Not to mention the seemingly trivial affect this would have on the area's tourism, by essentially turning the clear blue Dead Sea waters red, but introducing water of a different density and composition may drastically alter the very thing engineers are trying to save. Mixing the Dead Sea's calcium-rich water with the sulfate-rich water of the Red Sea would create a surface layer of gypsum.Other alternatives include a water pipeline from Turkey, building a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea and simply rehabilitating the existing sea at a much lower cost, both short term and long term. This tends to make us wonder if there will soon be wars over water, instead of oil. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments


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