The slow death of the Dead Sea - in pictures

An abandoned water park opposite to the shores of the Dead Sea at the Dead Sea coastal resort near Ein Gedi.

An abandoned old work camp on the southern side of the Dead Sea.

An old buoy used by the Israeli navy when they were stationed at the Dead Sea during the 1980s lies about 20 meters out of the water and marks were the water line was about 30 years ago.

Dead palm trees stand in front of the Dead Sea coastal resort.

An old dock lies at the middle of the beach.

A large sinkhole created by the decrease in water level at the Dead Sea coastal resort near Ein Gedi.

An abandoned tourist Boat shipwreck lying at the Dead Sea coastal resort.

A drying pool of the Dead Sea salt processing factory on the southern side of the sea.

A researcher from the Isareli Geological Institute of Limnological Research measures the Dead Sea depth from a rope covered with salt while sailing on the research ship ‘Taglit’ (Discovery) during their monthly research of the Dead Sea water level.

An old dock stands about 20 meters above the sea level mark where the water line was about 20 years ago.

The Dead Sea takes its name from the level of salinity that makes it impossible for plants, fish and other animals to survive. Increasingly, though, it is the Dead Sea which is dying.

By some estimates, water levels are dropping by as much as a metre every year. First measured in 1927, the Dead Sea has fallen by 40 meters in the last half century.

The reasons are as complicated as the politics of a body of water whose shores include Jordan, the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories and Israel.

Some of the blame is laid on the fertiliser industry, including Jordan’s Arab Potash and Israel Chemicals, who use the inland sea for fertiliser production. Agricultural in the Dead Sea basin has also reduced the flow of the Jordan River, which feeds the Dead Sea. Some estimates say over 90 per cent is diverted.

The end result is simple - and potentially catastrophic for a place that at 429 metres below sea level is the lowest elevation on Earth and whose reputation as a health resort stretches back to Herod the Great. Every year, more water flows out than in.

The results of this environmental tragedy can be seen in these new photographs. Many of the resorts that once lined the Dead Sea are now many metres from the waterline, others, like this waterpark, have been abandoned. Thousands of sinkholes are opening up, the result of erosion.

One proposal is to pump water from the Red Sea to replenish the Dead Sea using a new pipleline. But the environmental impact of such a scheme is controversial, the costs enormous and the completion date 2022 at the earliest, by which time the Dead Sea will have dropped by another seven metres.

All photos courtesy Abir Sultan / EPA