From Red To Dead

An ambitious new project is being proposed by Sir Norman Foster to save the Dead Sea from completely evaporating. The plan would pipe water from the Red Sea to help fill the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on the planet. Evaporation of the Dead Sea is threatening tourism in both Jordan and Israel, and the plan would be a deal worked out between the two countries.

When I visited Ein Gedi in 1993, we were able to walk down to the Dead Sea and experience the waters without too much trouble. Now, you have to hike a mile just to get into the waters. The water continues to recede, and the cause is increased reliance on the Jordan River upstream. Less water coming into the Dead Sea means that the evaporation continues at an accelerating pace.

According to Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth in the Middle East, the reduction has been caused by the diversion of the River Jordan, which feeds the Dead Sea, for irrigation and drinking water — mostly by Israel, but also by Jordan and Syria. Today, less than 7% of the river’s original flow reaches the sea.

“A river holy to half of humanity has been reduced to little more than an open sewer,” said Bromberg.

Guy Battle, Foster’s environmental engineer on the project, said this weekend that the plan includes vast desalination plants along the canal to provide fresh water to make the desert bloom and supply drinking water. It is hoped that these facilities, which use the heat of the desert sun to evaporate sea water under a translucent bubble roof, could help reduce regional disputes over water.

Ariel Sharon, the ailing former Israeli prime minister, once called Israel’s diversion of the River Jordan in 1964 the spark that led to the six day war in 1967. Palestinians are still forbidden to sink new wells.

Foster’s office confirmed that he had completed preliminary studies and said the firm was awaiting further instruction from the Jordanian government.

An aide to Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said: “We have had talks with the Jordanians, and they want to advance this. King Abdullah wants it the most because most of [the structure] would be built in Jordan.”

The three-way project had the potential to boost the peace process, said Peres.

At the northern end of the route, there would be a hydro-electric plant.

There are, of course, environmental concerns about this project, with the mixing of two different ecological systems, and the potential to introduce Red Sea creatures and plants into the Dead Sea.