After the Israeli government unanimously approved a five-year, NIS 830 million budget for Dead Sea environmental protection and tourism on Sunday, MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) and green groups were not wholly satisfied with the decision.

“For the first time, after years in which the Dead Sea was used only as a source of resource exploitation, the state understands that natural resources are public property,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement released by his office. Green groups, however, feel that the newly approved budget is insufficient to cover the Dead Sea’s needs. “Only the comprehensive bill to restore the Dead Sea will provide a real solution to the worsening condition of the Dead Sea,” said Amit Bracha, executive director of Adam Teva V’Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense).

Bracha was referring to a broad Dead Sea rehabilitation plan drafted by his organization and proposed formally by MK Khenin, which was rejected twice by the cabinet in the past few months. This bill, according to Bracha, would limit the amount of water that Dead Sea Works would be able to pump in the future and determine policies for Israel’s contribution to ever dwindling water levels.

“Without the approval and implementation of this bill, it will be impossible to rehabilitate the Dead Sea and safeguard it for future generations – not by means of the amount of money the government approved [on Sunday], which is intended primarily for tourism purposes,” Bracha said.

MK Khenin echoed Bracha’s sentiments, equating the government decision to providing “aspirin to a cancer patient” and calling investments in tourism “are only words” and unhelpful to the Dead Sea’s declining situation.