1 BackgroundThe Dead Sea is drying out. Whereas its water level was approximately 389m below mean sea level in1970, it has fallen to – 427 m in the meantime. The immense diversion of water from its maintributary, the Jordan River, and the over-exploitation of water resources of the Dead Sea by themineral extraction industry have done great damage to the salty lake. Now, water from the Red Seashall help. The idea to construct a canal between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea is old. Already at theend of the 19th century such a canal was discussed as a means of transport and for energyproduction. Since the presentation of the so called Peace Conduit project from the Red Sea to theDead Sea by the governments of Israel and Jordan at the World Summit in Johannesburg 2002, theinitiative gained in importance. Shortly afterwards, also the Palestinian Authority supported theproject and in May 2005, the three riparian states approved the realisation of a feasibility study. Thestudy was carried out by the World Bank and was funded by a multi-donor trust fund, which wasestablished in December 2006. France, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Korea, The Netherlands, Sweden,and the United States of America contributed about 16.7 million U.S. dollars to the studyprogramme. In July 2012, a summary of the study was published by the World Bank. The full reportsof the study are available upon written request.The Feasibility Study of the World BankThree different water conveyance systems with either a high or a low level desalination plant wereexamined. Based on the study, the optimum system configuration is a pipeline conveyance combinedwith a high level desalination plant. From an eastern intake site at the Gulf of Aqaba 2,000 million m3of water per year shall be pumped onto an elevation of 220m before being redirected for a distanceof about 174km towards the Dead Sea. The difference in elevation of around 650m shall be used tooperate a hydroelectric power plant. The generated energy shall then be used for the desalinationplant. Altogether around 850 million m3of seawater shall be desalted annually, in order to provideIsrael, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories with drinking water. The remaining brine shall also befed into the Dead Sea. The objective is to stabilize the water level of the Dead Sea at an altitude ofminus 416m by 2054. With the assumed construction duration of six years, the Red Sea – Dead SeaCanal could be ready in 2020.The full costs of the project are estimated to sum up to about 11.1 to 11.3 billion U.S. dollars. Thisestimate includes expenses for intake works, the pumping station, the main water conveyance(tunnel and steel pipes), desalination facilities, hydropower plants, the restitution canal, theconnection to the transmission grid, the project management, the establishment of necessaryinstitutional structures as well as the water transmission to Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. In addition,operation and maintenance costs add up to about 400 million U.S. dollars per year. This sum willincrease to about 660 million by 2060.Potential sources of initial finance include beneficiary government equity / public funding,multilateral loans, private equity, grants, donations, soft loans, export credit as well as contractorfinance. The operation and maintenance costs shall be recovered through the tariffs for potablewater and hydro-electricity.
about – 6,140 GWh/year. It needs to be emphasised that the energy needed to pump the drinkingwater to Israel and Palestine was not even considered in these calculations. Furthermore, the costsfor the produced drinking water will vary between 1.7 and 2.7 U.S. dollars per cubic meter in Jordanand will thus be unaffordable for the local population.Problems might also occur from a technical point of view. Pipelines are prone to leakages, whichcan continue undetected for many years and which might harm valuable groundwater resources. Inaddition, the region between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea is seismically active: a strongearthquake might damage the pipeline.From the perspective of Palestinian non-governmental organisations, the plan to construct such apipeline undermines Palestinian water rights, as the massive water abstraction from the LowerJordan River and the Palestinian dispossession from the river would be legitimised. Palestinianswould end up paying a high price for desalinated drinking water, even though they are entitled to thefree use of the water of the Jordan River.The World Bank also published a study of alternatives, but FoEME criticises that this study wasentrusted to experts picked by Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian governments and thus represents abreach to neutrality. According to FoEME, the study should be undertaken in an independent andcomprehensive fashion by international consultants. Even though an Independent Panel of Experts(IPE) was appointed by the World Bank to oversee the study, it is not clear what powers, if any, theIPE has to address deficiencies in the study process and to challenge its results. Another indicator forthe lack of transparency is the fact that the World Bank does not make documents related todecisions and/or compromises made by the Bank and the international consultants regarding thelevel of scientific study publicly available.In addition, only half a million U.S. dollars were spent on examining alternatives. This fact shows thatalternative options have not been tested nearly as intense as the feasibility of the Red-Dead Canal.That, in turn, puts the statement of the World Bank to try to find the best solution to save the DeadSea in question.Alternatives to