The Dead Sea is Drying Up

By Marley Fischer ‘26
    The Dead Sea, one of Israel’s most famous historical sights, brings over 800,000 tourists a year to float and relax in its salty waters. Yet over the past years, its water levels and overall width have been shrinking as the sea dries up. 

The Dead Sea is meant to gain water from the Jordan River, but due to irrigation projects, that water source is becoming more scarce. Additionally, the sea sits under the hot Israeli sun and evaporates quickly, causing it to lose extensive amounts of water faster than can be replenished. 
While the decline of water has been transpiring for decades, experts have noticed how much water has been lost relatively recently. 
A recent NPR report on the Dead Sea’s water loss said, “It is shocking to see the ridges along the shore, a clear four-foot drop every single year.  The salty sea is receding so quickly, it leaves behind stunning salt formations along the shores: small salt pebbles on the beach, large salt mushrooms on the shore and tall salt chimneys sticking out from inside the lake.”
“It is so sad to think that such a memorable and beautiful place is losing its essence and may possibly not exist anymore,” said freshman Gracie Sacks. 
Despite its rapid shrinkage, Israeli scientists believe that the Dead Sea will never fully dry out. Rather, eventually it is expected to become a small lake, and will do so over centuries. 
Not only is the Dead Sea shrinking, but sinkholes have been forming underwater, as the dried out sea bed opens up, it forms hazardous craters. 
“It makes me sad knowing that the Dead Sea, a place so popular and fun, is becoming dangerous,” said sophomore Aly Biloon. “I would not want anyone to miss out and not be able to see this site in the future.”
    Israelis are taking some initiatives to bring awareness to this cause, many fighting against the extraction of Dead Sea water and resources that protect it. Others propose adding water from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea, or improving the Jordan River to open up more water into the Dead Sea. However, each of these solutions is complex, and would take an extremely long time to implement. 
“This is so sad because the solutions [are not] easy to make, and very, very expensive now, unfortunately,” said Galit Colton, former director general of Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry in a statement on NPR. 

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