The Red Sea-Dead Sea Project Excludes Palestinians

The Red Sea-Dead Sea Project Excludes Palestinians February 6, 2016

Ever since Jews began returning to their ancestral land during the late 1990s, they and indigenous peoples of the region have thought of some sort of project that would transfer seawater from the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern end of the Red Sea northward to empty into the Dead Sea largely to restore its previous salinity and surface level.

For thousands of years, the surface of the Dead Sea has been the lowest place on earth. Nowadays, it is over 1,400 feet below sea level and decreasing over three feet per year. The north-south Jordan River flows from Lake Kinnerth (Sea of Galilee in the Bible) southward and empties into the Dead Sea. Lake Kinnerth levels have decreased considerably due to its use for agriculture primarily by being siphoned off into Israel’s National Water Carrier.

Thus, in especially the past fifty years, over 90% of Jordan River water no longer flows into the Dead Sea. This is also due to upstream diversion of its water by the use of dams and canals mostly for agriculture as well. The high salinity content of the saltwater in the Dead Sea also has been increasing largely because of much evaporation there due to high temperatures. The Jordan water that does empty into the Dead Sea now is mostly brackish water and sewage.

This restriction of Jordan water flowing into the Dead Sea has not only lowered its surface level, but it has created an environmental destruction that needs correcting. The World Bank claims that the restoration of the Dead Sea would cost $31 billion.

Also, the Arabah is part of a great geological rift zone that extends from the north of Lake Kinnereth southward into northeastern Africa that makes it prone to earthquakes. If a Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline ever suffered a rupture from an earthquake, its saltwater would seep into underground water  aquifers resulting in irreparable damage to at least the surrounding agriculture and its population.

A pipeline or multiple pipelines could be constructed beginning at the north end of the Gulf of Aqaba, near the city of Aqaba, that would proceed northward and uphill about 110 miles through the Arabah (valley), the main boundary between Israel and Jordan. Then the terrain eventually goes downhill so that the pipeline(s) would end at the southern end of the Dead Sea, connecting these two seas. Thus, Red Sea saltwater would be transported to empty into the Dead Sea to restore its previous level and hopefully improve it environmentally.

Israeli authorities also have pondered an alternative to this Red Sea-Dead Sea connection. It has been to construct a canal or some other means of transporting seawater from the Mediterranean Sea eastward to empty into the Dead Sea. But that project would be more expensive than the Red Sea-Dead Sea concept.

In 2005, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority signed a feasibility study for the Red Sea-Dead Sea project on the Jordanian side of the Arabah, whether it be via a canal or pipeline(s). To raise the water for the first several miles would require electricity to power the water pumps. In December, 2013, all three governing entities signed a memorandum statement to proceed with this project. But in December, 2015, Israel and Jordan excluded the Palestinian Authority (PA) by signing “initial tendering documents” between the two countries to construct such a pipeline(s). The world’s largest desalination plant also will be built near Aqaba to supply potable water for both Israel and Jordan, the fourth most water-deficient nation in the world. The project will be sponsored by the World Bank, cost about $900 million, and take three years to be completed.

Jordan’s water minister Hazem al Nasser said, “The deal will help satisfy Jordan’s increasing water needs for development.” Israel’s Water and Resources Minister Silvan Shalom said of this agreement that it will “save the Dead Sea.”

The PA’s director Nader Khateeb said of this deal, “it continues to ignore riparian rights of Palestinians on the Dead Sea and the Palestinians’ fair share of water allocation.” So, it won’t save the Palestinians. Or will it?

I think this abrupt exclusion of Palestinians in benefiting from this Red Sea-Dead Sea Project makes my proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a little more viable. How so? Israel and Jordan gaining potable water from this project justly demands that the Palestinians do likewise in some other way. That other way is one of the elements of my geographical proposal, which is that Palestinians would receive some Nile water through the current Al-Salam Canal where it ends, in the El Arish water basin.

For more information, see my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, and an update article to this book entitled “Al-Salam Canal” in “Palestinian Articles” at my website kermitzarley.com.


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