Dead Sea Dying! Shrinking At An Alarming Rate

The Dead Sea, a salt lake surrounded by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, is shrinking at an alarming rate.

A sought after tourist destination, the water at the spot is declining by around 3.3 feet per year, and the blame mostly goes to human actions, as reported by EcoPeace Middle East.

According to CNN, photographer Moritz Küstner, who is working on a series called The Dying Dead Sea said that "It's not just like one country is punishing the Dead Sea; it's more like the whole region."

Küstner further adds that "It's an unfriendly environment for people to live there or to stay there. It is really salty and if you taste the Dead Sea, it is not tasting like salty water anymore, it is just tasting toxic."

Apart from human actions, mineral extraction industries are also causing the water levels to decline as per experts. The minerals from the Dead Sea are world famous and immensely sought after for their therapeutic properties and are used as ingredients in cosmetics and other products.

In addition, the lake is not able to replenish itself well due to the dry and hot climate of the Middle East. Incidentally, one of the water sources that the lake relied upon, namely, the Jordan River basin, was diverted in the 1960s via a pipeline constructed to supply water throughout the country.

Jordan and Israel signed a $900 million deal last year as a step to check the Dead Sea's dwindling water levels. The deal includes provision for building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to pump in around 300 million cubic meters of water annually, apart from facilitating water supply to both nations.

The declining water levels of the Dead Sea have not deterred tourists from visiting the area or floating on the salty lake. However, the 30 marathon swimmers, who came together from across the globe to swim the 9-mile Dead Sea stretch from Jordan to Israel to promote awareness of the shrinking lake, complained that the water felt toxic and made their eyeballs burn in spite of having worn protective face masks. This is because the already salty lake is also getting saltier due to the declining waters.