The Red Sea-Dead Sea water project, a planned 200 km canal which would bring water from the Red Sea to a desalination centre in the Dead Sea port of Aqaba, Jordan, has been under consideration since 2013, but stalled by bureaucratic hurdles and diplomatic tensions. Recently, Tel Aviv signalled its willingness to move forward with the project.
Tel Aviv's commitment of at least $1 billion to the water project, which will bring potable water to Jordan, israel and Palestinian territories in the West Bank, is more political and strategic than it is economic, Haaretz contributor Ora Coren believes.
According to the journalist, while the project “isn't vital for Israel's water economy and will incur unnecessary economic costs,” it derives from “a strategic interest in maintaining a stable regime in Jordan,” and preserving the 1994 peace treaty between israel and Jordan which saw Amman becoming the second Arab country after Egypt to formally establish diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.
Coren suggested that the requirement for Israel to finance part of the project and then buy the water from a desalination plant to be built on the Jordanian side of the border is not sensible from an economic standpoint, with “the cost of this water [being] particularly high considering that Israel can desalinate at half the prospective cost.”
On the other hand, “the need to keep the stability of Jordanian King Abdullah's…
