Dead Sea Water Level

The Dead Sea is a rare natural resource with significant environmental value. On its two banks are Israel and Jordan. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, located in the Syro-African Depression, in a region characterized by arid climate, with high temperatures and low levels of precipitation. It is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, rich in various minerals. The water draining into the Dead Sea has no natural outlet, making it an endorheic (terminal) lake. The water level of the Dead Sea, being an endorheic lake, is determined by the water balance. In recent decades, the Dead Sea’s water balance has been negative, as the quantity of water entering it has decreased considerably over the years. \

The receding water level of the Dead Sea in recent decades is a result, mainly, of the drastic reduction in the quantity of water entering it. Water which flowed into the Dead Sea in the past has since been dammed and diverted upstream by Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and used for domestic, agriculture and industrial uses.

In recent years, the water level has been receding at an average annual rate of about 110 cm. The receding of the sea level caused the exposure of large areas that were once below sea level and the creation of sinkholes because of the dissolving of salt layers below the surface of the ground, as well as the submergence of streams flowing into the sea.

Since the construction of Israel’s National Water Carrier in the 1960’s, the quantity of water entering the Dead Sea has decreased significantly. This decrease is primarily due to increased utilization of the Jordan River’s water and its water sources by Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, mainly for domestic and agricultural purposes. About 50 dams have been constructed in various drainage basins in Jordan and in Syria, to utilize the water of rivers and streams that used to feed the Dead Sea. Reservoirs, which are designed to capture flood water for human usage, have also been constructed in the Arava region’s drainage basin area. However, the result of the significant decrease of the inflowing quantity, has accelerated the decrease of the Dead Sea’s water level over the last three decades.

The extraction of minerals by ICL Dead Sea is made possible through a process of natural water evaporation carried out in the evaporation ponds in the southern basin. While other factors prevent the flow of water upstream before reaching the northern basin, ICL Dead Sea pumps water from the northern basin and channels it into the southern basin that contains the ICL Dead Sea solar ponds. Minerals and various raw materials are then extracted in the evaporation ponds, including potash, magnesium, bromine, and sodium chloride. Potash is a critical and essential material for global agriculture, and for ensuring the food security of the world’s growing population.

The mineral extraction and production process used by ICL Dead Sea, is among the most efficient in the world, thanks to the combination of high concentrations of minerals in the water, the natural evaporation process based on solar energy and the unique know-how accumulated by the Company. The evaporation process provides a significant share of the energy required for extracting minerals, and therefore ICL Dead Sea’s extraction process consumes less fossil fuels in comparison to similar industries around the world. Thus, ICL Dead Sea benefits both from a competitive advantage and from the advantage stemming from lower GHG emission levels as compared with other extraction processes.

ICL Dead Sea’s net impact on the Dead Sea water depletion is steady, and has not materially changed since the early 1990's

…the accelerated rate of receding water levels in the Dead Sea over the last few decades stems from the decline in the quantity of runoff water flowing into the Dead Sea in winter months, and is not a result of increased activity of the potash plants during the summer months or of direct evaporation from the lake’s surface.”

‘Causes of the accelerated rate of receding water levels in the Dead Sea over the last few decades’ –Geological Survey of Israel (HEBREW)

ICL Dead Sea pumps water from the Dead Sea, and after extraction of the minerals, it re-channels the remaining water back into the northern basin. The difference between the quantity of water pumped out by ICL Dead Sea, and the quantity returned to the northern basin is fairly consistent and amounts to approx. 160 million cubic meters a year. The water quantity evaporating through the process directly depends on the surface area of the evaporation ponds. As the surface area of the ponds is fixed, the rate of evaporation is also constant. The variance in water pumping scopes between years is mainly a result of weather changes (temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and inflow of flood water into the ponds, etc.).

An annual decline of about 85 cm in the Dead Sea level will continue even if ICL’s industrial operations in the southern basin were completely halted, and at the cost of drying up the southern basin where, among other things, the Dead Sea hotels are located.

In the current situation, ICL’s Dead Sea site share in the Dead Sea’s annual water depletion is about 23% (160 million cubic meters evaporation, out of 700 million cubic meters, total depletion of the northern basin). If ICL Dead Sea were to cease its operations, the sea level would recede by an estimated 0.85 meters per year instead of 1.1 meters per year, as the natural evaporation occurring in the northern basin is the main cause of water loss in the Dead Sea.

