November 2005

27/04/2005

The proposed NIS 3 billion canal from the Red Sea and Dead Sea will produce power, and save the Dead Sea.

Dalia Tal

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 21, 2005

Professional representatives of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have signed an agreement to study the feasibility of digging a canal between the Red Sea and Dead Sea, at a cost of NIS 3 billion.

Experts from across the world will participate in the $20 million study. Under the plan, the World Bank will help finance the project, which it supports. The World Bank has also offered to help finance the study.

The idea a Red-Dead Sea Canal was raised by Roni Milo when he was minister of regional cooperation in the early 2000s. With his backing, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of National Infrastructures Dr. Michael Beyth began to study the idea.

The canal, which has been named the "peace conduit", has several goals: producing power by exploiting the gradient between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, which is 400 meters below sea level; a source of water for desalination facilities in Jordan; and saving the Dead Sea, which is suffering from a severe fall in its water level, due to diversions of the Jordan River.

At the upcoming Davos conference in May, Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and his Jordanian and Palestinian counterparts are expected to sign an agreement for carrying out the study.

Under the agreement, a canal will be built on the Jordanian side of its border with Israel in the Arava. The feasibility study will examine building a tourist park with lakes and water sports, while the Israeli interest is in saving the Dead Sea.

The project has many opponents, headed by environmental organizations that claim that canal will damage the environment and utterly destroy the Dead Sea by allowing an inflow of water from the Red Sea, which has a different chemical composition.