Beach to get ecological facelift

The Eilat Municipality will turn a 150-meter stretch of beach south of the famed Dolphin Reef into an "ecological" beach for public use.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The Eilat Municipality and the Eilat-Ashdod Pipeline company will spend NIS 4.5 million to turn a 150-meter stretch of beach south of the famed Dolphin Reef into an "ecological" beach for public use, reports www.local.co.il. The beach, which is currently used by the company and is closed to the public, will be redeveloped to provide educational and recreational activities aimed at increasing the public's understanding of the marine ecology and preserving the local environment. According to the report, the company will invest NIS 1.5 million and the city NIS 3 million in a project that includes building a museum of marine ecology and classrooms, using the existing pipelines to create a water "playground," and constructing public viewing facilities on the beach and underwater. The agreement between the company and the city follows negotiations going back several years. "The ecological beach will be a refreshing change … the beach will be attractive and will draw in tourists," a company spokesman said. And Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy said the city had decided to invest more and more in local beaches in the recognition that they were a "national treasure," with the ultimate aim of increasing the amount of publicly accessible beaches from the current 640 meters to 2,000 meters.