Update From Nazareth |
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| Hotels oppose Dead Sea promenade |
| 08/02/2010 |
| As the State is making concerted efforts to promote tourism to the Dead Sea, the hotels surrounding the site, as well as Dead Sea Works, are thwarting the process as they try to block a promenade from being installed along the shore. It is hoped that the promenade will attract many tourists, and will also include a bike path.
The hotels are worried that what they have deemed their own "private" beach will be accessed by tourists and travelers who are not guests of the hotels. They are also concerned that various attractions that may spring up in the environs will draw hotels guests out of the hotels.
Dead Sea Works is concerned that the plan to pave a bike path along the beach will cause problems in their industrial activities at the site. The industrial player uses the reasoning that if it weren't for their industrial evaporation ponds at the southern basin of the sea near the hotels, the area would dry up and there would be no water there.
However, in contrast with the drastic drop in the water level in the sea's northern basin, every year it turns out that the high salt concentrations on the pond bed resulting from the evaporation processes taking place cause the water level to rise, threatening to flood the hotels along the main pond – Pond 5.
The company could improve the situation if they would scrape the salt off the pond bed, thus restoring the original water level. A temporary protection apparatus for the hotels is currently being looked into, but in the meantime, a solution to the problem has yet to be set.
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