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The Red Sea–Dead Sea Conduit (Canal), sometimes called the Two Seas Canal, is a proposed conduit (pipes and brine canal) which would run from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. It will provide potable water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, bring sea water to stabilise the Dead Sea water level and generate electricity to support the energy needs of the project. This proposal has a role in plans to create institutions for economic cooperation between Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, in the Dead Sea and through the Peace Valley plan. The water level in the Dead Sea is shrinking at a rate of more than one metre per year, and its surface area has shrunk by about 30% in the last 20 years. This is largely due to the diversion of over 90% of the water of the Jordan River. In the early 1960s, the river moved 1.5 billion cubic metres of water every year from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Dams, canals, and pumping stations built by Israel, Jordan and Syria now divert water for crops and drinking, and have reduced the flow to about 100 million cubic metres a year (MCM/yr) (mainly brackish water and sewage). The decline of the Dead Sea level is creating major environmental problems: the creation of sink holes that endanger structures, plantations and roads; receding sea shores and the creation of mud plains; and other effects on the environment and the flora and fauna of the region. The World Bank Study estimated the intangibles benefits of the removal of the environmental problems associated with the decline in the sea water level as about US$ 31 billion. Other routes for a conduit (canal and tunnel) for the same objectives as the Red - Dead Conduit, the Mediterranean–Dead Sea Canal, were proposed in Israel in the 1980s, but were discarded due to high investment costs and the reliance on the energy objective. Recently the idea has been revived. Another route (pipeline, tunnel and canal) was proposed from The Mediterranean to the Dead Sea through the Beit Shean and the Jordan Valley. Other alternatives to address the Jordan River and the Dead Sea problems have been suggested among them the renewal of the flow of water in the Jordan River through the use of desalination and changes in the water policies of the riparian of the Jordan River. ==History== The connection of the seas by canal was first suggested in the mid 19th century by British officers who were looking for ways to circumvent the French-built Suez Canal and had not realized that the level of the Dead Sea is much lower. Later on, at the end of the 19th century, planners thought how to use the Jordan River water for irrigation and to bring sea water to the Dead Sea to create energy from its position of -390 m below sea level. One of those planners was the Zionist leader Hertzel. The Red Sea Dead Sea conduit was proposed at the end of the 1960s and was analyzed as part of the peace process between Israel and Jordan. In the late 1990s a team headed by Refael (Rafi) Benvenisti working with Minister Shimon Peres as the Minister of Regional Cooperation suggested to establish the stabilization of the Dead Sea water level ('Saving the Dead Sea') as a major objective of the project. It suggested building the project in stages in order to test the mixing of the two seas water phasing the big investment associated with the project. The project was called "the Peace conduit" and was proposed to be located on Jordanian territory for financial and implementation reasons.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jordan Times: Benvenisti's Presentation of the Red Sea Dead Sea Conduit in Jordan 2000 )〕 On May 9, 2005 Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement to go ahead with a feasibility study for the Two Seas Canal. The agreement was signed on the Dead Sea by Jordanian Water Minister Raed Abu Soud, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib. In June 2009, after a meeting with World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister, Silvan Shalom, announced a pilot project to build a "pilot" pipe 180 km long from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The pipe would pump 200 million cubic metres per year. Half of this would be desalinated for Jordanian consumption and half put into the Dead Sea.〔(Jpost article on Silvan Shalom announcement ), jpost.com, 6/28/09.〕 In October 2009 the Jordanian government announced that it would unilaterally tender a Jordan Red Sea Project (JRSP). According to the government, this project could be considered as the first phase of the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project.〔The Telegraph:(Jordan to refill shrinking Dead Sea with salt water ), October 10, 2009, retrieved on May 12, 2011〕 The project is to be implemented by a private company under authority granted by the government. The project would also serve as an economic development project to create housing for 1.36 million people south of Amman, at the Southern end of the Dead Sea, north of Aqaba and in gated communities. Also, several tourist resorts would be created. It is divided into five phases. The first phase would include extraction of 400 million cubic metres of seawater per year, resulting in 210 million cubic metres/year (MCM/yr) of freshwater and 190 million cubic metres/year for discharge into the Dead Sea. The construction of the first phase is expected to take 7 years.〔Jordan Red Sea Project:(Jordan Red Sea Project Description ), retrieved on May 11, 2011〕 In March 2011 the Ministry of Water and Irrigation short-listed six firms for the first phase of the project. The World Bank has announced that it would release a feasibility study () of water conveyance from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea together with an environmental and social assessment as well as a study of alternatives in early 2012 (see the drafts - ()). The alternatives studied include a restoration of the Jordan River to its natural flow and taking no action, as well as numerous other alternatives. In August 2013, Jordanian government announced that it would move ahead with the first phase of a project.〔http://jordantimes.com/red-sea-water-desalination-project-moving-ahead〕 On December 9, 2013, an agreement to build the pipeline was signed by Israel, Jordan and Palestine. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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