Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., January 03, 2008 Tevet 25, 5768 | | Israel Time: 22:16 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File Magazine

When low-tech will do the trick By Daniel Orenstein Tags: Environment, Shimon Peres We humans love grandiose engineering projects. We marvel at our technological prowess, ancient and modern, when flocking as tourists to the ancient Mayan ruins and Egyptian pyramids or celebrate new skyscrapers and dams that break old records for height and mass. Israelis are no exception, and the draining of the Hula wetlands and the laying of the National Water Carrier remain a tribute to Zionist can-do determination. Yet, as we've learned from the Hula, and may yet learn from the Trans-Israel Highway, some of these projects may have been executed with excessive zeal and deficient environmental and social foresight. It is with the benefit of this hindsight that we should consider the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal with some healthy skepticism. Variations of this project have been proposed over the past 150 years. Its key selling point is that it can exploit the drop in altitude between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea to allow water to generate hydroelectric energy. The modern version posits that the energy yielded will be sufficient to desalinate 850 million cubic meters of Red Sea water for much-needed drinking water in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, with additional water filling up the Dead Sea. A reminder: The Dead Sea is shrinking because its Jordan River source waters have all been diverted for agriculture and household consumption by the countries upstream. But environmental assessments reveal a veritable rogue's gallery of potential negative impacts: The marine ecology of the Red Sea would be harmed; ground water in the Arava would be threatened with salinization; flash floods and seismic activity would threaten the canal; and the influx of sea water would make the Dead Sea turn milky white, while releasing odorous hydrogen sulfide. Advertisement For these reasons, the idea is opposed by many of Israel's hydrologists, geologists, ecologists and environmental scientists. Its estimated $5-billion construction, plus $5 million-a-year operating cost, are additional deterrents. According to Technion professor of agricultural engineering and former Israeli water commissioner Dan Zaslavsky, the proposal for a canal (or pipeline) has been studied some eight times - and rejected each time on economic or environmental grounds. So why does the proposal continue to rear its head? Perhaps this is a case of what Ben-Gurion University professor Yaakov Garb calls "constructing the inevitability" of a mega-project. In a 2004 article, Garb cogently outlines the decision-making process that led to another mega-project: the Trans-Israel Highway. For decades, while the project was still a proposal, advocates adapted their justification, based on what they thought would resonate most with potential funders, governments and the public. Like the canal, the road was presented, with selective data, as a project that Israel could not live without. Likewise, the Red-Dead Canal has been touted as the answer to the region's water shortage, as a new and clean energy source, a lifeline for the Dead Sea, a boon to tourism, and now, according to President Shimon Peres, a project vital to regional peace and stability. Whatever the season or the problem - the canal can be framed as the solution. Certainly, both Jordan and the PA are in need of more drinking water. But these needs can be met through less romantic policies, which include restoration of their deteriorating water infrastructure, investment in waste-water treatment, and scaling back agriculture. Israel could also provide a more generous and fair allotment of water to its neighbors. All of these solutions combined would be less expensive than the proposed canal, and their environmental impact would be mostly positive. There is also a real alternative to the Red-Dead Canal. According to both Zaslavsky and Friends of the Earth Middle East, we can simply allow some of the water that formerly flowed through the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, which has since been diverted, to flow once again. The great peace project can be reframed as the international restoration of this historic and ecologically unique watershed, to the benefit of its wildlife, holy sites, tourists and residents, and of course, the return of the Dead Sea to its former level. As pointed out in Friends of the Earth's critique of the World Bank's most recent report, some canal advocates are simply ignoring this low-tech, but promising, option. Unfortunately, donors are often less enamored of donating to projects that don't have a plaque with their name on it. Fixing the underground pipes in Amman and helping farmers to stop using inefficient irrigation isn't as sexy as building a 250-kilometer canal with pumps, generators and desalination factories. Peres has recently made much ado about adopting a "green" persona. While this is a welcome announcement, many of our environmental problems will be exacerbated by projects he supports. We require a fundamental "re-visioning" of how we live on and manipulate the earth. In this case, the low-tech, less expensive solution may provide better economic, social and environmental value than the proposed mega-project. We can hope he and the relevant ministers will listen to the many scientists and activists who have advised them as such. Daniel Orenstein is a postdoctoral fellow at the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning and a lecturer at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Holocaust education For Dutch instructors, Islamophobia can be a teaching aid for Holocaust studies. White House race Edwards is the angry candidate; Obama prefers conciliation.   1.   I would expect more knowledge from a scientist 12:23  |  S 28/12/07   2.   Let private enterprise build whatever canal is best 13:25  |  Jacob 28/12/07   3.   Sorry Jacob, you are also wrong 14:15  |  S 28/12/07   4.   To #`s 1 & 2 15:58  |  Spinoza Machievelli 28/12/07   5.   Haaretz lost my answer to Jacob. So, again: 16:59  |  S 28/12/07   6.   S comments 20:00  |  EJ 28/12/07   7.   EJ #3 22:04  |  S 28/12/07   8.   By the way Haaretz, you didn`t release my answer to Jacob 22:34  |  S 28/12/07   9.   Spinoza Machievelli #4 10:39  |  S 29/12/07   10.   Fill with close to similar water 14:48  |  Peter 29/12/07   11.   More on the same 16:56  |  Peter 29/12/07   12.   Peter, I am returning this to you. 18:25  |  S 29/12/07   13.   Private companies definitely can handle such project 19:37  |  Sceptical Observer 29/12/07   14.   Congratulations to S 19:46  |  Peter 29/12/07   15.   Follow up to #9 The Planning/Design team (no names) 20:44  |  S 29/12/07   16.   S affiliation? 21:32  |  EJ 29/12/07   17.   Last question to S 21:33  |  EJ 29/12/07   18.   Good, S 22:16  |  Peter 29/12/07   19.   S affiliation? 23:11  |  EJ 29/12/07   20.   EJ 08:47  |  S 30/12/07   21.   EJ addendum 08:59  |  S 30/12/07   22.   Haaretz, I sent this before the addendum 09:24  |  S 30/12/07   23.   Gloibal warming sea level rise may do this naturally 09:31  |  Israel_is_Done 30/12/07

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