Due to climate change and human involvement the Dead Sea is evaporating, fast. It’s disappearing at a speed of more than one meter per year. By 2036, they expect it to drop by 25 meters. The lowering waterlevels also affect groundwater around the Dead Sea, resulting in sinkholes. In the area itself there’s now 5,500 sinkholes with the GSI (Geological Survey of Israel) estimating that around 500 new sinkholes are added on average per year. While in 1972 sinkholes didn’t exist. Due to the growing numbers of sinkholes, parts of the area have become too dangerous to enter resulting in two resorts having to already close down.

The Israeli government has fieldworkers doing research to how the sinkholes originate. Preventing it seems impossible, but by knowing how they behave, and where the areas of risk are, they hope to be able to build new roads, fabrics and resorts on safer area’s. In addition, one of the solutions they consider is a different (positive) approach: Such as (disaster) tourism. Another positive approach is to see the area as a unique study area, which can be educational for other places dealing with declining groundwater levels and drought.

Pictured are the closed down area’s, a few of the many sinkholes, bathing jetty’s floating in the air meters above the sea while they once used to be in the water and dry plains that actually used to be the seabed.

This is an ongoing project.