the Red-Dead CanalInstead of investing billions of U.S. dollars in a project whose economic, environmental and socialconsequences cannot be predicted, the causes of the problem should be addressed: the massivediversion of water from the main tributary of the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, as well as theoverexploitation of the water resources of the saline lake by the mineral industry.Already 400-600 million cubic meters of water would be sufficient to bring the water flow of theLower Jordan River back to an acceptable level. According to a study conducted by FoEME, dedicatedwater saving and water demand management projects may save / generate up to a billion cubicmeters of water in the riparian countries. On the supply side, large quantities of water can be savedthrough rainwater collection, the reduction of water losses due to evaporation from exposed manmadereservoirs and reduction of water losses due
saved through the reduction of water consumption through awareness raising campaigns, consumerorientedwater tariffs and the reuse of grey-water for domestic purposes, such as toilet flushing.Water saving potentials in the agricultural sector are also high: whereas agriculture uses more than50% of all the water in Israel, it only contributes around 2% to the gross domestic product. Bychanging cropping patterns, using treated waste water, removing import barriers of water-intensivecrops and by improving irrigation technologies large amounts of water can be saved.In addition to the rehabilitation of the Lower Jordan River, the mineral extraction industry needs tochange its practices. Every year, around 650 million cubic meters of water are extracted from theDead Sea and led into large evaporation basins. Instead, the valuable minerals could also be filteredfrom the salt water by using special membranes. This, however, is an expensive technology and asthe mineral extraction industry does not yet pay for the water that it extracts from the Dead Sea, thegovernments need to create incentives first.Both Israel and Jordan are able to provide large quantities of fresh water for the Lower Jordan River.In doing so, Palestinian water rights would be respected, which can be seen as an important step tofoster the peace process in the Middle East.OutlookIt is not yet clear whether the Red-Dead Canal will be built or not. This is due to the very high costsassociated with the construction. According to the World Bank, the feasibility of the project dependson the ability to raise 4 billion U.S. dollars in donations and grant aid. Taking the current worldeconomic crisis into account, this will rather be difficult. In addition, Israel is deeply in debt andJordan is close to bankruptcy. Thus, the project does not seem to be financially feasible at themoment.Together with Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), Global Nature Fund advocates therehabilitation of the Lower Jordan River. Since 2012, GNF is involved in the development of the firstever transboundary integrated NGO master plan for the Lower Jordan River. This project lays thegroundwork for effective transboundary water governance in the Lower Jordan River Basin. Due tothe tense political situation in the region, many people regard the rehabilitation of the Lower JordanRiver as a hopeless endeavour. But there is hope. Israel recovers more than 80% of its water andrealises plans to desalinate 600 million cubic meters of water from the Mediterranean Sea. In Jordanand Palestine sewage treatment plants are constructed. While the region was threatened by severewater shortages 10-15 years ago, FoEME already came a little bit closer to their goal to pump 400-600 million cubic meters of water into the Lower Jordan River. In May 2013, Israel’s Water Authoritydeclared that they will regularly release water from Lake Kinneret. This year, around 6 million cubicmeters will flow into the river and the plan is to increase the inflow to 30 million cubic meters peryear. Even though this amount of water is not enough to replenish a river of the size like the Jordan,it is a promising start. And once the Jordan River flows again, a first step for saving the Dead Sea isdone.
Resources: Die Zeit (24/02/2013), Der durstige Salzsee, available at:http://www.zeit.de/2013/08/Oekologie-Totes-Meer-Austrocknung-Rotes-Meer Friends of the Earth Middle East (2010), Towards a Living Jordan River: An Economic Analysisof Policy Options for Water Conservation in Jordan, Israel and Palestine, available at:http://foeme.org/uploads/publications_publ118_1.pdf Friends of the Earth Middle East (2010), Towards a Living Jordan River: An EnvironmentalFlows Report on the Rehabilitation of the Lower Jordan River, available at:http://foeme.org/uploads/publications_publ117_1.pdf Friends of the Earth Middle East (2013), Red-Dead Conduit. Introduction, available at:http://foeme.org/www/?module=projects&record_id=51 Friends of the Earth Middle East (2013), News Alert. Good News for the Lower Jordan River,available at: http://foeme.org/peace.php?id=109 The World Bank (2012), Draft Final Feasibility Study Report. Summary, available at:http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTREDSEADEADSEA/Resources/Feasibility_Study_Report_Summary_EN.pdf The World Bank (2013), Study Program Financing, available at:http://go.worldbank.org/NCTAU6PB40 Salzburger Nachrichten (16/08/2013), Der Jordan soll wieder ein Fluss werden, available at:http://foeme.org/uploads/Salzburger_Nachrichten_August_16_2013%282%29.pdf Scoop Independent News (04/11/2013), Palestinian NGOs on World Bank-sponsored RedDeadSea Canal, available at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1311/S00023/palestinianngos-on-world-bank-sponsored-red-dead-sea-canal.htmContact