Lough Ree water plans to create a ‘Dead Sea’ - Westmeath Independent

Lough Ree water plans to create a ‘Dead Sea’ - Westmeath Independent: "Karen Downey
reports
The Progressive Democrats have criticised the proposals to extract water from Lough Ree to supply Dublin city, saying this would lead to a destruction of the lake and the river Shannon, similar to what is occurring in the Dead Sea.
In the first edition of a constituency newssheet, the Longford/Westmeath Democrat, the PDs drew comparisons with the destruction of the Dead Sea. Over 30 years more than half the surface of the Dead Sea has disappeared with the water level dropping by 262ft. Experts agree that in less than 50 years the Dead Sea will have disappeared forever.
The article outlines that the cause of this destruction was the extraction of water from the River Jordan, the source of the Dead Sea’s water.
There is a proposal funded by the World Bank to reduce and reverse the damage through diverting water from the Red Sea in a canal or pipe system over 175km to the shores of the Dead Sea. This proposal, however, is meeting with opposition from the authorities at the Gulf of Aquaba, the suggested extraction point. "