21 July 2010

In June 2010, the World Bank held its third set of public hearings with respect to the Red-Dead Sea conduit project. Friends of the Earth – Middle East attended the hearings and presented comments. This report comes from the FoEME website.

The World Bank held its third set of public hearings during the month of June 2010 in regards to the Red-Dead Sea Conduit project. Draft reports prepared by World Bank consultants were presented at the meetings.

Dates and locations of the hearings were as follows:

June 13 – Amman
June 14 – Aqaba
June 15 – Eilat
June 16 – Jerusalem
June 20 – Ramallah

The World Bank distributed a handout document for a quick update of project progress. Three presentations were given to update stakeholders on the project progress:

• Introductory Presentation (no link)
• Environmental and Social Assessment: Progress Update
• Current Status of the Feasibility Study

Friends of the Earth Middle East, together with a coalition of environmental organizations expressed their concerns over the present Study Program being carried out, stressing, in particular, that alternative studies have not been given sufficient time or resources for proper and credible assessments.

Click here for FoEME’s comments to the public hearing and for their media releasewidely distributed. Click here to read comments by Sarit Caspi, Water Scientist at theIsrael Union for Environmental Defense (IUED – Adam Teva V’Din). FoEME held a pre-hearing media tour to the Dead Sea Works mineral industry, where experimental mixing pools show preliminary outcomes of the mixing of Red Sea and Dead Sea waters.

Visit FoEME’s Red Dead Conduit project’s press coverage page to learn more.

Further Resources

Public Hearing Process ’10, Friends of the Earth – Middle East
Friends of the Earth – Middle East webpage on the Red-Dead conduit project