Dead Sea with mountains reflecting off the water. Photo: Wiki Commons.

JNS.org – The World Bank is financing a major water deal between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) that will establish a pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and a desalination plant, Globes reported.

The project, which has been in the works for several decades, will feature a 180-kilometer pipeline that will run from a desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan, to the Dead Sea, providing more than 100 million cubic meters of brine water to replenish the Dead Sea, which is losing about 1.4 meters of water a year.

The pipeline will take advantage of the 400-meter drop in elevation between the Red Sea and Dead Sea, the lowest elevation in the world at -427 meters (-1,401 feet), to transport the brine water, which is a byproduct of desalination plants. Additionally, the Aqaba desalination plant will produce freshwater for southern Jordan, Israel, and the PA.

The project will cost an estimated $200-400 million.