Posted on 08/30/2002 9:43:41 AM PDT by blam
Jordan's plan to save the Dead Sea from dying
August 29 2002 at 02:53PM
Amman - Jordan is hoping to save the Dead Sea from dying completely by channelling in water from its large and less-salty southern cousin, the Red Sea, its water minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Hazem Nasser said Jordan will present a plan to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on Sunday under which it proposes that a canal be built between the two seas to stabilise Dead Sea water levels.
The Red Sea lies about 340km to the south of the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is threatened because the Jordan River, which flows into it, is being overused for irrigation.
Nasser said the plan "aims to preserve the environment of the Dead Sea and maintain its water level" and would be undertaken jointly with Israel, which also borders the world's saltiest sea.
The plan itself was drawn up several years ago but was put on hold after Palestinian-Israeli violence erupted in September 2000.
But informal talks over the plan resumed between Jordan and Israel in July, said Zafer Alem, the head of the Jordan Valley Authority.
Environmental experts have warned repeatedly that the water levels of the Dead Sea were dropping fast as a result of the diversion of Jordan River water for irrigation. The river is the sea's main source of replenishment.
The trend threatens to transform the sea - which lies at the lowest point in the world below sea level - into nothing more than a salt quarry.
"Forty years ago, the surface of the Dead Sea was 392m below sea level. Today, it is at 412m," said geology professor Elias Salameh in 2000.
"If this decrease continues, in 10 years the surface of the Dead Sea will be reduced to 650 square kilometres, whereas it was 1 000 square kilometres at the beginning of the 1960s," he added.
The Dead Sea is popular with tourists, who come to bathe in its waters and cover themselves with its mineral rich sands, both known for their healthy and replenishing effect on the skin. - Sapa-AFP
And the project will cost??? Who pays for it? Are there economic benefits derived from this canal and restoration of the Dead Sea? Just wondering.
This is a plot to keep Jewish anitquities from being discovered, and to flood the whole Jordan Valley including Kinneret with salt water, so as to deny Israel its water supply thus killing Israel for good.
I’m not sure there are any antiques down there. The dead sea has been in its current location for millenia, well before human monuments
According to Talmudic and Midrashic sources, Soddom and Gomora were situated on one huge chunk of bedrock. When they were destroyed, the bedrock flipped over, burying the metropolitan area underneath it. So there would be no structures beneath the Dead Sea.
"In Israel, desalination provides 300 million cubic meters of water per year – about 40 percent of the country’s total water needs. That number will jump to 450 million when Sorek opens, and will hit nearly 600 million as plants expand in 2014, providing up to 80 percent of Israel’s potable water."
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