Red Sea water may not save drying Dead Sea

Deutsche Welle News
Ruth Krause
March 13, 2015

Link to the article

This article explains how human exploitation of the Jordan River has now resulted in a quickly drying up Dead Sea. If the water continues to evaporate at the rate it is now, which is a meter annually, the Dead Sea will be all but gone by 2050. While this in itself is not anything new (talks have been going on for over 10 years), this article is written to commemorate the fact that Israel and Jordan have signed the agreement to cooperate in an effort to create a pipeline from the Red Sea and save the Dead Sea. This is the most significant agreement between the two nations since 1994 and will hopefully bring peace to the area. However at the same time the article gives the statements of some of the environmental groups in the area which say that the creation of the pipeline will not only do nothing to solve the problem as there won't be enough water to combat the fast evaporation; the side effects of mixing Red Sea water with Dead Sea water far outweigh any possible gains.

A member of said environmental organization named Arbel fears that the mixing of waters from the 2 distinctly different regions will upset the ecosystem of the Dead Sea (which is actually not all dead) by introducing large amounts of gypsum from the Red Sea, which is used in fertilizer, plaster, and blackboard chalk.

Nevertheless plans to build this 180 kilometer long pipeline are soon to be underway. Initial figures suggest that this pipeline will be pumping out 300 million cubic meters of water a year and will cost over 800 million euros. However not all of the 300 million cubic meters is going to the Dead Sea. Only 90 million cubic meters are actually going to the Dead Sea whilst the other 210 million cubic meters are intended to be used by Israel and Jordan for irrigation, clean water, and other necessities.

While 90 million may sound like a big number, it should be noted that this is only 13% of what is required to prevent the declining water level. Environmental groups say that the decline of the Dead Sea would be better prevented by better using the Jordan River. This river which used to run into the Dead Sea has now had over 90% of its water diverted by Jordan, Israel, and Syria.  Though there are no talks in that area, the effort and resources put in by the two nations suggest that there is still hope for the Dead Sea.

I personally think that this article gives a very detailed overview of the problem with the Dead Sea. It presents the viewpoints of both the government side and the side of the environmental organizations. However the article does not give any names for the environmental groups and does not provide any qualifications for the people who are against the pipeline project which I find strange. The article does give us background information of the issue and provide statistics, which when paired with helpful images gives us a much clearer representation of the situation. In my opinion I do not think that Israel and Jordan are doing enough to help the problem with the Dead Sea. In this case I'm agreeing with the environmentalists; their money would be better spend on better managing the Jordan River instead of finding complicated and advanced alternatives that may upset the ecological balance of the Dead Sea. However I also think that it is commendable that issues such as these are being brought forward even with the hostilities that have existed between Israel and Jordan, and I think that bring issues like these to peoples attention can serve to help prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.



Bibliography
http://www.dw.de/red-sea-water-may-not-save-drying-dead-sea/a-18284472
http://www.dw.de/image/0,,18285130_401,00.png
http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/os4f554a96.png
http://files.shroomery.org/files/11-22/732512651-gypsum_water_and_verm.jpg