THE DEAD SEA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 150, 14 March 1918, Page 5

THE DEAD SEA

A VALUABLE ASSET. Hitherto the Dead Sea lias never boon of any industrial or other use. No iisli enn live in it. But there may be sumo low forms of life existing in it, for no survey has ever been made of animal or vegetable life in its water. But tho recovery of potash at American Portland Cement "Works has put quite a new complexion on the valuo of the Dead Sea, and its waters may at an early date bo made to yield an enormous amount of potash, and the potash may be applied not only as a fertiliser for the utilisation of adjacent regions which have low-grade soil, but also become a valuable source of oxport. In Nebraska, there arc numerous shallow lakes, some of them not more than two or three feet in depth, the water of which is so briny that the cattle will not drink it. In many of the lakes tho water is so caustic as to eat tho skin from the flesh if the hand is dipped into it. Chemical investigation showed that the water contained about 10 per cont. of solids, of which 25 per cent, is potash. Large evaporating and treating works have been built, and pipe lines constructed for pumping water to them. Some of these pipe lines are twenty-five miles in length. Tho water delivered at the plant is evaporated by high pressure steam, using several stages of pressure, and thus using the steam several times before it is allowed to exhaust. Fresh water pumped into the lakes redissolves the salts in the shale oil, and tho potash is recovered from this water in the same way. The process can be worked at.a profit, even when the water has to be pumped twenty-five miles. Some of the pumping plants are operated electrically, taking current generated at a central station. The potash industry is only a temporary industry in Nebraska, and is dependent entirely upon the present extremely high price of the article. The supply' is sufficient for sis or eight years, and will then be exhausted. It ought to be quite different with the Dead Sea. The area is large and the depth great, and the deeper the water the. more solids it will hold in solution. The Jordan Valley is steep, and the fall of water should be able to generate sufficient electrical power. Again, the pumping would bb a shortdistance proposition, for the land round Jericho is suitable for the erection of works, and it can be taken over by the Government which Great Britain alone or the Entente will set up, for it is at present Turkish Crown land. Finally the salts are always being brought down by the Jordan, and the rain water from the whole catchment of tho basin, and there is no reason why the Dead Sea, should become exhausted.