Abstract
The Dead Sea is a severely disturbed ecosystem, greatly damaged by anthropogenic intervention in its water balance. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Dead Sea level have dropped by more than 20 meters, and presently (2006) it is about 419 meters below mean sea level. The rate of water level drop over the last 10 years is about 1.0 m/yr, representing an annual water deficit of about 650 million cubic meters. The sharp level drop reflects the annual interception by riparian countries of over 1000 million cubic meters of freshwater which in the past drained to the Dead Sea. In addition to the water interception upstream, the Israeli and Jordanian mineral industries contribute to this deficit by artificially maintaining extensive evaporation surfaces in the otherwise now dried southern Dead Sea basin.
Three alternatives for the future of the Dead Sea exist and need to be examined:
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1.
Maintaining the present situation. The Dead Sea level is expected to decline further to around -550 m, when a new equilibrium between inflow and evaporation will be reached.
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2.
Changing the regional water policy whereby freshwater from the Jordan and the Yarmouk river systems will be diverted back to the Dead Sea. In view of the severe regional water deficiency, such a program requires unprecedented regional cooperation and investments to compensate for the freshwater that will be diverted back to the Dead Sea.
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3.
Construction of the ‘Peace Conduit’ that will convey seawater and/or reject brine after desalination, into the Dead Sea. Such a plan has already been announced by Israel and Jordan in 2002 during the Johannesburg World Summit on sustainable development.
The renewed interest by Israel and Jordan in the construction of the ‘Peace Conduit’ is due to a number of related issues: (1) a growing concern that the Dead Sea must be ’saved’. (2) The possibility of utilizing the proposed conduit for desalinization of the inflowing seawater, thereby providing freshwater to the surrounding entities. (3) The development of infrastructure and tourist facilities around the lake has been adversely affected due to the receding shoreline and the danger presented by the regional collapse of the infrastructure. All parties acknowledge that the ‘Peace Conduit’ is an ambitious project that is bound to change the Dead Sea and its surroundings. While the project has the potential to stop and possibly restore damaging processes that currently occur in the Dead Sea and its surrounding, mixing of seawater in the Dead Sea may also lead to undesired changes in the lake.
The impact of changes on the Dead Sea and its surroundings needs to be carefully evaluated before a final decision is made.
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Gavrieli, I., Bein, A. (2007). Formulating A Regional Policy for the Future of the Dead Sea — The ‘Peace Conduit’ Alternative. In: Shuval, H., Dweik, H. (eds) Water Resources in the Middle East., vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69509-7_10
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