Red-Dead Sea deal. What is Real?
Introduction
On 2013 December 9, an agreement was signed in Washington between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority for a monumental water-sharing project that has been lauded as an example of peacemaking and cooperation.
Jordan, whose relations with Israel have been frosty of late, has signed onto building pipelines and infrastructure, and long-term water commitments with the Israelis.
The Palestinians are being brought in as junior partners as well. A big step forward for constructive dialogue, and economic peace.
Even if It seems to be a symbolic agreement between countries , it could be considered as a positive step forward in present condition of the Middle East. But we should look at the deal itself to understand reality. We should search it's real effects on peacemaking and cooperation in the region. Because no country use it's cheesman without thinking two step further in the Great Middle East Chees Game .
What Happened to Dead Sea
The Jordan River, which flows through the Kinneret, is the very river whose depletion caused the Dea Sea’s level to decrease dramatically, at almost a meter a year, in the first place.
Emptying into the Jordan ten kilometers south of Lake Tiberias, the Yarmouk River has historically supplied the river with 400 million cubic meters of water per year[4].The Jordanian government diverts water from the Yarmouk into the King Abdullah Canal . Syria extracts water further upstream , and Israel also withdraws water. Thus, the discharge of the Yarmouk into the Jordan has been reduced to almost nothing. The only other major river flowing into the Jordan, the Zarqa, is blocked by Jordan’s King Talal Dam
In the 1950s about 1.3 billion cubic meters of water a year flowed into the Dead Sea. The flow is now down to 300 million. The flow from the Jordan has dropped by 90 percent, and the surface level of the Dead Sea has dropped 25 meters since the 1960's[4].
What is deal details
Inter-related water-sharing initiatives can be seen in deal. Jordan will build a desalination plant near Akaba, The details of exactly how much water is going where are not clear but according to the various reports around 200 million cubic meters will be piped out of the Red Sea, some 80 million of which are to be desalinated and divided between Israel and Jordan. Time magazine says “most of this water” will be going to Israel, but actually it seems like only up to 60 percent of it will.
Meanwhile Israel will increase the supply of water it provides Jordan from the Kinneret from 50 million cubic meters to upwards of 80 million (or 100 million if Time’s report is to be believed).
The Palestinians, whose sole contribution to the deal is to sign it, receive an addition 20 million cubic meters of water from the Kinneret (currently they receive 52 million m
3).
we can see behind of the deal clearer when we look at that
Israel could build a desalination plant and a pipeline to deliver 100 million cubic meters of water to the Dead Sea by itself.There was a Mediterranean - Dead Sea pipeline project that İsrael had no countries help to implement . The idea was revived during the 1980s The Mediterranean–Dead Sea Company studied various alternatives and recommended a route from the
Gaza Strip to
Masada. However, the project did not commence due to economic and financial doubts. The idea was brought up again during the 1990s
Then the question comes out that Why is Israel giving away that much of fresh water in exchange for something it could just do itself.
There should be something that Israel is really receiving with this deal. Could it be Palestinian signature which is apparently worth millions of cubic meters of water to Israel.
Is it a wise solution ?
Wouldn’t it be a more logical solution be to simply decrease the amount of water currently being taken from the Kinneret, rehabilitate the Jordan and let water flow downhill, naturally, into the Dead Sea?
The truth is that behind this deal is the typical paternalistic international view (increasingly adopted by Israelis as well) that Israel must always give away things to save others[1].
Total project cost is about 10 billion $.Who will finace the total project cost ? Jordan,İsrail, or the “international community,”.Apparently not Jordan.
The project finance could come from the World Bank and the support of the governments of Israel, Germany and the U.S.
In order to save the Dead Sea there is a lot to do. But the most real thing of this deal is not this one. This deal could be a kind of confidence building effort between the riperian countries.Therfore it can be taken as a very preliminary step for confidence
Would it Save Dead Sea
Dead Sea eastern shore is in Jordan and its western side sits under Israeli control, although about two-thirds lie in Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
Water levels have been declining for about 40 years, the lake’s surface area has shrunk by 30 per cent in the past two decades and thousands of sinkholes have appeared on its shore.
The main cause of the decline is the appropriation of more than 90 per cent of water from the river Jordan to the north for agricultural and domestic use by Israel, Syria and Jordan.
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) has criticised the Red-Dead project as playing with nature and failing to address the root causes of the decline of the Dead Sea.
The project would supply less than 100 million m
3 of the 800 million cubic metres of water needed each year to stabilise the Dead Sea at current levels[1]. "This is a way of saving face rather than saving the Dead Sea," said Gidon Bromberg, of FoEME.
Conclusions
Analysts said the deal would create a vastly scaled-back version of a grandiose project that had been under consideration for almost 20 years. They said it would provide about a 10th of the volume of water needed to stabilise the Dead Sea, while threatening its unique characteristics, and would not alleviate severe water shortages in the area.
Finnaly it is noteworth to mention that these kind of water projects agreement could bring different paradigm to region's hydropolitics
In summary, Red Dead sea deal could achive the third party (PA) participation to a confidence building progress in the Middle East.
