Troubled Water
Is pumping water into the Dead Sea saving or destroying it?
| 7:00 AM Jul 2, 2009
Five years ago, Israeli geologist Eli Raz fell into a Dead Sea sinkhole, a crater in the earth caused by topsoil or bedrock erosion. As he waited for a rescue team to arrive—which ultimately took 14 hours—Raz, who lives at Kibbutz Ein Gedi and works for the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, kept a diary a of the ordeal on a roll of toilet paper he had with him. Not surprisingly, his experience inspired him to join the ranks of scientists and politicians actively concerned about a previously unconsidered reality: the Dead Sea is shrinking.
