Amman – Jordan, Israel Agree $900 Million Red Sea-Dead Sea Project

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    A handout photo provided by the Government Press Office (GPO) on 26 February 2015 of Silvan Shalom (L), Israel's Minister of Energy and Water, and Hazem Nasser (2-L), Jordan's  Minister of Water and Irrigation and Minister of Agriculture signing a bilateral agreement on the Jordanian Dead Sea, 26 February 2015, to establish a sea canal that will link the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, in order to provide water to the world's lowest area and dob of water, and save the shrinking Dead Sea. Others are not identified.  EPA/Amman – Jordan and Israel signed an agreement to go ahead with a World Bank-sponsored project to build a desalination plant in the Gulf of Aqaba and a pipeline linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea.

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    The plant will be built in the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea and will desalinate water to be shared by Israelis and Palestinians. The brine that is a byproduct of the process will be sent north in a 112-mile (180-km) pipeline to the Dead Sea.

    The project will cost around $900 million. It will take nearly three years to complete.

    Jordanian officials said the two projects were crucial to providing a source of fresh water to the kingdom, which faces a severe water deficit, and to reviving the shrinking Dead Sea.

    “The deal will help satisfy Jordan’s increasing water needs for development,” Jordan’s water minister, Hazem al Nasser, said after the agreement was signed.

    The desalination plant will produce at least 80 million cubic meters annually. Israel will buy at cost up to 40 million cubic meters. The rest will go to Aqaba.

    Nasser said the pipeline will pump 300 million cubic meters annually of Red Sea water to the Dead Sea. As much as 2 billion cubic meters are envisioned in a future expansion.

    The idea of linking the two bodies of water has been around for more than a century. The Dead Sea has been found to be receding at a rate of more than 3.3 feet (1 meter) every year.

    Under the agreement, Nasser said, Israel would also release 50 million cubic meters more water from the Sea of Galilee, its largest reservoir, to Jordan, beyond water-sharing stipulated in a 1994 peace agreement.

    Israeli National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom said the project would bring water from the desalination plant for farmers in southern Israel and drinking water to the north.

    The Palestinians who have long complained about Israeli restrictions on constructing new water infrastructure and what they say is illegal pumping from their underground aquifers in the West Bank will also get water from the plant, Nasser said.

    The project began to move ahead two years ago after the World Bank determined it is possible to use the Red Sea to replenish the shrinking Dead Sea after years of studying whether such a connecting lifeline could work.


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    6 Comments
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    9 years ago

    This is a good thing for all the parties involved.

    Avrohom Abba
    Avrohom Abba
    9 years ago

    This cooperation is wonderful news and will iy”H help heal many open wounds.

    Benyeli
    Benyeli
    9 years ago

    If it’s such a good idea, why wasn’t it done by the Master of the universe?

    5TResident
    Noble Member
    5TResident
    9 years ago

    Jordan is smart. They know that cooperating with Israel can only bring them good things, because Israel is a technologically advanced country. Hating doesn’t get anyone anywhere. If only everyone realized this.

    sruli
    sruli
    9 years ago

    Not if those with open wounds go in to the dead sea……

    savtat
    savtat
    9 years ago

    I love Yam Hamlech – you feel rejuvenated after being there. The water line is dangerously low and this will ensure that it remains viable. Good for Jordan and Israel that they can cooperate with each other for everyone’s benefit. Maybe we could bypass the PA and have Jordan administer the population on the West Bank????