Israel ready to build billion-dollar project with Jordan to pump water from Red Sea to Dead Sea

[Solomon2]

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Washington Post
Gwen Ackerman
January 2, 2019
2:23 PM EST

Last Updated
January 3, 2019
8:48 AM ES

Israel ready to build billion-dollar project with Jordan to pump water from Red Sea to Dead Sea
'Peace has a price': The joint project is the largest one in the Middle East between Israel and an Arab state

A file picture taken on November 10, 2011 shows an aerial view revealing sinkholes created by the drying of the Dead Sea, near Kibbutz Ein Gedi.MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images

Israel’s regional cooperation minister said Israel is ready to move ahead with a multibillion dollar project with Jordan to pipe water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, an idea that’s been on the drawing board for years.

Tzachi Hanegbi said he expects the Israeli Cabinet to approve the Red Sea-Dead Sea project, which will bring water from the Red Sea to a desalination centre in the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The brine byproduct will be piped 200 kilometres north to the Dead Sea, a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west, whose severe shrinkage has created a slew of environmental problems.

Each country will pledge $40 million per year to the project for 25 years, Hanegbi said, which would bring the total to at least $2 billion. Jordan’s Ministry of Water didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Israelis enjoy the Dead Sea on April 7, 2015. . MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images
The project could help to relieve a dire water shortage in Jordan, and Palestinians will be able to buy the desalinated water at cost, Hanegbi said. It’s also meant to alleviate the evaporation of the Dead Sea, where Jordan and Israel harvest potash and do a brisk tourism business. A hydroelectric plant will provide power to both countries.

The neighbours agreed to work together on the project in 2013, but implementation has been delayed by political tensions including stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and the 2017 killing of two Jordanians by an Israeli security guard at the embassy in Amman.

Jordan is expected to exhaust its underground freshwater sources in the next 40 years, according to Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian organization. Israel sees the collaboration as a way to improve ties with Jordan, which have remained frosty despite their 1994 peace agreement.

“This is important for regional cooperation,” Hanegbi said in a phone interview. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convinced that peace has a price, and he agreed to it.”

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Hanegbi’s comments come a week after Netanyahu called early elections, moving up the vote from next November to April. The prime minister has made improving ties with the Arab world a priority during his past term.

Hanegbi denied Israel’s decision on the water project was connected to the elections, saying it followed months of behind-the-scenes talks with his Jordanian counterpart. National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat also was involved in the negotiations, Hanegbi said.

“This is the largest joint project in the Middle East between Israel and an Arab state,” Hanegbi said. “Jordan has severe water issues and Israel wants to maintain Jordan’s stability. It’s the country with which we have our longest border.”

A 2014 World Bank feasibility study on the project said that if no action is taken, the area near the Dead Sea will suffer from further sinkholes, mud flats and landslides that will affect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, tourism and the chemical industry. The lake’s water level is declining by more than one metre a year.

Salt crystals on the coast of the Dead Sea, which reveals its receding water level. GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images

 

[Tshering22]

Very admirable to see Israelis leading the path in showing that world what cooperation means. Constructive cooperation and sustainable resource management is something that earth needs. We are an overpopulated planet and need solutions where resources are well managed and there for everyone.

I really admire the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu who is an able administrator, a strong leader and a reliable partner to his country's allies. His leadership and the vision of Theodore Herzl have proven that anyone with a long-term vision for his or her people, culture, civilization and the world can achieve miracles.

Jordan will greatly benefit from this cooperation.

I hope other Arab/Muslim countries learn about resource conservation rather than spreading so much radicalism, wars and misery against all other countries.

 

[Solomon2]

...Jordan will greatly benefit from this cooperation. I hope other Arab/Muslim countries learn about resource conservation rather than spreading so much radicalism, wars and misery against all other countries.

A little-known fact is that both India and Pakistan have been represented at Jordanian-Israeli water conferences. Supposedly to learn, but maybe to remind the participants of their successful example at sharing Indus waters?

 

[Tshering22]

A little-known fact is that both India and Pakistan have been represented at Jordanian-Israeli water conferences. Supposedly to learn, but maybe to remind the participants of their successful example at sharing Indus waters?

Here we have something called votebank politics. While this concept is internalised in India, it is both internal and external for politics within Pakistan; particularly because they have the military angle which has a strong hold on their governance.

You see, in votebank, there is always a section of the society to which most politicians pander to. In this case, it is water-sharing. Despite the fact that World Bank, IMF and International Court have repeatedly given us clean-chit on any "nefarious acts" of violating the Indus Water Treaty, we get blamed for it just the same way as Gazans and West Bankers do it against you.

Jordan is relatively easier to deal with since there is one king and once he is convinced, the rest of them have to accept it.

Sadly, here if we even somehow manage to convince the civil politicians of Pakistan, their military will put the foot down the reason being that their military would lose any significant if they stopped fighting with us.

Their civil government is just for pen-pushing purposes. Unlike Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan etc, the civil governance institution is very weak in Pakistan and has a deep state structure. Military controls a significant part of Pakistan's economy, which ranges from flour mills to heavy machinery factories, mining and what not. Basically, it is a country within their country.

And therefore for obvious reasons, they will always find us to blame despite entire planet finding our nose clear on water sharing agreements.

On top of all this, the local corrupt governments of their provinces find it easier to blame us as the boogeyman for water shortages since they would not have to work to improve their water distribution infrastructure. It is also the same here (lazy government officials and corrupt lower rank ministers) but at least we don't blame it on anyone's head.