Dead Sea’s revival

After producing drinking water, the remaining highly saline liquid will be sent by pipeline to fill the Dead Sea, powering two hydroelectric plants along the way.

A subsequent 2015 deal would see Israel get 35 billion cubic meters of potable water from the desalination plant for its parched southern regions.

The mostly desert Jordan, for its part, would get up to 50 billion cubic meters of freshwater from the Sea of Galilee.

Israel also agreed to sell 32 billion cubic meters to the Palestinian authorities.

Jordan announced in November - national consortiums to build the

deal, which calls for $400 million of public funding, and geopoliti from moving forward.

‘Diplomatic hazards’

Some $ 120 million has already been pledged by donors including the US and Japan, while France’s AFD agency has secured the backing of the EU and some member states for $ 140 million in preferential loans to Jordan.

Talks were frozen last year after an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman, prompting a diplomatic standoff that ended only in January.

“We have never been so close to starting the project,” Maurel said. Jordanian and Israeli authorities.”

A diplomatic source in Amman said the project remained essential for the region given the environmental and economic stakes, “but it’s still at the mercy of diplomatic hazards.”

For Adin at the Hebrew University, “It seems to be that the situation is improving. The main obstacle in my mind could be financial.”

determined to press ahead with or without Israel to cope with the needs of a rising population which has been swelled by about one neighboring Syria.

“We are proceeding with the project because desalination eventually is the future of Jordan when it comes to water,” said Iyad Dahiyat, secretary general of the country’s water authority.

“Water is part of the stability of the kingdom itself,” he added. “It’s a national security issue.”