Jordan - Israel canal linking the Dead to red Sea

The Jordanian daily Jordan Times said Friday quoting a high ranking official that Jordan has started "non official" contacts with Israel in order to revive a project that aims at digging a canal to fight against the drying up of the Dead Sea.

The paper quoted the secretary general of the Jordan valley Zafer Alam assaying "we are not at the meantime negotiating with the Israeli authorities, but we are trying via contacts and non official exchange to revive the project which is known 'the Red Sea- the Dead Sea.' He explained that the contacts were in particular held via the World Bank and the American agency for international development.

Worthy mentioning that environment experts have repeatedly warned that the water level in the Dead Sea, which is considered the lowest in the world and the saltiest natural lake in the world, is receding quickly especially because of the irrigation operations which consume the Jordan river water which feeds the Dead Sea.

Geologists at Jordan university Elias Salameh said in 2000 that the "Dead sea level was 40 years ago, 392 meters below the sea level, but it is now 412 meters below the sea level. He added if this recession continues, the Dead Sea area will be within 10 years 650 square kilometers while it was 1000 square kilometers in the 1960s."

However, a project to dig a canal linking the Red Sea in the south to the Dead Sea to provide it with water was prepared several years ago but the project was suspended later because of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.