Jordan said Monday it had chosen five international consortiums to build the first phase of a multi-million-dollar canal linking the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea.
On the Dead Sea's coast in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers, Palestinians and tourists make the downhill trek from the former waterline to its new resting place.
An "historic" agreement between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians is supposed to save the shrinking Dead Sea. But some environmentalists believe the plan to pump water from the Red Sea could do the salt lake more harm than good.
Even as it shrinks in size, the Dead Sea, a turquoise blue shimmering
salt lake, remains a mystical place. Boat jetties jut out into
nothingness, abandoned as the water has retreated further and further;
each year the level dropping by a meter. The Dead Sea is dwindling to
nothing, deprived of water by humans.
AFP - Representatives of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians
will on Monday sign a "historic" agreement to link the Red Sea with the
shrinking Dead Sea, an Israeli minister said. Energy and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom told army
radio that under the agreement to be signed at the World Bank in
Washington, water will be drawn from the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern
end of the Red Sea. Some will be desalinated and distributed to Israel, Jordan and the
Palestinians, while the rest will be transferred in four pipes to the
parched Dead Sea, which would otherwise dry out by 2050.