The Dead Sea dies due to human interventions, with the water level to fall by more than a meter per year. One of the consequences is the sinkholes that occur along the coast -Some of them are in field size, and others are deep enough to swallow whole houses.
Dead Sea is actually a lake saturated with salt. It has the lower altitude in the planet, and its surface is 429 meters below sea level. The water, which flows in the basin of the Jordan River in the north and some streams in the east, has no escape route. As a result, the salt concentration is nearly ten times higher than the salt concentration that sea water has.
In recent decades, the Dead Sea has shrunk dramatically as the surrounding countries pump water from the Jordan River and smaller rivers that supply it. The sinkholes were once rare but now their appearance is a very common phenomenon, and they have already swallowed pillars of the electricity network, mobile homes and small buildings.
In at least one case, tourists were injured by falling into holes. Six months ago, the road to the north-south axis through Israel and the West Bank had to close due to a pit that appeared on the asphalt. This phenomenon is due to the decline of saltwater. The fresh water of the aquifer flushes the salt from the soil, creating cavities that eventually collapse and form sinkholes.
There is no solution. In 2013, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority accepted the World Bank's plan to revive the Dead Sea with salt water which left over from the desalination plants in the Red Sea.
It remains unclear whether the project will be implemented, and the environmental organizations characterize this project as a drop in the ocean.
Source: widerimage.reuters.com
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