Israel, Arabs agree to save Dead Sea

[Colorado Blue]

SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority said Sunday they had agreed terms for a feasibility study on transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, to save the world's lowest sea from vanishing.

snip

The project, if proven feasible, involves the building of a small canal on the Red Sea between Jordan and Israel and then pumping water to the Dead Sea through a 180-kilometer (110-mile) pipe or several pipes. The agreement was announced at a joint press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) between Jordan's Minister of Water and Irrigation, Raed Abu Saoud, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian planning minister Ghassan al-Khatib.

snip

But the project in its second phase involves building power generation and water desalination plants to supply electricity and fresh water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

snip

Experts estimate that desalinated water from the project will be enough for Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians over the next 50 years.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050522/wl_mideast_afp/jordanwefeconomywater_

[Jim Sagle]

1. There you go again, being factual and constructive.

:spank: ;)

[Colorado Blue]

2. Oh bad me.

This is a very complicated project. I hope it works out. There are problems with the composition of Red Sea water vs. Dead Sea water, not to mention the sheer logistics of the project, the cost, and the political volatility of the region.

Upstream, measures should probably also be taken to conserve water and if possible, maybe Coastie knows? - drill for more. There MUST be more water down there. I'll bet drought has hurt also, from global warming.

We in the US should wake up IMMEDIATELY and take notice of our Great Lakes, which are increasingly victimized by sewage and industrial wastes.

Hard to believe - 1/5 of the world's fresh water - we are so blessed to have this treasure - and we are RUINING IT.

Also, our own Southwest, irrigated primarily by the Colorado River on the Western Slope, is increasingly victimized by two problems: drought, which may be cyclical and which may also be related to global warming, and secondly, the effects of time of salt deposits on our farm soil, from irrigation. This could prove fatal over time: salt deposits will absolutely ruin fertile soil.

Plus, Denver has grown from 400,000 when I was young to 4,000,000 today - in a region which receives less than 10 inches of rainfall annually. People are scrambling, trying to figure out where to get more water. Should it come from the western slope, via tunnels and pipelines? Then what would happen to the downstream farming regions and the environment dependent upon the Colorado? Should wells be dug? If so they will have to be THOUSANDS of feet deep. People built here thinking, there are lakes of fresh water down there. And so there are - WAY WAY DOWN.

People who advocate population control are considered "Malthusians", which I gather is a bad thing. Yet, I do not believe we have much choice? This is NOT a popular idea out West, though. Denver is cradle of the NATALISTS, cf. David Brooks, who believe in the production of Human Capital.

I would regard this situation in the Dead Sea as a bigtime environmental wake-up call as well as cause for celebration because Israelis and Arabs are actually AGREEING about something:)

One can only imagine the harshness of drought and global warming in regions where there is even LESS water - like Africa. It's just brutal. We have GOT to stop fighting each other and start WORKING TOGETHER or we are ALL TOAST.