5km swim across Dead Sea draws attention to saline lake’s demise
Dead Sea Guardians founder Oded Rahav: 'If we managed to do what everyone said was impossible and swim across the Dead Sea, we must do the impossible to save it'
Equipped solely with full-face masks to protect them from the salt, around 30 open-water swimmers swam over five kilometers (three miles) in the Dead Sea on Friday to draw attention to the demise of the Earth’s most saline body of water.
Swimmers from Israel and overseas swam from Metzoke Dragot to Mitzpe Shalem.
The water level has dropped by some 11 meters (36 feet) since the inaugural swim 10 years ago, which saw participants from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other countries swim from Israel to the Hashemite Kingdom.
The Dead Sea is sinking by over a meter each year because water that used to replenish it from the Jordan River and its tributaries is diverted upstream for drinking water, farming and other uses, leaving far less to reach the lake.
Israel’s Dead Sea Works and Jordan’s Arab Potash Company also pump water into evaporation ponds to extract minerals, returning only a portion to the sea.
While ideas for at least maintaining current levels have come and gone, nothing has been implemented. As water levels drop, sinkholes are opening along the shore, threatening infrastructure and harming tourism and access in general.
This swim, like the previous one, was organized by entrepreneur Oded Rahav, who set up and heads the Dead Sea Guardians.
Rahav believes that the state should give far higher priority to what he described as a natural wonder of global importance. Dead Sea Guardians, a public benefit corporation, promotes public, educational, research and international initiatives to preserve the Dead Sea and develop long-term solutions.
“If we managed to do what everyone said was impossible and swim across the Dead Sea, we must do the impossible to save it from sinking further,” he said.