10. Trade

Water resources in the Middle East are nationalized. In most countries, water is allocated through a quota system by the central authorities. Subsidization is necessary because overuse and mismanagement of water resources have created a shortage in supply. Development of supply sources is essential. By the middle of the next century, the combined Israeli/Jordan/Palestinian populations, estimated at 25 million, could use up the total natural water availability of the Jordan River system (rainfall, snowmelt and renewable recharge to shared aquifers) for domestic consumption, based on an annual per capita domestic consumption of 100 cubic meters. Water for agriculture and industry will then have to come exclusively from secondary sources such as reclaimed wastewater; desalination, fossil or saline groundwater; and freshwater aquifers lying entirely within one country. Reliance on undeveloped secondary sources is risky in a region where agriculture requires more water than domestic or industrial consumption. In Israel alone, the agricultural sector uses more than 70 percent of the country's water. Thus, a Med-Dead or Red-Dead Canal that would not only refill the Dead Sea to normal levels, but possibly generate hydropower for use throughout the region, is a much needed source of supply.

The Harza plan is based on two principles: the location of the Dead Sea 400 meters below the level of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the disturbances in the hydrological composition of the Dead Sea over the past few decades. The Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal (RSDSC) project would take advantage of the natural drop to restore the lake to its normal level. The three components of the plan include pumping and conveyance facilities to transport sea water from the Red Sea to the desalination plant located near the Dead Sea; the desalination plant (powered by the water drop) and its residual energy benefits; and two freshwater conveyance lines to transport desalinated water to end users. Eight hundred million cubic meters a year would be transferred directly to needy areas.
This increase in supply would reverse 100 percent of the Jordanian deficit and 40 percent of the Israeli deficit. Secondary benefits include increased income from tourism on both sides of the Dead Sea, income from surplus energy production during the first years of operation and income from industries involved in the construction and maintenance of the canal and desalination plant. Harza estimates that the economic benefit to tourism (based on a comparison of tourism potential with and without the canal) would amount to $320 million; the benefit to industries that provide the reverse osmosis desalination membranes would be $15-40 million per year; and the value of income from energy production for the first 18 years would be $80 million. The canal would also eliminate sinkhole collapse due to the declining level of the Dead Sea.

a. Directly Related to Product: yes; water

b. Indirectly Related to Product: yes; many

c. Not Related to Product: no

d. Related to Process: yes; water



Possible negative impacts on the physical environment include groundwater contamination due to saltwater leakage from the canal system. Possible negative biological impacts include the interruption of wildlife movement due to construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects, and the effects on coral reefs at the proposed Red Sea intake point.

An inflow of seawater could also overturn the water column. Normally in a freshwater lake, changes in salinity caused by a quicker rate of freshwater inflow than evaporation, are tempered by temperature changes which decrease the density of the upper levels. In the Dead Sea, however, the water temperature change is not significant enough to effect changes in salinity. As a result, the Dead Sea's water column is different than that of a freshwater lake and from most saline lakes.

The first hydrographic study, conducted in 1864, showed that the Dead Sea water column was stratified by salinity. A 1959-1960 study revealed a salinity density of 250 grams per kilogram at the surface, 25 grams per kilogram at a depth of 35-40 meters and a gradual gradient down to 80 meters. In the upper levels, salinity and temperature varied with the season, while below 80 meters, the water was mostly 21.3 degrees Celcius with a salinity of 276 grams per kilogram. This high level of salinity, together with a strong odor of hydrogen sulfide found in deeper samples, suggest that the water contains no dissolved oxygen and plays host to anaerobic bacteria. The study concluded that homogeneous water below 80 meters is fossil water that has remained isolated from contact with the upper layers and with the atmosphere.

The isolation of the fossil water body give it characteristic chemical and radioactive properties, including low values of radioactive tritium and radium and the presence of bivalent iron, which indicates a lack of oxygen. One study found that radioactive isotopes had been introduced into the surface layers and mixed throughout the water column before its stratification. Once this mixing took place, the isotopes could not be replenished and were subject to radioactive decay. Measurements of the decay indicate that water below 80 meters had begun to be isolated about 300 years ago. This homogeneous fossil water did not mix with surface water.

In the years immediately preceding the overturn, measurements show that less than two percent of the fossil water was being renewed per year. The final overturn in 1978-79 caused the fossil water body to mix with the overlying levels. Hydrographic studies carried out since 1975 by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that the water column became more homogeneous as the salinity of the upper levels approached that of the deeper water. By the summer of 1978, the salinity gradient of the upper layers had surpassed that of the deep water, yet the warm surface temperature preserved the density of the surface waters and the stratification of the water column. During the following winter, the non-fossil water cooled and the water column finally overturned.

Conditions for a water column overturn include a decrease in the water column's stability due to an increase in surface-water salinity resulting from a decline in the water level. These conditions do not occur in the summer, when the surface layers are warmed, but are more common in the winter. After many dry seasons, the surface layers become salty enough (and dense enough) for the mixing to reach the deeper fossil water body. A rainy season may cause the mixing to remain at the upper levels. For example, the sudden inflow of freshwater during the winter rains of 1980, caused the water column to remain stratified for three years.

The canal would affect the production of potash, whose primary commercial application is fertilizer. Potash, or potassium chloride (KC1), was first extracted in the 1930s by a mining engineer from Siberia. According to M.A. Novomeyski's process of selective evaporation the model for potash production used today by the Dead Sea Potash Works lake water is transferred to evaporation pans and the various salts precipitate as they reach saturation. Gypsum crystalizes first, then sodium chloride, then the mineral carnallite. Potash is extracted when the carnellite breaks down into its components; it is then further refined. The evaporation pans were originally located at the southern end of the lake. Changes in the Dead Sea have affected the extraction of potash. Because the southern basin is dry most of the year, the end brine must be pumped from farther away. Also, the increased salinity decreases the time for evaporation and has resulted in the precipitation of salts in pumps and conduits before they even reach the pans.
Since ancient times, people have recognized the unique characteristics of the Dead Sea. Aristotle (304-322 B.C.) was the first to tell the world about the salty body of water where no fish live and people float. Josefus Flavius (37-c.100), Galen (122-c.220) and Pliny the Elder (23-79) reported the therapeutic qualities of the water. King Solomon and Cleopatra used Dead Sea compounds to cure common ailments. Today, tourists flock to the Dead Sea for treatment of skin diseases and arthritis. The Dead Sea's low elevation, high salt concentration and high evaporation rate (about 2 billion cubic meters per year) create a thick haze which filters out UVB rays that cause sunburn. As a result, the air is oxygen-rich, pollen-free and filtered of harmful rays. Through a process of Natural Selective Ultraviolet Photo Therapy, Dead Sea specialists treat patients with psoriasis and joint problems. Dead Sea mud, found on the shores of the lake, is also good for the skin. The Ahava factory, located near the Dead Sea, manufactures mud and other skin products that are sold around the world.