The Dead Sea is dying - 4 Aug 2010  
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The unique water body, also the deepest hypersaline lake in the world, has attracted visitors to its shores for thousands of years where its mineral-rich waters and temperate climate are said to have therapeutic properties.

In recent decades, however, the sea level has been dropping at a rate of over a meter per year because the Jordan River, its main tributary, is being diverted along with reduced rainfall and drought further drying its waters.

Only around 2% of the Jordan River’s natural freshwater reaches the Dead Sea, where it now mixes only with wastewater diverted from fish ponds and salt springs.
Jordan and Israel have been working with the World Bank on a plan to save the Dead Sea that involves bringing water from the less-saline Red Sea; however environmentalists fear that mixing the two water body sources could be an ecological disaster.

Environmental organization Friends of the Earth Middle East has instead proposed restoring at least 30% of the Jordan River’s flow, saying that this could replenish the Dead Sea at a lower financial cost without the potentially adverse environmental consequences.

Our appreciation Friends of the Earth Middle East, World Bank, Israel and Jordan for this alert to the precarious situation as well as your efforts to find a way to save the fragile Dead Sea.
Let us all step vigorously toward the most eco-friendly solutions for the sake of both human and animal life.  Supreme Master Ching Hai has often discussed how the precious resource of water could be best preserved, as in this October 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan).

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We tell people to do organic farming, how to conserve rainwater, ground water, and conserve land, planting trees to attract rain, etc In the Alwar district of Rajasthan, India, one Indian village was able to guide the water enough that it brought back to life five flowing rivers - five flowing rivers - that had been dead before, been dried up before due to withdrawing too much water.

We could learn from them as well. But even these water losses pale in comparison to the incredible amount of water that is wasted for animal production. It takes approximately 4,664 liters of water to produce just one serving of beef, but an entire vegan meal can be produced with only 371 liters of water. The livestock sector is probably the world's biggest source of water pollution as well.

Water means everything to our existence. We must conserve the water; we must do everything we can. And the first step to begin is to be vegan.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/30/mme.jordan.red.sea.project.cnn?iref=allsearch
http://www.israel21c.org/201007208166/social-action/environmentalists-say-no-to-red-dead-seas-link
http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/AroundIsrael/Article.aspx?id=182267