Jordan, Palestine and Israel have signed a World Bank-brokered MoU to study a plan to provide desalinated water to the three countries and transfer water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The aim is to reduce the countries’ water security concerns – Jordan says it would receive 100mn cu ms/year of water –while enabling the refilling of the shrinking Dead Sea.

The MoU was signed at the World Bank’s Washington HQ on 9 December by the three respective water ministers: Silvan Shalom of Israel, Hazim al-Nasr of Jordan and Shaddad ‘Attili of the Palestinian Authority. The Bank says the agreement is the outcome of cooperation since 2005 on the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study Program and outlined three major initiatives to be pursued in coming months: (CONTINUED - 287 WORDS)