For Dead Sea, a Slow and Seemingly Inexorable Death

[Pirate Smile]

For Dead Sea, a Slow and Seemingly Inexorable Death

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A01

EIN GEDI, Israel -- When the Ein Gedi Spa opened in 1986 to pamper visitors with massages, mud wraps and therapeutic swims, customers walked just a few steps from the main building to take their salty dip in the Dead Sea.

Nineteen years later, the water level has dropped so drastically that the shoreline is three-quarters of a mile away. A red tractor hauls customers to the spa's beach and back in covered wagons.

"The sea is just running out, and we keep running after it," said Boaz Ron, 44, manager of the resort. "In another 50 years, it could run out another kilometer," or more than half a mile.

It may sound redundant, but the Dead Sea, one of the world's cultural and ecological treasures, is dying. In the last 50 years, the water level has dropped more than 80 feet and the sea has shrunk by more than a third, largely because the Jordan River has gone dry. In the next two decades, the sea is expected to fall at least 60 more feet, and experts say nothing will stop it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051802400.html

[lenidog]

1. There is a tough problem to solve

I mean what do you do? The population keeps growing and you need water for them and you happen to be in the middle of a desert. The only thing I can think of it that Syria, Israel and Lebanon can invest in water desalinization plants.

[okoboji]

2. the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan is another one that is drying up

At one time it was the 4th biggest inland sea in the world, in just 40 years time, it has gone to the 8th biggest inland sea.

For those that care to read more on the Aral Sea disaster, here is a great web-site:

http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/