Plan Agreed to Replenish Shrinking Dead Sea

Joanne Faulkner,

Editor  (Middle East)

JERUSALEM –  An agreement has been signed between Israel, Jordan and Palestine over a water sharing deal, bringing the implementation of the a Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline closer to be completed.  The aim of the proposed 110 mile pipe would be to aid the replenishment of the Dead Sea’s plummeting water levels, which are falling at around a metre a year, by  re-stocking it with water from the Red Sea. The pipe would also provide drinking water to the regions.

Inger Andersen, the World Bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement: “I am pleased that the long-term engagement of the World Bank has facilitated this next step by the three governments, which will enhance water availability and facilitate the development of new water through desalination”.

It is believed the project will cost around £400m and take five years.

Concerns remain over the Dead Sea’s delicate ecosystem. However if the Dead Sea continues its current depletion rate it could be dried  out by 2050.

A World Bank report published in 2012 described the Dead Sea’s declining water levels as having “ serious and far reaching environmental, social, and economic consequences for the Dead Sea region and beyond. Some of these consequences may soon become irreversible.”

Water shortages are high in all three regions.

More to come…

Image Courtesy: David Shankbone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dead_Sea_by_David_Shankbone.jpg) Via Wikimedia Commons