--- title: Is the Dead Sea Dying? | TIME description: The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink canonical: https://time.com/video/WWvEq4I9/ og:title: Is the Dead Sea Dying? og:description: The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink og:url: https://time.com/video/WWvEq4I9/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WWvEq4I9/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is the Dead Sea Dying? twitter:description: The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WWvEq4I9/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Is the Dead Sea Dying? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Is the Dead Sea Dying? [Watch (HLS stream): Is the Dead Sea Dying?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WWvEq4I9.m3u8) (6:27)  _Published 2010-09-03. The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:21 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [An Explorer Just Made the Deepest Ever Manned Sea Dive](/video/dqHqgEGs/) ### An Explorer Just Made the Deepest Ever Manned Sea Dive [Arrests After 26 Nigerian Girls Found Dead at Sea](/video/POH5Onwb/) ### Arrests After 26 Nigerian Girls Found Dead at Sea [By the Sea - Trailer](/video/mXnEw8IE/) ### By the Sea - Trailer --- ## Transcript >> We're going to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea, and it's losing about a meter of water every single year. We're gonna find out why. I've been coming to the Dead Sea for several years now, and even in that short span of time, I have witnessed its decline. This time, I visit the sea not for recreation, but to talk to experts and learn why it's losing so much water every single year, and perhaps, show why it's worth saving. >> The sign is gotta be at least 20 years old 'cause there has been water here at least that amount of time in my life preserver. It turns out there are actually lifeguards of the Dead Sea which is odd, considering the human body is buoyant on its salty waters. People can sleep while on the water, bob up and down like a cork, or even catch up on the day's news. So, why the lifeguards? >> The most common cause of death is heart attacks. People don't understand how salty the water is. They flip over and drink a little bit. In three minutes, a person can die. >> There are only a couple cases like this every year which means that lifeguards have plenty of time to reflect on the sea's decline. >> They say that, in 20 years, there won't be a Dead Sea, but who knows? >> Experts claim that, in 20 years, the Dead Sea won't be completely gone, but will be the size of a small lake. Still, we run the risk of losing one of the most unique geological formations on the planet, a mystical mineral- rich sea with unparalleled beauty. The sea got its name because it is too salty to host any marine or plant life, yet its waters have been healing the bodies and souls of mankind for thousands of years. The sea's decline is not just an ecological catastrophe in the waiting, but is also dangerous to people right now. The giant, gaping hole in the ground is known as the sinkhole. It's what happens when the water table decreases and underground salt pockets become depleted. There are nearly 3000 of these ranging in shape and size along the shores of the sea. Plans to build a 5, 000- room spa at the Dead Sea were canceled after a tourist plunged 20 feet into the earth. >> We call this nature's revenge, a complete demise, the man- made demise of the Dead Sea. This is not a natural occurrence. >> I decided to talk with Gidon Bromberg, an environmentalist who has made it his life's work to try and save the Dead Sea by lobbying for it to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. >> It's incredible that the Dead Sea is not registered as a World Heritage Site. It's part of the tragic story of the Dead Sea itself where the actions of man are killing what has been the attraction of the Dead Sea since time immemorial. >> To understand why the Dead Sea is dying, you must first look at its main tributary, the Jordan River. In the arid Middle East, the waters of the Jordan are prized possession. And so, they have been diverted by Israel, Jordan, and Syria for agricultural and private consumption. The Jordan used to bring in to the sea 1. 3 billion cubic meters of freshwater per year, but now, trickles in a near 5 percent of that amount. >> The Arab- Israeli conflict has led to every side trying to grab as much as they can first, but that grabbing of resources has been at the complete demise of the long- term interest of all the countries that share the Dead Sea. >> Industry is another reason for the Dead Sea's decline. Among its many minerals, the sea was blessed or cursed with an expensive and rare chemical compound called potash which is used primarily in fertilizer. >> You can see it's become like a crystal, and when it's shining and we're thinking about the price of the potash in the world, we can call it gold, white gold. >> While most of the sea's water loss can be attributed to the Jordan, a growing percentage is due to this potash industry. This so- called white gold farmed by the Israeli and Jordanian companies cause the Dead Sea to lose about 300 million cubic meters of water every single year. About 40 percent of the sea's water loss is now coming directly from the industry. So, here's how it works. The more water these companies can evaporate, the easier and more profitable it is to extract the minerals. So, they've set up a system of ponds to take water from the natural sea into special evaporation ponds which used to be the sea's southern basin. This is a photo taken from the space shuttle Columbia in 1989, just below the natural Dead Sea and the lighter shade of green is the evaporation pond belonging to the Dead Sea Works. In the 21 years since the photo was taken, billions of cubic meters of water have been captured by industry and the Dead Sea is significantly smaller. Strangely enough, the majority of the hotels and tourist infrastructure on the Israeli side are not even on the natural Dead Sea anymore, but are on evaporation pond number five, belonging to the Dead Sea Works. The tourists are generally unaware of this fact. Back at the natural Dead Sea, I did find some tourist infrastructure still running, but you can understand why resorts are not building here anymore. Not only are there tons of sinkholes but the sea is simply getting farther and farther away. So, this trend didn't exist 30 years ago because the sea was actually right here. Now, we got to ride about a kilometer to get to the sea. This tourist from California is about to take her first- ever dip into the sea. >> This is a treasure. This is one of our planet's treasures. To cavalierly let it disappear is absolutely immoral. >> For TIME. com, this is Jaron Gilinsky at the Dead Sea. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Is the Dead Sea Dying?","description":"The Dead Sea has long attracted tourists for its mineral-rich waters. But now man-made problems are causing the sea to shrink","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WWvEq4I9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-09-03T20:56:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WWvEq4I9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/WWvEq4I9/","duration":"PT6M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/WWvEq4I9/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```