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By Root 2006 0

Dead Sea. A ‘Med–Dead’ canal utilising the height drop from the Mediterranean Sea was discarded because of the prohibitively expensive price tag. But a similar pipeline from the Red Sea is seriously being considered. Dubbed the ‘Peace Conduit’, the project would pipe water from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Dead Sea’s southern shore, producing hydroelectricity as well as a desalination plant that would provide water to Amman. Environmentalists question the anticipated unnatural water chemistry reaction and the seismic instability of the area. The World Bank, however, recently decided that the US$5 billion project was sufficiently serious to justify a $15 million feasibility study.

    Dr Alon Tal is a professor in the Desert Ecology Department at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University.

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Water

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Water in the Middle East (www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/water.html) hosts numerous links to articles on the Middle East’s most pressing environmental issue.

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To understand the extent of the Middle East’s water-scarcity problem, consider this: Jordan has just 140 cubic metres of renewable water per capita per year, compared to the UK’s 1500. Jordan’s figure is expected to fall to 90 cubic metres by 2025. Anything less than 500 cubic metres is considered to be a scarcity of water. Another study suggests that Jordan currently uses about 60% more water than is replenished from natural sources. By some estimates, Jordan will simply run out of water within 20 years. Although many of these problems are attributable to growing populations in an arid land, poor water management practices are to blame – half the water consumed in Amman and the neighbouring cities of the Palestinian Territories is lost in leakage.

Relatively rich Israel must also shoulder its share of the blame. Since the 1960s Israel and the Palestinian Territories has drawn around one-third of its water from the Jordan River (which is also used by Jordan and the Palestinian Territories). The river has now been reduced to a trickle, half of which is 50% raw sewage and effluent from fish farms. But Israel remains optimistic about its future water supplies, largely because of its use of reverse osmosis technology, which will soon manufacture 20% of Israel’s water supply. A breakthrough in the efficiency of the membranes through which sea water is filtered has allowed for a substantial drop in prices: for 50, new drinking-water plants along the Mediterranean coast can produce 1000L of water. The energy demands of these facilities are prodigious, and their discharged brine, which contains concentrations of chemicals and metals, adds to marine pollution when returned to the sea.

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Power and Water in the Middle East: The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict, written by Mark Zeitoun in 2008, is a timely study of how water resources could be central to any future regional conflict.

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For its part, Jordan has begun to allocate millions of dollars to water projects. The joint Syrian-Jordanian Wahdah Dam on the Yarmouk River was recently completed, giving power to Syria and water to Jordan (mainly for Amman and Irbid). Jordan is also building a 325km pipeline from Disheh to Amman at a cost of US$600 million to tap nonrenewable fossil water from Diseh near Wadi Rum, and has plans for a series of desalination plants.

Egypt

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CLIMATE & WHEN TO GO

HISTORY

THE CULTURE

RELIGION

CAIRO

HISTORY

ORIENTATION

INFORMATION

SIGHTS

ACTIVITIES

CAIRO FOR CHILDREN

TOURS

SLEEPING

EATING

DRINKING

ENTERTAINMENT

GETTING THERE & AWAY

GETTING AROUND

AROUND CAIRO

MEMPHIS, SAQQARA & DAHSHUR

MEDITERRANEAN COAST

ALEXANDRIA

ROSETTA (AR-RASHID)

NILE VALLEY

LUXOR

NORTH OF LUXOR

SOUTH OF LUXOR

ASWAN

AROUND ASWAN

WESTERN OASES

KHARGA OASIS

DAKHLA OASIS

FARAFRA OASIS

BAHARIYA OASIS

SIWA OASIS

SUEZ CANAL

PORT SAID

SUEZ

RED SEA COAST

HURGHADA

AL-QUSEIR

MARSA ALAM

SINAI

RAS MOHAMMED NATIONAL PARK

SHARM EL-SHEIKH & NA’AMA BAY

DAHAB

ST KATHERINE’S MONASTERY

NUWEIBA

TABA