Green group: Raise royalties for Dead Sea Works mining

"Adoption of these measures, would ensure more stable economy in long term, achieve social justice for citizens," says group director.

By SHARON UDASIN
dead sea works 298 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
dead sea works 298
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva v’Din) proposed that the Dead Sea Works company be charged higher royalties and that plans to privatize water and sewage be canceled in a series of socioeconomic recommendations submitted to both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Trajtenberg Committee and the Student Union’s rival Spivak Committee, a spokeswoman for the green group announced on Sunday.
Instructing the two committees to bulk up government funding sources by “changing the order of priorities in Israel,” the group said that additional income from the Dead Sea Works company and the other proposed ideas would bring “huge sums of public money that could be used as solutions to many other societal problems – education, housing, environment, health and welfare.”
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Allowing private corporations to oversee water and sewage systems would be putting essential services that are basic human rights in jeopardy, the organization argued.
“Transferring the responsibility of the supply of these essential services to private hands that are interested in maximizing financial benefits and achieving economic efficiency will bring unbearable damage to human rights, public interests, and in the quality of services provided,” the Adam Teva v’Din spokeswoman said in a statement.
Adoption of these measures, the group’s Executive Director Amit Bracha assured, would ensure a more stable economy in the long term and achieve social justice for citizens.