Water Access in the Middle East: Desalination and Sustainable Development

"In the future, world wars will be fought over water."

I've probably heard that statement 50 times over the past few years, but I don't think I really understood the significance, nor the importance to the notion of sustainable development, until last fall while I was in the Middle East, working on a project in the Arava Valley, where it hasn't rained for three years. Granted, the Arava [located in Southern Israel, on the Jordanian border] is not densely populated, but those who do live there get their water from underground aquifers which are replenished by annual rainfall…or not.

You see the problem.

Desalination, despite the phenomenal expense, seems to be the most promising answer to Israel's water problem. A new plant in Hadera [on the Northern, Mediterranean coast], for example, just opened this past May and is reported to be the largest of its kind in the world. The plant's reverse osmosis technology is reported to require less energy than other desalination methods, such as the thermal-based technology that is more common in large plants in Saudi Arabia [Reuters].

The plant, called H2ID, is jointly owned by IDE [Israel Desalination Enterprises] Technologies and Shikun & Binui, Israel's largest construction company, and financed largely by foreign investment. It is the third of five desalination plants that will be built over the next few years; together, these plants will supply the country with 750 million cubic meters of water per year, at a cost of $0.57 per cubic meter. Shmulik Shai, H2ID's CEO is quoted as saying that the five plants will require 450 gigawatts of electricity annually.

The most ambitious Middle East desalination project being discussed these days is the Red-Dead Canal, a proposal to dig a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea [400 m below sea level], to take advantage of the elevation drop with a newly-constructed hydroelectric power plant, and to use the energy generated to power a desalination plant. According to the proposal, the project would also provide a mechanism for restoring the waning water level of the Dead Sea.

A World Bank feasibility study is currently underway, but the project -- which would require cooperation between the Israeli government, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority -- is obviously destined for controversy. My next few posts will discuss the Red-Dead Canal Project in more detail, addressing some of the potential environmental consequences as well as the geo-political complications, as all of these factors are critical to future sustainable development of the region.