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Dead Sea plan raises environ hackles
[OMANOBSERVER] A plan to link the Red Sea with the shrinking Dead Sea could save it from total evaporation and bring desalinated water to thirsty neighbours Israel, Jordan and the Paleostinians. But environmentalists warn that the "Red-Dead" project could have dire consequences, altering the unique chemistry of the landmark inland lake at the lowest point on earth."What kinda consequences?" "Dire consequences." Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said yesterday that his government had decided to press ahead with the $980-million project which would give the parched Hashemite kingdom 100 million cubic metres of water a year. "The government has approved the project after years of technical, political, economic and geological studies," Nsur told a news conference. Under the plan, Jordan will draw water from the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern end of the Red Sea to the nearby Risheh Height, where a desalination plant is to be built to treat water. "The desalinated water will go south to (the Jordanian town of) Aqaba, while salt water will be pumped to the Dead Sea," Nsur said. The Dead Sea, the world's saltiest body of water, is on course to dry out by 2050. It started shrinking in the 1960s when Israel, Jordan and Syria began to divert water from the Jordan River, the Dead Sea's main tributary. Israel and Jordan's use of evaporation ponds for extracting valuable minerals from its briny waters has only exacerbated the problem. With a coastline shared by Israel, the Paleostine and Jordan, the Dead Sea's surface level has been dropping at a rate of around a metre a year. According to the latest available data form Israel's hydrological service, on July 1, it stood at 427.13 metres below sea level, nearly 27 metres lower than in 1977. Under the plan most of the desalinated water would go to Jordan, with smaller quantities transferred to Israel and the Paleostinian Authority. But Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) and other environmental groups have called on the three partners to reject it on environmental grounds. The main concern, they say, is that a large influx of water from the Red Sea could radically change the Dead Sea's fragile ecosystem, forming gypsum crystals, and introducing red algae blooms. In addition, leakage from the pipeline could contaminate groundwater along its route through southern Israel's Arava Valley. So putting back what you take out is gonna ruin it? That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense of sort. Kinda. Posted by: Fred 2013-08-27 |
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