The Dead Sea's surface area has been reduced by a third since the 1960s.
This is mainly due to a sharp decline of incoming water from the Jordan River, its main source of replenishment.
Today, the Dead Sea continues to drop at a rate of about one meter per year.
Alon Shachal, Ein Gedi Spa Manager, said, "The beach was here, and now far away. You can see it's more than one kilometer from here. In 30 years, the beach disappeared."
A solution needs to be found urgently.
Would bringing in water from the Red Sea be a viable possibility?
Galit Cohen, Environmental Policy Division of Israeli Environment Ministry, said, "This could be an option, because it's water. It's very different water from what we have now in the Dead Sea, so what we need is a lot of research to understand what is going to happen to the water in the Dead Sea after mixing those two kinds of waters. And there are a lot of questions, there are a lot of environmental questions, there are a lot of ecological questions. "
Governments and international organizations are currently studying the idea.
But the risks are clear.
If the two waters do not mix, the Dead Sea's blue water may turn into a reddish color, because the Red Sea is a red coral-rich area.
And such an outcome would definitely not be welcomed by tourists, much less the locals.
(CCTV August 28, 2009)
