VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1726/01 2170358
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050358Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2903
INFO RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 2515
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6330
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 4417
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1648
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 2836
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 7839
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 0451
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0931
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE 2625
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0462

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001726 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/RA JSHAUNFIELD AND MCLOUD; NEA/ELA MGREGONIS; NEA/IPA 
KFRELICH 
AMMAN FOR MBHALLA 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV PREL IS JO KWBG
SUBJECT: GOI, NGO ASSESSMENT OF JORDAN-ONLY RED SEA PROJECT 
 
REF: STATE 78652 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The consensus among GOI officials and Israeli 
NGOs is that the Jordan Red Sea Development Project (JRSP) will not 
proceed independently of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance Project 
(RDS) due to funding and/or legal concerns.  GOI interlocutors 
asserted that Israel has sufficient desalination facilities planned 
to provide all necessary water for the state at a lower cost than 
JRSP could deliver, but stressed that they were not opposed to the 
purchase of water from Jordan in principle.  Non-Government 
Organizations (NGOs) differ regarding the building of any canal 
connecting the Red and Dead Seas; all eagerly await the results of 
the World Bank study, but some insist that alternative plans must be 
studied in parallel to RDS or JRSP.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Daniel Nevo, Director of Multilateral Peace Talks and Water 
Issues at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said that 
he does not believe JRSP is viable because Jordan will be unable to 
raise the necessary funding unless the plan is part of an 
international cooperative effort.  He said that King Hussein wants 
Jordan to be independent of other nations for their water and that 
Israel supports this effort, but the environmental impact of this 
project is such that it must be done in coordination with 
neighboring officials, including those from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the 
Palestinian Authority, and Israel.  Nevo stressed that neither RDS 
nor JRSP is included in Israel's strategic plan for water 
production, and that the water from either project will likely be 
more expensive than the desalination projects currently in the 
pipeline.  He said that Israel presently produces 140 MCM per year 
of desalinated water at two facilities; a third will come online 
next month to produce an additional 100 MCM annually, and two 
tenders have been issued for 100 MCM and 150 MCM facilities by 2013. 
 Combined with expansion of current capacities, Nevo predicts that 
these five desalination plants will produce 505 MCM per year within 
four years.  When pressed on whether GOI would be willing to 
purchase JRSP water, he said that they were not opposed to it in 
principle, but he could not envision a scenario in which it would be 
practical.  He also reported that at the July 20 meeting with the 
World Bank and Jordanian officials, it was decided that the World 
Bank feasibility study would continue in parallel to any work 
carried out in development of the JRSP. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Dr. Uri Shani, Head of the Israeli Water and Sewage 
Authority, confirmed that he would be willing to purchase 
desalinated water for the Arava Valley from the JRSP (reftel), 
provided the project is well-designed, particularly in regard to 
environmental impact and the location of the desalination facility. 
 Echoing Nevo, he emphasized that he does not believe the JRSP will 
proceed independently of the collaborative RDS, and he stressed that 
the final decision on any potential water purchases would be made at 
the ministerial level. 
 
¶4. (U) Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth 
Middle East (FOEME), said that he is concerned that government 
officials are only interested in a go/no-go study and not in 
exploring alternatives. (Note: FOEME is an NGO with a long history 
of work on Red Sea and Dead Sea concerns including completion of a 
USAID-funded study through the Middle East Regional Cooperation 
(MERC) Program.  FOEME created the 'Coalition for the Dead Sea', 
which is comprised of other interested Israeli NGOs, including 
Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED), Zalul, and the 
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI).  End Note.) 
Bromberg said that FOEME has an excellent relationship with the 
World Bank and its lobbying efforts have succeeded in incorporating 
sub-studies on alternatives to RDS into the terms of reference for 
the study.  Bromberg agrees with the Israeli MFA assessment that 
desalinated water from RDS or JRSP is neither economically viable 
nor needed in Israel, and sees RDS as simply a project to increase 
cooperation among Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority.  He 
further asserted that it would not be legal under international law 
for any bank to grant Jordan a loan for the JRSP without a full 
environmental assessment and agreement on the part of the 
stakeholders.  FOEME advocates a thorough investigation of the 
feasibility of combined rehabilitation of the Jordan River with 
reducing the environmental impact of mineral extraction by industry 
on both sides of the Dead Sea as an alternative to RDS.  Bromberg 
estimates that up to 750 MCM annually could be returned to the Dead 
Sea by this effort alone, enough to stabilize it near its current 
level. 
 
¶5. (U) Prof. Alon Tal from the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert 
Research of Ben Gurion University, a respected Israeli 
environmentalist and winner of the Ministry of Environmental 
Protection's Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledged that the 
Israeli environmental community does not speak with one voice on 
this issue.  He said that all environmental groups had a "healthy" 
suspicion of any big project that would rewrite the topography of 
the region, and all await the results of the World Bank study. 
However, he asserted that while the "extreme environmentalists" 
oppose RDS and JRSP, the "professional" environmental community is 
showing a willingness to assess the potential of a canal because the 
present situation for the Dead Sea is so untenable.  He expressed 
some concerns about the JRSP, particularly what he called a lack of 
democratic tools in Jordan that would otherwise force decision 
makers to more seriously consider the environmental impact of such a 
project.  He also pointed out that the professional environmental 
community in Jordan is a fraction of what it is in Israel.  These 
two factors lead him to believe that the environment would fare 
better under the RDS than the JRSP, but that either could provide an 
acceptable outcome if the Dead Sea is saved. 
 
¶6. (U) Hannah Schafer of Zalul, an environmentalist group that 
generally opposes a Red-Dead canal, said that the organization is 
concerned about protecting the coral reefs in Eilat and the unknown 
effect of brine from the Red Sea on the chemistry of the Dead Sea 
water.  Zalul is also concerned about the future of the Arava Valley 
and the potential for devastation should water from the project 
flood the valley.  Schafer said that Zalul supported the Save the 
Jordan River campaign as a better alternative, but also awaited the 
results of the World Bank study. 
 
 
MORENO