WHY IS THERE A PROPOSAL TO STUDY ALTERNATIVES?

Experts and environmentalists (including many who are both) have raised questions about the project itself and questions about the process that has led to Red Sea-Dead Sea water conveyance as the only initiative into which the international community, through the World Bank, is prepared to invest in a study. 

A review of papers on the project finds the following concerns:

* leakage from the conveyance into the freshwater aquifer underground

* impacts on the local ecology

* the reactions when waters with different chemical compositions meet

* the social distribution of benefits

* long term sustainability. 

The World Bank Feasibility Study does not include examining alternative means of reaching the same ends: water sufficiency, stabilization of the Dead Sea, transboundary water cooperation. 

Environmentalists and water experts are aware of a wide range of alternative proposals and some are active advocates. Some combination of these alternatives may make it possible to achieve the same goals in an environmentally less intrusive and more sustainable way.  The AVOW project is a cooperative effort to produce expert feasibility studies on this range of alternatives.

The Dead Sea mineral industries

Photo: Eric Abitbol