Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority last month launched a feasibility study to help save the rapidly vanishing Dead Sea, a joint statement said.

 

The Jordanian and Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority are attempting to enlist world support for a controversial project envisaging the establishment of a multibillion-dollar canal between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.

 

Considered the first step to save the Dead Sea from drying up in less than 50 years, the study will examine the economic and environmental effects of establishing a 200-kilometre pipeline to transfer Red Sea water into the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.

 

France, The Netherlands, Japan and the United States will finance the two-year study estimated to cost around $15 million, to be managed by the the World Bank.

The significance of this joint study is not merely its importance in restoring the well-being of the Dead Sea and the producing of fresh water, but an excellent example for cooperation, peace and conflict reduction.

 

In addition to preserving the Dead Sea, the project involves the construction of a hydroelectric power plant and a desalination facility, with an estimated cost of two billion dollars.

 

Environmentalists have expressed concern over the project on the grounds that the consistency of the Dead Sea would be irreversibly altered if normal sea water is allowed to flow into it. The Dead Sea's salt concentration is about 33 percent, compared with 3 percent in the Mediterranean.