Red Sea Might Save Dead Sea

[TheMadMonk]

SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan (AP) — Officials from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority met along the shores of the Dead Sea to settle details of a study to save the shrinking body of water, agreeing to proceed with plans to draw water from the Red Sea.

The surface level of the Dead Sea — the saltiest water in the world at the lowest point on Earth that is estimated at 1,200 feet below sea level — has fallen about three feet a year in the past 20 years because of evaporation and allegedly the diversion of rivers by Syria and Israel.

<snip>

The Red-Dead Sea canal project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, would exploit the 1,320-foot difference in altitude between both areas.

If implemented, the 248-mile desert area between the two seas would benefit from the fresh water to turn the region into an agricultural hub for the benefit of the three countries. A desalination project is also envisaged to provide drinking water for Amman. Israel and the Palestinian territories would also benefit from the drinking water.

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061212_ap_shrinking_sea.html


There are endless possibilities to make this project self funding: massive, naturally quarantined aqua-culture along flat parts of the route; Water powered industry and power generation along steeper sections.

[bullimiami]

1. gee. the dead sea is ummmmm dead.

they arent saving the dead sea of course. whats the difference if its a super salty lake or an ultra salty puddle.
what they do want to save is the tourism.

whatever.

[MessiahRp]

2. This might not be a bad idea

Anything that opens up fresh water that can open up agricultural possibilities in the Middle East and lessens reliability on oil money is a terrific thing.

In our misguided attempt to rebuild Iraq it puzzles me how we never spent time or money into trying to ween the Iraqis off an entirely oil based economy and never wanted to give them any other form of self reliance.

Rp

[JimDandy]

3. Yes, that's unfortunate about Iraq. But, since it was an oil corporateer

who dragged us into that mess, that outcome was expected.

[whistle]

4. Would that be an environmentally sound thing to do.....

....that is allowing the Red Sea which is connected to the Indian Ocean to back up and fill an extinct inland sea like that? If so, why has it never been tried before?

http://american.edu/ted/deadsea.htm
<snip>
1. The Issue:
The Dead Sea is drying up, with severe negative consequences on the ecosystem, industry and wildlife in the area. There have been several proposals for a canal to transport Mediterranean Sea or Red Sea water to the Dead Sea. Such a water project would reverse the negative impacts on the environment; that is, the erosion of the shoreline and disruption of the water column caused by declining water levels. The canal would reverse negative impacts on trade by revitalizing the potash works industry and tourism on the Israeli and Jordanian sides. The canal would also create new trade and development opportunities by using the 400-meter differential between the bodies of water to generate hydropower -- a much needed source of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. Although the benefits of such a project are clear, there are drawbacks, including cost. Additional cost-benefit analyses of a Dead Sea canal are necessary.

[TheMadMonk]

6. Estimated cost is $1 billion.

If that is just the cost to dig the ditch then it's a no brainer. It would be cheap at thrice the price. That cost would be recouped very quickly from development alone.

The desert ecology is almost certain to suffer, but since the desert is: a) essentially man made anyway; and b) going the way of the dinosaurs one way or another regardless, we might as well maximise our benefits.

Its a greenhouse gas sink; It's productive; It's aqua-culture potential is enormous, and contamination fears can be alleviated by using Red Sea fisheries as a template when establishing new ecologies; and likewise the industrial potential of a 1000+ foot head of water is equally phenomenal. Enough to desalinate a large river.

Reestablish small watercourses; Plant forests equal to 25% of land put under cultivation; This could become a sustainable food bowl for much of Northern Africa;

And there are places in nearby Africa where there's an opportunity to anticipate nature by a bit and do the same thing.

[NNadir]

5. This would also work in our own Salton Sea.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x37366

[semillama]

7. I guess they figured Better Red than Dead.

Ba-domp-bomp!! Thanks, folks, I'll be here all week.

[hunter]

8. Such hydroelectric projects mesh very well with solar and wind energy.

And even nuclear energy :hide:

Since the waterway would be entirely artificial you don't have the same sort of environmental concerns you have with dams on natural waterways. You don't have to worry about radically changing natural water flows.

[Nihil]

9. Hmmm

> You don't have to worry about radically changing natural water flows.

Because you are already?

I have to question the sense in digging a canal from the (salty) sea to
a (salty) lake when balanced against the option of "not taking so much
fresh water from the rivers feeding the shrinking (salty) sea".

[hunter]

12. Well, I suppose you could do that if you removed all the people.

A dirty nuclear war would probably do the trick.

:sarcasm:

The rivers in this part of the world are not big. One guy with a shovel and a pick axe can run a temporary communication cable across the Jordon River if he doesn't mind wading through sewage -- what's left of the river flowing into the Dead Sea is very polluted.

[Igel]

10. And if the barriers blocking the flow of water--

dams and locks--were to fail?

At what point does the West Bank and western Jordan reach sea level?

[hunter]

11. It wouldn't work like that.

There would be pumps at the Red Sea end, not a sea level canal.

Turn off the pumps and the water stops. The largest possible spill is of water that's already in the system.

A spill of salt water is not a good thing in terms of possible contamination of fresh water supplies, but a failure that would fill the Dead Sea basin to sea level is not possible.

[Up2Late]

13. "...desert area between the two seas would benefit from the fresh water...???"

What "fresh water?" The Red Sea is Salt water too!

This AP writer doesn't know what he's talking about:

"...If implemented, the 248-mile desert area between the two seas would benefit from the fresh water to turn the region into an agricultural hub for the benefit of the three countries.

What type of crop grows in Sea water, other than Sea Weed?

[piedmont]

14. A billion dollar dumb idea...

Pump salty water into an evaporation basin and you get.... an even saltier Dead Sea. The water evaporates, the salt stays, and over time there's a huge build-up of salt. And as another poster pointed out, there'll be NO freshwater for irrigation (unless you use de-salinization plants, I guess).

[hunter]

15. It would include desalinization plants...

Fresh water would be the major benefit of the project.

There is already a huge build up of salt in the Dead Sea -- that's the geologic process by which great salt deposits are created in any basin like this as the water evaporates.

It's really not a dumb idea. The actual environmental debate would be the further human encroachment on the desert that this project would support, and the possibility of large salt water spills caused by accident or by sabotage, since this region is not known for it's political stability. The actual environmental chemistry of the Dead Sea has already been greatly altered by human activity.

[Up2Late]

16. "...large salt water spills..."? Why would that be a problem?

It's already a desert, a "...large salt water spill..." in the middle of a desert would have almost no damaging effect on a desert, if any at all.

I'm not saying that this is a bad idea, just that they should have used a Science writer, or at least one who knows what he's talking about, to write an article about this project which, BTW, has been in the planning stages for several months now. Also, it sounds like they are planing to do this in the most expensive way possible (with pipelines and assorted expensive equipment) when what they should do is just build a small, multi-purpose canal, something that counties in that part of the world have a lot of experience with.

And adding Salt water to the Dead Sea would help dilute it a little, but more importantly (and the point this article completely ignored) It will keep the "Dead Sea Salts" industry in business into the indefinite future. I just wish the world community was this concerned with a much larger man-made environmental disaster (and take the same type of actions to fix) the Aral Sea, which is drying up at an alarming rate, much faster than the Dead Sea.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2000/world_water_crisis/default.stm>


This is what most of the world Atlases still show...


But this is this Aral Sea in 2006!!!

(click link below to go to links to the large images)

<http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?search=Aral+Sea>

More Aral Sea links below:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/773449.stm>

<http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=5898>

Dead Sea Links below:

<http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_708.html>

<http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=deadsea>

<http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=17406>

<http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1730>