The Environmental Protection Ministry will call on the government to set a target below which the level of the Dead Sea will not be allowed fall, because, in the words of ministry Director-General Galit Cohen: “Business as usual is not an option” for the rapidly diminishing sea.
The ministry has been working as part of an interministerial group on the future of the shrinking Dead Sea that is being coordinated by the Prime Minister’s Office and is due to report in the coming weeks.
The ministry led discussions within this framework on the long-term perspective that the state should take about the unique sea at the lowest point on Earth, which is well-known for keeping bathers afloat because of its high slat level.
“The most important thing is to determine a target for stabilizing the level,” Cohen told the Times of Israel. “Business as usual is not an option.”
The ministry won’t recommend a figure; they prefer to leave that to a professional team.
The Dead Sea is currently located at minus 436m (1,430 feet) below the sea level. It is decreasing by approximately 1.10 meters (3.6ft) each year.
Galit Cohen, Director General of Environmental Protection Ministry. (Haim Zach / GPO)
Cohen stated that the only way to stabilize and maintain the Dead Sea, which has shrunk by half in the past decade, would be through an agreement with Jordan, which is located along the eastern shore.
She stated that if Israel decided unilaterally to divert less water from the Jordan River to the Dead Sea (there aren’t plans to do so), Jordanians would oppose it as they are so dehydrated.
The Jordan River used 1,200 million cubic meters (MCM), of water to supply the Dead Sea. However, with Syria, Jordan, Israel and others diverting most of it for water and agriculture, only 50 to 100 MCM reach the saline ocean today. Water from streams from the east and west have also been diverted.
Cohen explained that the pumping of mineral extraction companies on both the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea is responsible in part for approximately 50 centimeters (20inches) of the 1.10m annual drop in the level.
A view of the Dead Sea. Its height is falling dramatically due to severe drought on April 20, 2021. (Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP)
Annual evaporation is currently causing the loss of approximately 700 MCM. This used to be higher when the sea had a larger surface.
For comparison, Israel’s desalination plants supply a total of 600 MCM yearly.
Cohen, who has been dealing with the issue since 2000 when she joined the ministry, was asked how additional water could be made available for the Dead Sea. She said that water would have to come from different sources.
Some could be brought from the Red Sea by a smaller pipe than the one proposed at the start of the millennium. Some could be obtained by increasing the flow from Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River. This would have many other benefits. There might be a way to reduce the amount water used for mineral extraction.
The Dead Sea used reach up to this now-stranded jetty at Ein Gedi’s shore. (Nadav lensky, Dead Sea Observatory and Geological Survey of Israel).
“I want to believe that this is possible,” she said.
In November, Israel & Jordan signed their largest ever cooperation deal. This agreement will see the construction a major solar power station in the Hashemite King to generate electricity and Israel will sell water to Jordan. The United Arab Emirates facilitated the deal.
