Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conduit Project

Environmentalists, historians, and politicians alike are concerned about the shrinking of the Dead Sea over the past 40 years. Population pressure on water resources in the region and the management of the Jordan River basin, which feeds the lake, have contributed to the steady drop in the level of the Dead Sea – at a rate of more than one meter per year, by some estimates.

In 2005, the governments of the three countries surrounding the Dead Sea – Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories – agreed on a way to halt the sea’s decline. The proposed solution entails building a 110 mile canal and tunnel system to transfer water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The three parties asked the World Bank to oversee the implementation of a feasibility study and environmental and social assessment for the project in accordance with the Bank’s policies and guidelines.

Restoring the water level in the Dead Sea is not the project’s only objective. Project proponents aim to utilize the transfer of water from the Red Sea, which is at an altitude 400 meters above that of the Dead Sea, to generate hydroelectric power. Perhaps of even higher priority is the use of the project to boost water supplies to the riparian countries. The transferred water will undergo a desalination process on its way from the Red Sea in order to extract drinking water for use by populations in Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

All three countries suffer from severe water scarcity, defined as per capita water supply of less than 500 cubic meters of water per year. The deposit of the residual concentrated salt water (or “brine”) in the Dead Sea raises concerns about potential damage to the sea’s chemical composition and biology.

The feasibility study for the project is expected to take about 2 years and will cost $15.5 million. The study is to be financed through a multi-donor trust fund, and the project itself could cost as much as $5 billion and take up to 20 years to complete.

Environmental risks

The project raises a number of concerns related to its potential adverse environmental impacts on the site from which water will be sourced in the Gulf of Aqaba, on the area through which the canal will pass, and on the Dead Sea itself. Given the cost, complexity and risks involved in the proposed “Peace Canal,” as it has come to be known, many are asking why there isn’t more consideration of alternative ways to halt the Dead Sea crisis.

No consideration of alternatives

According to World Bank policies and guidelines on environmental assessment, studies of the proposed project must also examine alternative proposals for addressing the problem of the declining water level in the Dead Sea. Environmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth-Middle East, have demanded that the Bank-supported studies include an independent analysis of alternatives to the Red-Dead Conduit project. They argue that an assessment of potential solutions to the Dead Sea crisis must examine the root causes of the drop in the lake’s level, and consider multiple options for reversing the decline. However, the terms of reference issued by the Bank to short-listed consultants in July 2007 did not mention any requirement to analyze alternative approaches to “halting the degradation of the Dead Sea environment.”

Friends of the Earth-Middle East was among the first to raise awareness about the endangered Dead Sea and called for an environmentally sustainable solution to the lake’s decline. The organization is now leading a public campaign to get the World Bank and the governments backing the water transfer project to comprehensively examine alternative options for saving the Dead Sea before taking a decision on how to proceed.

Official Documents

Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study – June 2010
Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance Feasibility Study and Environmental and Social Assessment, World Bank (World Bank website)

Civil Society Analysis

An Analysis of the Latest Research Commissioned, by EcoPeace / FoEME on the Red Sea to Dead Sea Conduit and its Relevance to the World Bank Led Study, Friends of the Earth-Middle East, May 2007 (Foe-ME website) (Acrobat PDF 3.64 MB)

Press

The red sea might save the dead sea, by Douglas Hamilton, March 19, 2009 (Reuters website)
The other side of the faucet by Nir Hasson, October 11, 2007 (Ha’aretz website)
The Peace Canal: Israel-Jordan project aims to save Dead Sea by Samiha Shafy, September 05, 2007 (Spiegel Online website)
Peace Canal deal for thirsty Middle East by Conal Urquhart, Guardian, May 9, 2005 (Guardian website)

Useful Websites

Friends of the Earth-Middle East’s campaign webpage on the Red-Dead Canal

Friends of the Earth-Middle East
Mr. Gidon Bromberg
Tel-Aviv Office
Nahalat Binyamin 85
Tel-Aviv, 66102 Israel
Tel: 972-3-5605383
Fax: 972-3-5604693
info@foeme.org
www.foeme.org