By Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN – Evaluation of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Programme’s economic feasibility study and the environmental and social impact assessment will conclude later this year, a senior government official said on Thursday.
The implementation of the Red-Dead project will commence when results of the studies are finalised and evaluated, Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar noted in a lecture at the University of Jordan (UJ) yesterday.
Organised by the UJ’s water and environment research and study centre, in cooperation with the university’s department of environmental and applied geology, the lecture aimed at reviewing the challenges of the country’s water sector and government plans to address water scarcity.
The Red-Dead project entails pumping one billion cubic metres of water annually from the Red Sea into the rapidly depleting Dead Sea. It is part of international efforts to save the Dead Sea, which has been shrinking at the rate of one metre per year, largely due to the diversion of water from the Jordan River for agricultural and industrial use.
Categories: Asia, Economics, Environment, Israel, Jordan