Arab Environment Monitor
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Jordanian magazine "Jordan Business" has recently published a thorough
analytical article on the joint statement by Jordan, Israel and Palestine to
conduct a feasibility and environmental impact study for the proposed Red-Dead
Canal.
This is the full text of the article:
Last month, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Israel launched a two-year
feasibility study for a project to replenish the rapidly disappearing Dead Sea
by way of pumping water into it from the Red Sea. Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports
on the meeting at the lowest-lying body of water on Earth.
The Red-Dead Canal project has been on the drawing board for years but has yet
to enter the construction phase. The feasibility study, to be conducted by the
World Bank, is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2007.
Officials hope that the two-year feasibility study and environmental and social
assessment will recommend a multibillion-dollar project to link the Dead Sea
with the Red Sea, using a pipeline or canal to suck 1,900 million cubic meters
(mcm) of water annually from the Gulf of Aqaba.
France, the U.S., the Netherlands and Japan attended last month’s Dead Sea
meeting in Jordan together with the World Bank and the riparian states and have
already contributed $8.8 million to fund the $15 million study.
Ministry of Water and Irrigation Official Spokesperson and Assistant General
Secretary, Adnan Zoubi, said the three regional players had decided to initiate
a feasibility study after meeting at the World Economic Forum in May 2005.
Political developments, including the rise of Hamas to power in the
Palestinian territories, delayed the launch. Jordan, which has said it is
prepared to cooperate with the Palestinians, “whether led by Hamas or any other
party,” invited the Israelis and the Palestinians, along with the main parties,
to attend last month’s gathering.
The study became possible after the international community stepped in with the
financing and after Israel apparently dropped its Med-Dead Sea canal project,
which many experts say is not feasible. The Israelis had proposed building a
canal extending from the Mediterranean coast to the Dead Sea, including a
desalination plant that would sell freshwater to both Jordanians and
Palestinians. Such a project would have left the tap under Israeli control, a
set up neither Jordan or the Palestinians would have accepted.
Construction of the project, if determined feasible, would cost around $4
billion, last over 10 years and would link the Dead Sea with the Red Sea
through a series of pipelines, canals and tunnels. The intended 180-kilometer
conduit would carry around two billion cubic meters of seawater per year to
associated power, reverse osmosis desalination facilities and would increase
freshwater availability to Jordan, Israel and Palestine by an annual 850 mcm.
The project will also include a hydro-electric plant to capitalize on the drop
in level of 400 meters from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, generating 550
megawatts of power, which will be used to operate the desalination plant and to
nourish electricity networks in the Kingdom. The Israelis and Palestinians will
also benefit from the generated power. The proposal also envisages a shared
cross-border airport and an industrial city.
Dr. Dureid Mahasneh, former co-chairman of the Jordan-Israel Water Coordination
Committee, said Jordan is expected to get 570 mcm of freshwater through
desalination and the remaining 280 mcm would be divided among Palestinians and
Israelis annually. While Israel’s water share is not yet clear, the Israelis
see the project as a means of cementing relations with its Arab neighbors. The
Dead Sea is depleting at the rate of about 80 centimeters per year, and will be
completely dry by 2050 if urgent action is not taken. The Red-Dead project will
quash the 25-meter fall in the level of the Dead Sea over the past century.
Experts say the reduction has been caused mainly by the diversion of the Jordan
River, which feeds the Dead Sea, for irrigation and drinking water - mostly by
Israel, but also by Jordan and Syria. Today, less than 7% of the river’s
original flow reaches the Dead Sea.The annual drop in the level of the Dead Sea
has already left the nearby lands unstable and susceptible to sink holes,
which puts infrastructure, including roads, hotels and chemical plants around
the sea, in jeopardy. The natural environment has also been disrupted,
affecting bird migrations and desert wildlife.
