http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/israels-solution-to-restore-dead-sea/2007/05/11/1178390554760.html
Israel's 19th-century solution to restore Dead Sea Ed O'Loughlin May 12, 2007 THE road along the western shore of the Dead Sea threads between the scenic cliffs of the Jordan rift valley and the diamond-blue waters of the world's lowest and saltiest lake. Or at least, it did when it was built in the 1970s. Today, a wide expanse of mudflats up to a kilometre wide stretches from the road to the seashore, evidence of a recent rapid fall in water level. The shore of the Dead Sea is the lowest dry place on earth, 418 metres below sea level, but with 90 per cent of the River Jordan's feed waters siphoned off for human use, it is sinking more than a metre each year. The sea's surface area has shrunk by a third since the end of the 19th century, when it reached a historical high of minus 390 metres. The mudflats are not only ugly but dangerous. Fresh spring waters leach pockets of dissolved salt out of the subsoil, creating huge caverns that can collapse into sinkholes without warning. Plans to build tourism projects on this treacherous shore have been shelved, while existing ventures battle to keep up with the receding waters. Kibbutz Ein Gedi, a resort at the northern end of Israel's stretch of the shore, constructed a 1.5-kilometre miniature railway to connect its spa - built on the shore 20 years ago - with the lake. To save the Dead Sea from drying further, some in the Israeli Government are trying to revive a plan with roots in the great canal-digging days of the late 19th century. With former prime minister Shimon Peres in the lead, Israel is again talking about digging a 160-kilometre canal to bring Red Sea water from the Gulf of Aqaba to recharge the Dead Sea. According to the "Red-Dead Canal" proposal, the 400-metre descent from Eilat/Aqaba to the Dead Sea could also be used to generate 800 megawatts of hydroelectricity and power the world's biggest desalination plant. And by siting a big infrastructure project - estimates range from $US3 billion ($A3.6 billion) to $US5 billion - along the Jordanian-Israeli border, the canal would form part of an "economic peace channel". But some environmentalists, economists and scientists are already picking holes in the plans backed by the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities. At a conference in Jerusalem this week organised by Friends of the Earth Middle East - a cross-border environmental group - some Israeli Government scientists said there were concerns that earthquakes and flash floods, which are common in the rift valley, would cause sea water from the canal to pollute fragile desert groundwater. Experiments suggested that the introduction to the Dead Sea of sea water only one-tenth as concentrated would lead to unsightly and foul-smelling algal and bacterial blooms, while differences in the chemical composition would probably lead to the formation of gypsum in the mingled waters. The environmental group is pushing for solutions that would involve the restoration of the Jordan River - now little more than a sluggish sewer - to increase the amount of fresh water reaching the Dead Sea. This, however, would require curbs on the intensive agriculture carried out on both sides of the river, which uses heavily subsidised water to produce crops for domestic and foreign consumption. "I think there is a consensus on the need to restore the Dead Sea, but there are many opinions on how to do this," said Munqeth Mehyar, the Jordanian director of the group. Dr Yaakov Garb, an environmental scientist at Israel's Ben-Gurion University, said the way in which the authorities were framing the problem suggested they were determined to push through the proposal. "There's something in this for everyone. The Jordanians get desalinated water without having to pay for it. The Israelis get a big infrastructure project along the Jordanian border, which stabilises things," he said.
