Two Seas Canal

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The Two Seas Canal is a proposed canal which would run from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and provide electricity and potable water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This proposal has a major role in plans for economic cooperation between Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, through the Peace Valley plan.

The water level in Dead Sea is shrinking at a rate of almost one meter per year, and its surface area has shrunk by about 30% in the last 20 years. This is largely due to the diversion of about 90% of the water volume in the Jordan River. In the early 1960s, the river moved 1.3 billion cubic meters of water every year from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. But dams, canals and pumping stations built by Israel, Jordan and Syria to divert water for crops and drinking have reduced the flow by more than 90% to about 100 million cubic meters.

On May 9, 2005 Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement to go ahead with a feasibility study for the Two Seas Canal. The agreement was signed on the Dead Sea by Jordanian Water Minister Raed Abu Saud, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib.

The proposed canal would pump seawater 170 meters uphill from the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan and then run down into the Dead Sea, which lies about 400 m below sea level. The project will consist of about 175 km of canal, tunnel and piping along the Jordan-Israel border. It is expected to take about five years to build. Hydroelectric power generated from the elevation difference is expected to be about 190 megawatts. If it is possible to generate power via salinity gradient power that too would be beneficial. Israeli experts say it is nine times saltier than the Mediterranean Sea (31.5% salt versus 3.5% for the Mediterranean).

The USD 5 billion project includes a 550 MW power plant which will provide electricity for pumping the water in the initial stages and power a desalination plant which will provide around 850 million cubic meters of fresh water a year to the three countries. Since hydroelectric generation will supply 190 megawatts, the remainder of the power needed will be supplied using conventional energy sources.

A shorter and better route running from the Mediterranean Sea has been proposed by Israel in the past, but was discarded, as it would not suit Jordan's security and political needs.

The proposal has generated concern in Egypt which believes that the canal will increase seismic activity in the region; provide Israel with water for cooling its nuclear reactor near Dimona; turn the Negev Desert in to a settlement area and increase the salinity of wells.^[1]

Unfortunately the Red/Dead route, in addition to being less worthwhile in economic terms than alternative canals to the Dead Sea, may prove to be impractical due to chemical incompatibility of Red sea and Dead sea water.

[edit] Environmental Impact

The proponents of the Two Sea canal point to the positive aspects related to the construction of the canal, namely restoring the Dead Sea to its historic level, and making fresh water available for the benefiting countries. However, the transfer of mass volumes of water from one sea to another, can bear drastic consequences on the unique natural characteristics of each of the two seas, as well as the desert valley which separates them, the Arabah. Some of these characteristics, especially in the Dead Sea area, are unique on a global perspective, and therefore crucially important for conservation. The environmental group Friends of the Earth Middle East has protested against the allegedly premature approval of the Two Seas Canal project by the Israeli government, without sufficient assessment of the project's impact on the natural environment of the area. The group lists several potential hazardous effects of the project on the unique natural systems of the Red Sea, the Dead Sea and the Arabah^[2]. These effects include:

Damage to the unique natural system of the Dead Sea, due to mixing its water with desalinated Red Sea water, which has a totally different chemical composition. This includes changes in water salinity, massive formation of gypsum, formation of volatile toxic compounds, change in water evaporation rates, changes in the composition of bacteria and algae which inhabit the sea surface, chemical changes in the rocks which surround the water, and loss of unique health benefits that account for much of the tourist attraction to the Dead Sea area.
Damage to the coral reefs of the Gulf of Aqaba, due to water pumping.
Damage to the natural landscape and ecosystem of the Arabah, due to the construction, and the increase in humidity caused by the open canal segments.
Damage to the aquifer of the Arabah, due to contamination of groundwater with water from the Dead Sea. The alluvial deposits in Wadi Araba contain important supplies of fresh water. In the event that the pipeline ruptures (as might happen in the case of an earthquake), these aquifers will be irreparably damaged. This can bear fatal consequences to both the agriculture and ecosystem of the Arabah.
Threats to archeological heritage. The pipeline will cross areas of important cultural heritage, such as Wadi Finan, where the earliest copper mining and extraction in the world took place.