The Civil Engineering Contractor July 2018 | Page 12

WORLD NEWS
The Dead Sea is shrinking by more than one metre a year.
Jordan is committed to implementing a Red Sea–Dead Sea
Water Conveyance Project, notwithstanding Israeli signals
that it is no longer keen on the regional scheme, if it ever was.
There are concerns that the project is not economically viable,
but proposals as to the scheme have been around for hundreds
of years while being often stymied by politics.
A Jordanian official warned that Israel’s frequently suggested
withdrawal from the project and deliberate creation of
stumbling blocks to hold the project back can “only hurt
regional stability”.
“We are ready to press ahead with the project, but Israel has
been repeatedly hindering it for some time now and this is
disrupting regional cooperation and undermining the slightest
chances for peace in the Middle East,” the source noted.
A recent opinion article in The Jerusalem Post suggested that
the project had a partisan political agenda, questioning Israel’s
need for the project. However, a senior government source
contacted by The Jordan Times said that Jordan would go ahead
with the Red–Dead project “with or without Israel”.
Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December 2013
to implement the first phase of the Red–Dead seas project.
12 - CEC July 2018
Under the first phase, a total of 300-million cubic meters
(mcm) of seawater would be pumped to the Dead Sea from
the Red Sea each year, eventually rising to two-billion cubic
meters of seawater. A total of 85–100mcm of water will be
desalinated every year, while the seawater will be pumped out
from an intake located in the north of the Gulf of Aqaba.
A conveyor would be extended to transfer desalinated water
and a pipeline installed to dump the brine into the Dead Sea
in order to stop its constant decline, estimated at one metre
every year.
Several articles in Jordanian media have cited officials saying
that they do not need Israel for the pipeline, and even raising
the possibility of bringing in Saudi Arabia as a partner instead.
The R120-billion (USD10-billion) project has long been
seen as an early stage in a regional peace deal, which would see
the construction of a 220km pipeline transferring water from
the Red Sea to the Dead Sea — the lowest body of water on
earth — to benefit Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians, and
replenish the dwindling Dead Sea.
Besides providing an annual total of 100mcm of drinking
water to Palestinians, Jordanians, and Israelis, the Red–Dead
project would produce green energy.