Environmental groups warn of damage from Dead Sea canal

Environmental organizations in Israel and Jordan, as well as representatives of communities in the Dead Sea area, caution against ecological damage that may be caused by constructing a canal linking the Gulf of Eilat and the Dead Sea. They argue that caution should be exercised with regard to the environmental impact of the plan to develop the Arava and of the construction of this canal.

Friends of the Earth-Middle East, whose members include, in addition to Israelis and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) Jordanians and Palestinians recently called on President Shimon Peres and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to visit Israel this month, to refrain from supporting the project before its impact has been studied.

The two presidents are scheduled to announce the launch of the Peace Valley project, whose focus is the Dead Sea-Red Sea canal and large-scale tourist development of the Arava region. As part of the project, Israel and Jordan have been promoting, with the support of the World Bank, a plan for the construction of a canal that will relay two billion cubic meters of water a year from the Gulf of Eilat to the Dead Sea over Jordanian territory. The water will be desalinated and transferred mostly to Jordan. After the desalination process, the liquid salt concentration, containing water and salt, will be channeled into the Dead Sea to help rehabilitate it.

At the same time, Israeli millionaire Yitzhak Tshuva recently announced plans to promote a development plan for the Arava parallel to the construction of the canal. Tshuva spoke of "making the desert bloom" by building lakes, hotels, safari parks and leisure centers. He promised to take environmental considerations into account and even approached environmental organizations and asked them to join the public council he is forming to promote his plan.

Not a desert

And yet, the environmental organizations stress in their appeal to the presidents of France and Israel that the Arava is not a desolate place that must be made to bloom, but an area of unique importance to the world with regard to its panoramas and flora and fauna. The organizations warn that the planned development will cause ecological damage, and that the construction of the canal may cause serious problems such as the development of a layer of chalk in the Dead Sea, seepage of saline water into Arava groundwater and damage to the coral reefs due to extensive pumping operations in the Gulf of Eilat.

"This is a project that will bring into the area Las Vegas-style hotels, a safari like in Kenya and skyscrapers like in Dubai," notes the Israeli CEO of Friends of the Earth, Gideon Bromberg. "All of these are not suited to the area and the nature reserves and natural vistas there," he said. "They want to promote the plan without conducting environmental impact studies and without considering other alternatives."

What is as yet unclear to all those involved in the Dead Sea-Red Sea canal project is the specific direction of the project. The World Bank agreed to conduct an engineering, environmental and social feasibility study of the canal project, and so far has been in touch with engineering firms and environmental consulting firms from France and Britain, but it is still unclear what purpose there is in these efforts, without also addressing the tourist development plans that are to proceed simultaneously to the canal project.

Bromberg recently met with World Bank representatives involved in the canal project. He expressed his concern that due to pressure in Israel and Jordan to advance the project, the studies on environmental impact and engineering feasibility will be done hastily.

No guidelines

"The Bank agreed to check other alternatives for rehabilitating the Dead Sea apart from the Dead Sea-Red Sea canal, but no guidelines were set for it," noted Bromberg. "The bank is supposed to appoint consultants from each country to review alternatives, but this is a review whose results are known in advance, because both Israel and Jordan want the canal."

The environmental organizations and representatives of the Dead Sea communities argue that alternatives should be considered such as streamlining the use of water for agriculture in Israel and Jordan and increasing the scale of seawater desalination, to enable the diversion of water to the Jordan River and from it to the Dead Sea. According to Bromberg, one obstacle to this plan is that Israel adamantly refuses to allow an outside entity to review its water policy.

Bromberg sees no valid reason for this because organizations such as the International Monetary Fund are already doing surveys of the Israeli economy's activities in various areas.