Why is the dead sea disappearing
Biblical wonder the Dead Sea is at risk of disappearing
the stricken shoreline around the dead
sea
reveals cracked and parched earth where
the water once lapped between jordan
the west bank and israel but scientists
say this body of water
the lowest point on earth is now
diminishing with such
speed losing nearly a meter and a half
every year in depth it could almost
disappear
by 2050 the dead sea has been shrinking
at an alarming rate for decades and to
give you an idea
of how fast it's been happening this is
a tide mark on the ground
and you can see in the space of 12
months how far the water receded
up to here and then in the space
of another year all the way over here
now of course this was a long time ago
because
that's where the dead sea is now nearly
one mile away
an expanding population in a region of
water shortages
and poor management are to blame
factories in the south evaporating water
to extract minerals
add to this man-made story of
destruction
and the signs of nature's anger
are everywhere sinkholes span the
shoreline
making much of the area inaccessible
this resort
now closed off because of the danger
we are standing inside basically ground
zero we are
standing where the earth swallows
ecologists monitoring the environment
here say what's happening
is catastrophic if you keep on taking
water from
fresh water from nature from the sea of
galilee or from the euphrates for
example
we will eventually ruin the local
environment
we are standing where we can learn the
first lesson of
we can't exploit all the water the way
we want to
we need to take care of nature as well
or else
we will all sink with it this area
is a major tourist attraction
visitors bob in the salty anxious waters
which are said to have healing
properties
but behind this image of tranquility
their lurks the middle east's deep
conflicts
if this natural wonder is to be restored
environmentalists say they'll need to be
more trust and far
greater regional cooperation to meet the
thirsty requirements
of everyone manufacture
more water in the mediterranean produce
renewable energy
in the desert areas and create healthy
interdependencies amongst us israelis
palestinians
jordanians first or we're going to see
potentially more conflict arising
out of these increasingly scarce
water resources the dead sea
is in many ways a gauge of the health of
the environment
efforts to revive it may help unify the
region
but equally if they fail it will be a
sign that water security
will become an even more toxic issue in
the future
alex rossi sky news
