Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - In January 2015, this reporter went to the Israel-Egypt border to report on the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sinai Peninsula where Islamic State affiliate Wayilat Sinai had increased its attacks on the Egyptian army and threatened to attack Israel too.

On the way back to the north of Israel, I planned to take route 90, the highway from Eilat to Israel’s most northern city–Kiryat Shemona. When I arrived at the intersection near the Dead Sea, a police car blocked the road in the direction of Ein Bokek–the Israeli resort at the sea. A police officer explained that the road had been shut down indefinitely but didn’t elaborate.

While driving in the direction of the desert city of Beer Sheva, Israel radio reported that a giant sinkhole had destroyed the road near the newly renovated bridge over Nahal Arugot. The $15 million renovation had been carried out after the bridge collapsed during a huge flood in the winter of 2005. The bridge has not been reopened since because of the danger of a new sinkhole that could appear at any moment.

The appearance of sinkholes in the Ein Gedi and Mitzpeh Shalem area is not new. The phenomenon is thirty years old and is man-made. Problems really began in 1998 when the first sinkholes appeared near the Ein Gedi camping site that was a major attraction for Israeli hikers. When a cleaner fell into a three meter-deep hole with her cleaner cart, the site was closed down and fenced off with barbed wire.

The mineral beach of Kibbutz Mitzpeh Shalem was closed in January this year due to the same problem, and the Ahava mineral cosmetics factory could be next. There are now an estimated 5000 sinkholes at the Israeli side of the Dead Sea.

The forming of sinkholes is a result of the sharp in the water level of the Dead Sea. The water level has dropped more than 25 meters over the last 50 years. In January 2014, the water level of the basin was 416.77 m. below sea level, 11.05 meters lower than the level in January 2004. When the sea recedes, sweet groundwater seeps into the hole and dissolves the salt subsurface layer, after which a vacuum is created that causes the ground to collapse.

If nothing is done, all that will be left of the Dead Sea is a huge pile of salt in another 50 years, experts say. Today, the sea is already split into two parts because of the sharp in the water level. A canal close to Massada now connects the two parts of the sea.

There are three main factors responsible for the current catastrophe.

First, there is the natural evaporation; but this has only become a major problem since large amounts of water were diverted from the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) in the north of Israel. Previously, the Jordan River delivered 2 billion cubic meters of water per year; today, the Dead Sea receives only 200 million to 300 million cubic meters of water. The third factor is the use of water by the large chemical industries at the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea Works Company and the Jordanian Potash Company are using around 600 million cubic meters of water from the sea to extract minerals for fertilizers; only some of this water returns to the sea.

At the beginning of this year, Jordan and Israel finally acted. After years of talks, arguments and research, Israel and Jordan reached an agreement on a plan to save the Dead Sea.

In February 2015, the parties announced that they would build a pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea as part of a $950 million project that will include the building of a desalination plant and a hydro electricity installation that will generate 20% of the power needed for the project.

The desalination plant will produce 130 million cubic meters of brine that will be pumped into the Dead Sea. The plant will also produce 85 million cubic meters of fresh water that will be sold to Israel and Aqaba, the port city in southern Jordan.

Tenders for the project have already been issued, and construction is expected to begin in 2017. The initial water will flow from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea at the end of 2019. It will be literally a in the ocean, however.

To survive, the Dead Sea needs to receive 2 billion cubic meters of water per year. While later phases of the project are scheduled to deliver up to 1.2 billion cubic meters of brine to the Dead Sea, it will not be enough to stop the depletion. The sea could be gone by the time the last project is realized.

The only solution seems to be to stop the diversion of water of the Jordan river. This can be done when Jordan and Israel build additional desalination plants that will make it possible to restore the original flow of water from Lake Kinneret into the Jordan River, and from there into the Dead Sea.

For now, however, both the Israeli and Jordanian governments still don’t seem to realize the importance of saving this natural wonder that has not only been a defining environmental feature of the Middle East, but has religious and historical significance for hundreds of millions of people.

Members of Kibbutz Ein Gedi who attended a recent meeting of the Knesset Interior Committee complained about the endless discussions and the lack of action by the Committee. Some of the kibbutz members said the lawmakers were completely ignorant, and that they must understand that the problems of the sinkholes will only get worse. The problem might destroy the Israeli communities in the affected areas as well as the tourist industry, they said.

*Western Journalism