However, this explanation regarding the share of ICL Dead Sea in reduction of the sea level is limited, as it reflects only the current state of the water balance, and excludes the impact of the most significant factors that are driving the Dead Sea water deficit – the various countries, including Israel, that prevent the flow of water into the Dead Sea and use of the water upstream for domestic, agriculture and other uses (see illustration below). These factors are responsible for the utilization of approximately 1,400 million cubic meters a year, which used to flow into the Dead Sea and have ceased flowing thereto for decades. Adding to that the annual depletion resulting from the industrial operations, – both Israeli and Jordanian, – that are operating in the Dead Sea basin (approximately 280 million cubic meters combined)

The production process begins with the pumping of brine from the Northern Basin into the evaporation ponds in the Southern Basin (about 15 kilometers) using the Company’s pumping station. In 2022, ICL pumped approximately 473 million cubic meters of water from the Northern Basin into the evaporation ponds, of which, approximately 310 million cubic meters of brine were returned at the end of the process to the Northern Basin. The net annual withdrawal of approximately 160 million cubic meters has been stable in the past few decades.

The Dead Sea water level will continue to recede even if ICL Dead Sea’s industrial activity in the southern basin is completely halted.

ICL Dead Sea is beginning a pilot project that aims to reduce losses from brine that is seeping from the evaporation ponds. The project is expected to reduce water withdrawal from the sea and increase energy efficiency. However, this project will not affect ICL Dead Sea’s impact on the Dead Sea water level.

The channeling of water into the southern basin of the Dead Sea enables the existence of the two main businesses in the region – mineral extraction and tourism.

It is also important to note that the ICL Dead Sea channeling of water to the southern basin constitutes a lifeline for the thriving tourism business in the region, which has developed on the banks of ICL’s evaporation ponds in the Israeli side of the southern basin. Had ICL ceased its activities, the southern basin would have dried out completely, with all the implications that this would have on tourism on the Israeli side of the banks of ICL Dead Sea’s ponds. The steady water level maintained in these ponds allows the existence of the local tourism area. Conversely, hotels cannot viably exist on the northern basin shores, due to the presence of sinkholes and other vulnerabilities caused by the effects of the receding sea level. As a result, feasible solutions to mitigate the receding sea level must also allow the continued activity of these two leading businesses, whose co-existence, side by side, on the bank of the Israeli side of the southern basin of the Dead Sea, are a prerequisite for the development of the entire region.

The southern basin is, therefore, characterized by an interdependent system between four elements, which reflect a complex relationship of dependence and mutual contribution – industry, tourism, communities, environment.”

NOP (Israeli National Outline Plan) 13

Conclusions of the 'Naveh Committee'

In Israel, the concession that was granted to ICL by the government to utilize the resources of the Dead Sea ends in 2030. In January 2019, the Israeli Ministry of Finance released the final report of the interministry team (The Naveh Committee), which reviewed the Israeli governmental actions required in preparation for the expiration of the Dead Sea concession period of 2030.

One of the main conclusions included in the report was that the extraction of resources from the Dead Sea has substantial benefits to the Israeli economy, and to southern Israel in particular. In light of this, and subject to the government’s comprehensive policy regarding the Dead Sea, the committee recommended continuing extraction of resources from the Dead Sea, while taking measures designed to restrict the scope of the plants’ negative environmental impact.

Current Dead Sea water levels are measured at approximately -437 meters. Expert assessments, conducted for the Israeli government, have stated that while the Dead Sea level continues to decrease, the evaporation rate from it is also expected to gradually decrease. This is due to the accompanying minimization of the Dead Sea’s surface area, and the increase in water salinity concentrations. Based on this modeled prediction of a gradual slower reduction rate, experts have therefore concluded that the Dead Sea will reach a new steady state at a level of approximately -550 meters in an area of 450 square kilometers (about 75% of its area today), within 100-150 years (assuming no partial/full solution to the reduction).

See item 1.2 p.15 and item 4.5 p.33: ‘Dead Sea Area policy suggestion for the Israeli government; Status and future significance of receding water levels’ – Geological Survey of Israel, Ministry of Environmental Protection and additional authors, 2006 (HEBREW).

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Dead Sea Water Level

Conclusions of the 'Naveh Committee'

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