Dead Sea Land - REGIONAL AUTHORITY

Tamar Regional Council: Dead Sea land

Tamar Regional Council is a regional public authority in southeastern Israel, along the western and southern shores of the Dead Sea, within the Syrian-African Rift Valley. Established in 1956, the Council covers approximately 1,570 km² and extends 88 km from north to south. It includes six rural communities, among them a kibbutz, moshavim and a community settlement, with approximately 1,600 permanent residents. The Council's offices are in Neve Zohar, on the Dead Sea shore, in what is regarded as the lowest village in the world. In Hebrew, "tamar" means date palm, a tree common across the region.

A region of extremes

The region includes the lowest exposed land area on Earth, with the Dead Sea shoreline approximately 440 metres below sea level. The climate is extremely arid: summer temperatures frequently exceed 40°C, solar radiation is intense, and annual rainfall in the low-lying Dead Sea area is about 50 mm. These conditions shape every part of regional life, from water and energy use to agriculture, tourism and infrastructure, and make Tamar a real-world setting for testing solutions designed for arid, climate-stressed regions.

Economy and landscape

The regional economy is based primarily on tourism and hospitality, agriculture (including date palms and vegetable cultivation), mineral extraction, and chemical industries, including major industrial facilities in the Dead Sea and Rotem Plain areas. The Dead Sea hotel districts, including Hamei Zohar and Ein Bokek, welcome visitors from Israel and abroad. The region also contains extensive nature reserves, agricultural land, industrial facilities, and internationally significant geological and environmental sites, including Ein Gedi.

The resident population is small, but the region supports a much larger working and visiting population. Many people from other areas are employed year-round and seasonally in industry, hotels and tourist sites, so infrastructure, energy, waste and water services must serve far more people than the permanent residents alone.

The Council and its affiliated bodies

The Council provides municipal services and regional planning, and works through affiliated bodies that include the Dead Sea Region Economic Company, Apaa Environmental Infrastructure Ltd. and the Ma'ayanot Zohar water company. Together they give the Council direct operational capacity in economic development, environmental infrastructure and water services. The Council is building its European cooperation and has a dedicated EU project officer for Horizon Europe and related programmes.

Energy transition and circular economy

The Council is advancing an energy transition plan targeting 2030 and has mapped regional emissions as a baseline for climate action. Date palm cultivation generates large volumes of pruning residues, and a gasification facility that converts them into energy is already in place in the region, supported by a pre-treatment step that standardises the feedstock. The Council is also exploring a regional hydrogen ecosystem.

Cooperation we are looking for

Tamar Regional Council seeks European partners in:

- climate adaptation and resilience in arid regions

- renewable energy and hydrogen

- circular economy, biomass and waste valorisation

- the water-energy-food nexus and desert agriculture

- sustainable tourism

- nature and landscape protection

The Council can join consortia as a local-authority partner, a demonstration site or a living lab, with direct links to farmers, local communities, the hospitality sector, industry and its affiliated companies.

Partners we would like to meet: regional and city authorities facing heat, water scarcity or desertification, in the Mediterranean and beyond; research institutions and universities; technology SMEs in energy, water, agri-tech and circular economy; regional development agencies and clusters; and coordinators building consortia where an arid-region demonstration site and a public-authority partner would add value.