Just three days ago I dealt in this section with the sins of the Dead Sea factories, and here I hit a big realization - the State Comptroller's report revealed the ignorance regarding the environmental disaster in the Dead Sea among the decision makers
Following responses to my list about Naot-HaKachar and without a twin, The publication of the State Comptroller on the Dead Sea On the one hand and on the water policy on the other hand, I do not resist the temptation to bring things in a clear and orderly manner.
The State Comptroller published difficult findings about the Dead Sea, findings that everyone close to the subject had known for many years on the one hand and on the other hand in the body of the publication you can see how much ignorance there is, ignorance that pervades all the official/state agencies, ignorance that stems from the way officials are appointed on the one hand and accordingly a lack of The powers of institutions and their heads who are supposed to know the issues they are responsible for and handle them.
Two government offices were supposed to predict and prevent the death of the Dead Sea, the Ministry of Tourism by virtue of its duty to support and promote tourism in the Dead Sea, the Ministry of the Environment by virtue of its obligation to preserve nature. The trouble is - unlike in reformed countries where these are important ministries that communicate and cooperate -, with us these are two ministries that are considered lesser and accordingly are given to the powerless (impotent) who instead of acting in constructive cooperation, argue with each other about.... .nothing? And the result is laid before us in the form of the dying Dead Sea!
For the sake of accuracy and truth there are two culprits, whose guilt is clear and proven for the current state of the sea and the terrible damages caused to its surroundings. In order to fully understand the situation, it is necessary to refer to a well-known fact that the Dead Sea is divided into two basins, where the northern basin is deep and the southern basin is shallow. The border between them - in front of the northern end of the tongue.
Engaged and engaged
In 1964, the construction of a huge dam was completed that cut off the southwest of the Dead Sea from its northern part, the area that was cut off was divided by sub-dams into three evaporation pools - the northern one of which is the famous pool 5, famous because of the hotels that found themselves on the coast, it is important to clarify that a number of A hotel was built on the site before the dam was built. A few years later, a similar dam was completed on the Jordanian side, thus separating the southern basin of the sea from the northern basin. It is important to clarify that the activity on the Jordanian side has no direct effect on the beam on the Israeli side of the southern Dead Sea basin.
Dead Sea Factories Co. Ltd. (hereafter the factories) pumps water into the evaporation ponds, the first sediment in the first pond 5 - is table salt. The salt forms a layer that if each cycle increases and so the water level in the pools rises, I wrote about the destruction of the square, about the damage to the hotels the reviewer wrote, it remains to mention road 90 between the factories and the Zohar intersection which is in constant danger of flooding, the section of the road that continued to the hotels was closed because of sinkholes . This is the summary of the damages in the southern basin of the Dead Sea and there is no need for a trained investigator to determine who is to blame for the flooding of the hotels, the risk of flooding the road, and damage to the square.
In my humble opinion, the damage in the southern basin can be stopped almost immediately - see below - and therefore we will turn north. In the northern basin of the Dead Sea, the situation is bad/worse. According to the measurements, the water level in the northern basin has dropped by four meters since the sixties and the forecast is for a drop of about a meter every year, so again, first of all we will see what the damage is and who is to blame.
It is clear that the increased evaporation in the ponds reduces a larger amount of water than if there were no evaporation ponds, but the difference is minimal.
The main problem is the cessation of the "refilling" of the northern basin, on the Jordanian side, several streams flow to the sea and most of them are partially used for agriculture and drinking so that the amount of water reaching the sea is less, but the main shortcoming comes from the Jordan. Until it was discharged into the "national carrier" every year, the Jordan transported about a billion cubic meters of water to the Dead Sea and this is the amount that the sea lacks every year
So when looking for a culprit, the name is clear - "Mekorot", here the jumpers will jump and say: But this is water for essential use - just a moment, we will get to that. First of all the damages, the drop in the water level causes a number of phenomena and here I will only mention them without trying to explain them since the explanations are found in a lot of material written on the subject.
Damage to tourism and tourist facilities due to the "escape" of the coastline, damage to agriculture due to the appearance of sinkholes. The sinkholes are a real risk - again harming tourism. The sinkholes endanger Route 90 in places where the road passes through areas prone to their appearance. Floods flow in deeper channels and cause damage to the road. In the future, there may be a decrease in the flow of Shikva springs. Now that I have succinctly explained the problems and their causes, i.e. who is to blame, we will examine what can be done.
Let's start in the north here, the problems are particularly difficult since the damage cannot be repaired within a reasonable time, even if tomorrow we start supplying the sea with the missing billion cubic meters, it will be many years before the water gets close to the old coastline and it will be many more years before the problem of the sinkholes is solved. And yet a utopian solution like transporting water from the Gulf of Eilat will take a long time and who knows today - without an environmental survey - what problems it will cause so the solution is to return the situation to the way it was before, simply let the Jordan flow into the Dead Sea, that's how nature wanted it, and to this day it has become clear that nature is always smarter than us .
To cover the shortage of water in the national carrier, it is possible to: establish desalination plants for drinking water and for the benefit of all parties interested in recycling wastewater. What is good for the Swiss can also be good for us. Desalinated water can be supplied and sewage water can be recycled in stages
These two sources will be much faster than any megalomaniacal enterprise whose consequences no one knows. I am not an economist, but to date it has been proven that the preservation of the environment and nature (in our case "to restore") is more economical than damage and the more those who need to do it advance - to do and not to be rude is good.
The problems in the southern basin of the Dead Sea are (in my opinion) much easier, since we have determined the culprit and since every society is reformed
The culprit is liable for the cost of repairing the damage he caused. And since in our case there is no need for a "movie day" for the benefit of the factories, as I wrote in my response (see ibid) about the Dead Sea factories immediately lowering the water level in pool 5 by six meters
and maintain a constant level, that is, pool 5 will become a water supply line for the rest of the pools, with the exception of a lagoon that will be built for the hotels,
At the same time, the water level in the rest of the ponds must be lowered to a level that will not endanger Highway 90 and maintain a constant level by "harvesting" the salt at the bottom of the ponds. Expensive ? Maybe it's hard to do? Not at all! The polluter cleans, the spoiler fixes, not the public should judge the actions of dealers who smoke!
Then the ministers and the appointed authorities will help and those responsible will shake their butts in the right direction, help the little power in their waists and maybe we will save the Dead Sea from death.