Dr. Mahasneh said the completion of the study doesn’t necessarily mean execution
of the costly project will follow. However, he pointed out that getting funds
for the mega-project is not as difficult as it used to be five or 10 years ago
because through a build, operate and transfer basis, consumers will be paying
for the desalinated water so investors may be more tempted. He added that the
liquidity in the region could make it easier to attract investors, especially
that the project will spin off to include resort areas, fish ponds, and lakes
in Wadi Araba to bolster tourism.
Although many studies have been conducted to explore the feasibility of the
project, Dr. Mahasneh said the new study is “using totally different techniques
and is not intended to complete or build on what has been done in the past.”
Water politics
There is no doubt that the Red-Dead Canal project is highly political and not
just another water project. Professor of Hydrogeology at the University of
Jordan, Dr. Elias Salameh said the project may enhance peace and lessen
tensions in the region through joint research and scientific studies - a
sentiment shared by all the parties. “The project is very important since it
will deepen the meaning of peace in the region through joint projects and
practical work,” Mr. Zoubi said.
Now key players, the Palestinian Authority was represented by President Mahmoud
Abbas’s economic advisor, Mohammad Mustafa, who described the study as
“essential in promoting sustainable development of the entire Jordan Valley
basin.” In 1990, the Palestinians were excluded from the Red-Dead Canal
trilateral committee, consisting of Jordan, Israel and the U.S., which was
responsible for the development of the Jordan Rift Valley.
At the launch of the feasibility study in Jordan, Israeli Minister of National
Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters the project goes beyond
protection of the Dead Sea because the economic cooperation would fortify the
peace process. The Israelis are also keen on protecting their touristic
investments along the Dead Sea.
Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said the “project of the canal,
or the Peace Conduit…is vital for the preservation of the Dead Sea, but just as
much for peace and prosperity in this area,” he said. “In the Middle East we
have used too much diplomacy and strategy, and too little economy,” he added.
Regardless of these declarations there is still skepticism of Israeli
intentions, especially that it has taken more than its fair share of water. He
explained that the Israelis “falsely presume that the [new] desalinated
freshwater for the Palestinians might replace the freshwater they illegally
take from the West Bank underground aquifers.” Israel still controls 75% of
underwater aquifers in the West Bank. Drilling, licensing and water allocation
are also under Israeli control.
But not everyone supports the closer cooperation. Jordan’s Islamic-led
opposition rejects the project, which it says has the primary aim of promoting
normalization with Israel.
“From a principled attitude, we view the project a political move that has the
key aim of normalizing ties with the Zionist entity,” Secretary General of the
Islamic Action Front (IAF), Zaki Bani Ershaid, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
after the launch of the study.
Environmental critics
Critics on opposite shores of the Dead Sea say the project is a pricey endeavor
that fails to address the root cause of the depleting sea, which could destroy
the very sea that they are trying to resuscitate. Some environmentalists have
warned that the two bodies of water may not mix well and that siphoning out
large volumes of water from the Gulf of Aqaba may damage its fragile ecosystem.
Some say that pumping less salty water into the Dead Sea could kill its delicate
micro-organisms and harm its appeal to tourists. Others argue that the Dead Sea
used to be replenished from fresh water from the River Jordan, so it should not
be harmed.
Friends of the Earth warned that mixing water from the Red Sea with the unique
chemical soup of the Dead Sea could create a natural disaster. “The [Dead
Sea’s] mix of bromide, potash, magnesium and salt is like no other body of
water on the planet,” said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of
the Earth in the Middle East. “By bringing in the marine water, this
composition will be changed. There is concern about algae growth and we could
see the sea change from deep blue to red and brown and the different waters
could separate.”
Some environmentalists have gone as far as charging that Red-Dead is driven by
the interests of Israeli and Jordanian construction companies eager to
capitalize on the mega-project. The Red-Dead canal is not the only solution to
the water problem; neither is it going to undo the mismanagement of Jordan’s
reources, Dr. Mahasneh explained. “Re-exporting water in the form of
watermelons and tomatoes is part of our water mismanagement that also has to
stop,” he said.
http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/1/145250.html