MINERAL MINING BY DEAD SEA WORKS AND ARAB POTASH COMPANY

The Israelis operate through the Dead Sea Works (DSW), a 90 percent subsidiary of Israel Chemical Ltd. (ICL).

The Jordanian operation is conducted by Arab Potash Company (APC), which is owned by a consortium of Middle East governments, principally Jordan. DSW’s annual production of potash is about 2.2 mm tons.

The production process of the minerals (mainly potash, which is used for agricultural fertilizer), is based on precipitation of the minerals on the bottom of man-made evaporation bonds, dredging the minerals by large, auger-style dredges and processing it into fine material. An essential part of the process is minimizing the precipitation of table salt (NaCl) in the last of the evaporation ponds. Therefore, the first phase of processing is pumping the water from the sea into an artificial 80 sq. km pond. In this pond, the brine, with a minimal content of NaCl is pumped into the final production ponds.

http://www.dredge.com/casestudies/dredge11.htm

This is a review of the three proposed alignments for the Dead Sea project by Dr. Michael Beyth, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of National Infrastructures, government of Israel. He does not include a comparison with the Ezekiel's Water Project concept, as he was not aware of the proposal at the time. None of these three proposals compares favorably with the Ezekiel's Water Project plan.

The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Dead Sea canals project

August 2002
by Michael Beyth
Introduction

In the framework of the peace treaty between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan the integrated development Master Plan for the Jordan Rift Valley (JRV) was studied in the mid 1990's. The Red Sea - Dead Sea Canal (RSDSC) was considered to be one of the most important potential elements for implementing this Master Plan. The principal development objective of the RSDSC was to provide desalinated drinking water for the people of the area (the Harza JRV Group, 1996).

http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/2000_2009/2002/8/The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Dead Sea canals

JORDAN WATER SUPPLY BACKGROUND

The scarcity of water in Jordan is widely seen as the single most important restriction on the country's sustainable economic growth, particularly given the increasing population, which was nearly 5.5 million in July 2003 and growing at a yearly rate of 2.78%. About 70% of the population is urban, with 2 million living within the Greater Amman area.

The country's annual water demand currently exceeds 1 billion m³ and is projected to rise to over 1.3 billion m³ by 2005, having nearly doubled since the mid-90s. Jordan's renewable water resources can supply around 750 million m³/year, leaving an annual deficit which has grown steadily, despite the huge programme of investment in the water sector, from 222 million m³ in 1995 to a predicted 251million m³ by 2011. The current annual allowance of 200m³ per capita lags significantly behind other countries in the region, being around 65% less than that available in Israel and Syria and 85% less than Egypt.

http://www.water-technology.net/projects/greater_amman/

The dying Dead Sea - http://www.msnbc.com/news/306961.asp

The Tennessee Valley Authority Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant near Chattanooga, TN, USA, has similar elevation and capacity as that planned for the Ezekiel's Water Project hydroelectric plant. This shows the validity of the hydroelectic plans for the Ezekiel's Water Project, and played a key role in the original design concept for the project. Randolph Gonce lives near the Raccoon Mountain TVA plant, and has visited the project several times. - http://www.tva.gov/heritage/mountaintop/

Wind power developments in Jordan show the feasibility of planning pumped storage reservoirs for generation of electricity at needed times, pumping the water with electric energy generated by wind turbines on the mountains east of the Dead Sea. - http://www.jordanembassyus.org/01182002006.htm

Pictures and text illuminating the Dead Sea
http://www.bibleplaces.com/deadsea.htm

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres believes that peaceful coexistance is possible between Palestinians and Israelis in the Great Rift Valley south of the Dead Sea.
Read the transcript

The government of Jordan is developing a plan for privatization of water supply for the nation.
http://www.waj.gov.jo/English/private.htm

Water needs from the Palestinian perspective:
http://www.arij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=152&Itemid=33&lang=en