israel , Jordan and Palestine have reached a consensus to protect the Dead Sea basin. In the last 50 years, the level of the Dead Sea has gone down by nearly 40 metres. According to Ayman Rabi, director of EcoPeace, a non-government orga-

nisation, about one-third of the basin has disappeared due to the impact of the potash industry located north of the Dead Sea.

Representatives of these countries stressed the need to conduct an integrated development plan while protecting the Sea. It is important to concentrate tourism development in the north and south of the basin in order to protect the Dead Sea, said EcoPeace Israeli director Gidon Bromberg. He added that it has become essential to keep largescale development away from the highly fragile eastern and western corridors of the Dead Sea particularly in the vicinity of Ein Gedi and Mujeb (Arnon) as currently planned.