It is a technichally huge step for water transport in the Middle East .İt is somehow important for Dead Sea. But hydropolitcally it is only a step more then nothing for the time being
References
[1] Seth J. Frantzman . erra incognita: Getting less out of the Red-Dead Sea deal 12/10/2013
[2]Harriet Sherwood Dead Sea neighbours agree to pipeline to pump water from Red Sea Monday 9 December 2013. Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2013
[3]H.S.Salem "The Red Sea Dead Sea Conveyance Project : A Solution for Some Problems or a Cause for Many Problems" 2nd International Conference Water Values & Rights
[4]Bruce Borthwick "Why is the Dead Sea Dying?" in
The Christian Century, February 8, 2003,
pp. 20-21
What Happened to Dead Sea
The Jordan River, which flows through the Kinneret, is the very river whose depletion caused the Dea Sea’s level to decrease dramatically, at almost a meter a year, in the first place.
Emptying into the Jordan ten kilometers south of Lake Tiberias, the Yarmouk River has historically supplied the river with 400 million cubic meters of water per year[4].The Jordanian government diverts water from the Yarmouk into the King Abdullah Canal . Syria extracts water further upstream , and Israel also withdraws water. Thus, the discharge of the Yarmouk into the Jordan has been reduced to almost nothing. The only other major river flowing into the Jordan, the Zarqa, is blocked by Jordan’s King Talal Dam
In the 1950s about 1.3 billion cubic meters of water a year flowed into the Dead Sea. The flow is now down to 300 million. The flow from the Jordan has dropped by 90 percent, and the surface level of the Dead Sea has dropped 25 meters since the 1960's[4].
What is deal details
Inter-related water-sharing initiatives can be seen in deal. Jordan will build a desalination plant near Akaba, The details of exactly how much water is going where are not clear but according to the various reports around 200 million cubic meters will be piped out of the Red Sea, some 80 million of which are to be desalinated and divided between Israel and Jordan. Time magazine says “most of this water” will be going to Israel, but actually it seems like only up to 60 percent of it will.
Meanwhile Israel will increase the supply of water it provides Jordan from the Kinneret from 50 million cubic meters to upwards of 80 million (or 100 million if Time’s report is to be believed).
The Palestinians, whose sole contribution to the deal is to sign it, receive an addition 20 million cubic meters of water from the Kinneret (currently they receive 52 million m3).
we can see behind of the deal clearer when we look at that
Israel could build a desalination plant and a pipeline to deliver 100 million cubic meters of water to the Dead Sea by itself.There was a Mediterranean - Dead Sea pipeline project that İsrael had no countries help to implement . The idea was revived during the 1980s The Mediterranean–Dead Sea Company studied various alternatives and recommended a route from the Gaza Strip to Masada. However, the project did not commence due to economic and financial doubts. The idea was brought up again during the 1990s
Then the question comes out that Why is Israel giving away that much of fresh water in exchange for something it could just do itself.
There should be something that Israel is really receiving with this deal. Could it be Palestinian signature which is apparently worth millions of cubic meters of water to Israel.
Is it a wise solution ?
Wouldn’t it be a more logical solution be to simply decrease the amount of water currently being taken from the Kinneret, rehabilitate the Jordan and let water flow downhill, naturally, into the Dead Sea? The truth is that behind this deal is the typical paternalistic international view (increasingly adopted by Israelis as well) that Israel must always give away things to save others[1].
Total project cost is about 10 billion $.Who will finace the total project cost ? Jordan,İsrail, or the “international community,”.Apparently not Jordan.
The project finance could come from the World Bank and the support of the governments of Israel, Germany and the U.S.
In order to save the Dead Sea there is a lot to do. But the most real thing of this deal is not this one. This deal could be a kind of confidence building effort between the riperian countries.Therfore it can be taken as a very preliminary step for confidence
Would it Save Dead Sea
Dead Sea eastern shore is in Jordan and its western side sits under Israeli control, although about two-thirds lie in Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
Water levels have been declining for about 40 years, the lake’s surface area has shrunk by 30 per cent in the past two decades and thousands of sinkholes have appeared on its shore.
The main cause of the decline is the appropriation of more than 90 per cent of water from the river Jordan to the north for agricultural and domestic use by Israel, Syria and Jordan.
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) has criticised the Red-Dead project as playing with nature and failing to address the root causes of the decline of the Dead Sea.
The project would supply less than 100 million m3 of the 800 million cubic metres of water needed each year to stabilise the Dead Sea at current levels[1]. "This is a way of saving face rather than saving the Dead Sea," said Gidon Bromberg, of FoEME.
Conclusions
Analysts said the deal would create a vastly scaled-back version of a grandiose project that had been under consideration for almost 20 years. They said it would provide about a 10th of the volume of water needed to stabilise the Dead Sea, while threatening its unique characteristics, and would not alleviate severe water shortages in the area.
Finnaly it is noteworth to mention that these kind of water projects agreement could bring different paradigm to region's hydropolitics
In summary, Red Dead sea deal could achive the third party (PA) participation to a confidence building progress in the Middle East.
It is a technichally huge step for water transport in the Middle East .İt is somehow important for Dead Sea. But hydropolitcally it is only a step more then nothing for the time being
References
[1] Seth J. Frantzman . erra incognita: Getting less out of the Red-Dead Sea deal 12/10/2013
[2]Harriet Sherwood Dead Sea neighbours agree to pipeline to pump water from Red Sea Monday 9 December 2013. Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2013
[3]H.S.Salem "The Red Sea Dead Sea Conveyance Project : A Solution for Some Problems or a Cause for Many Problems" 2nd International Conference Water Values & Rights [4]Bruce Borthwick "Why is the Dead Sea Dying?" in The Christian Century, February 8, 2003, pp. 20-21
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