Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2006, page 33

Special Report

Prospects for a Dead Sea-Red Sea “Canal”

By Andrew I. Killgore

The Dead Sea is drying up. Already it is two-thirds of its historic size, and the water level is falling by one meter per year. In order to prevent it from becoming completely dry, a Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal has been proposed.

Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority recently have agreed to a feasibility study for the project, said Vasid Alavian, the United Nations water adviser for the Middle East and North Africa. When “donor countries”—those with a special interest in the area and subject matter—put up the estimated $15 million cost, he explained, a contract will be let. 

Speaking from his Washington, DC office, Alavian stressed that there has been much uninformed speculation about the canal, which may include tunnels and piping. Two good overviews of the project appear in a Ramallah-datelined article in the May 10, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald, and in the June 23, 2003 Jordan Times.

Both Israel and Jordan have taken water for agricultural and other purposes from the Jordan River and its tributaries, the main source of Dead Sea waters. Israel is the main culprit, taking probably two-thirds of the water from the Sea of Galilee. Jordan takes a smaller amount from the Yarmuk River for its East Ghor Canal irrigation project. A major advantage of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal would be to allow Israel and Jordan to continue their diversions of water while the Dead Sea gradually refills to its historical size. The estimated cost of the canal is $3.9 billion to $5 billion.

The idea of a Mediterranean Sea-Dead Sea canal to produce electric power dates to the middle of the 19th century. Current thinking has coalesced on the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal for the all-important purpose of saving the Dead Sea from disappearing. However, according to David Phillips, a water consultant to the Palestinian Authority, it would be difficult to justify economically.

“There is maybe a 20- to 30-year lifetime for the project,” he said, because that is how long it will take for the Dead Sea to regain its natural level.”

As now envisioned, water would be raised 170 meters at Aqaba, in Jordan, and allowed to fall 400 meters near Jericho, producing the electrical power to desalinate the sea water. The fresh water would go mainly to Jordan. Needless to say, the cost of lifting the desalinated water 1,100 meters from the Dead Sea to Amman, which sits at 914 meters, would be very great. 

The canal has been dubbed the “Peace Conduit” by some commentators who see the requisite cooperation among Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority as a model for peaceful coexistence in the region.

Andrew I. Killgore, a retired foreign service officer and former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, is publisher of the Washington Report.

< Prev		Next >