Sun. Feb 9th, 2025

Environmental organizations demand stricter requirements for Dead Sea exploitation

November 30th 2024 ,
Dead Sea, Israel. Photo: Shammonzer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.Dead Sea, Israel. Photo: Shammonzer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Finance Ministry, together with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Israel Tax Authority, submitted in September a draft to renew the concession of the Dead Sea Works company, currently part of the ICL Group, whose contract expires in 2030, for the commercial exploitation of the Dead Sea. 

The contract presented grants exclusive rights to extract minerals such as potassium and use large surrounding areas of the Dead Sea.

ICL is a subsidiary of Israel Corporation that generates 53-64% of its operating profits from the Dead Sea, with an annual average of $690-830 million between 2017 and 2023. 

Environmental experts have warned that the activity has had a significant environmental impact, from the construction of sandbanks and salt dumps to the abandonment of infrastructure as the sea recedes. Since 1976, the Dead Sea has shrunk by half, with the main cause of this being industrial pumping and the diversion of fresh water that used to feed the sea. 

One of the organisations criticising the government's proposal was Adam Teva V'Din, which argued that the company should repair the environmental damage, and that the contract does not establish this as an obligation. 

They also demand that ICL fulfill its commitment to remove the salt accumulated at the bottom of the largest evaporation pond and that the state map of environmental damage be accelerated before the concession is renewed.

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