AMMAN — The Red – Dead Canal Project, linking the Dead and Red seas, is vital if the
Dead Sea water level is to be maintained, experts stress amid warnings that the
sea, whose level is said to go down by a meter a year, could completely
disappear in a few decades.
اضافة اعلان
Organizational president of the Dead Sea Friends
Association Zaid Sawalqa told
Jordan News that “the Dead Sea risks
drying out, in the absence of any real plans to save it.”
He claimed that “Israel’s decision to divert the
water of the Jordan River from its natural course, which flows into the Dead
Sea, is the main reason for the drying up of the sea, and the industries built
on its shores also contribute to the depletion of its water to a large extent.”
According to him, “this decline has caused the emergence
of craters, which led to the loss of large areas of beaches and agricultural
lands as well, not to mention the danger of these manifestations to tourists
and the environment”.
He attributed “this occurrence to the decline of the
sea surface and the melting of salt blocks in the soil as a result of the drop
in the level of underground water”.
Sawalqa warned that “if the matter is not remedied
by compensating for the Dead Sea annual water loss, or at least preserving the
existing level of water”, the Dead Sea will completely disappear in a few
decades.
He stressed the importance of searching for
solutions to this issue, “such as benefiting from the Red – Dead Canal project, to
cover the shortage of the Dead Sea water, which has been overlooked globally,
despite the fact that it would have restored the Dead Sea to what it was”.
He said that media outlets have a role and duty “to
participate with us in broadcasting appeals to international organizations and
bodies, to help form international pressure for concerted efforts to preserve
it, especially since it is considered a unique site that has no parallel in the
world”.
Chairman of EDAMA Board of Directors Dureid Mahasneh
told
Jordan News that “the problem of declining Dead Sea water began in
the 1960s, when it started to decrease by half a meter every year”.
Now, “it is approximately 410 meters below sea level, due to
two reasons: the country’s need for water, and the difficulty of water reaching
the mountainous areas of the Dead Sea”.
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