TO
DEAD
The decline and fall of Israel's
$2 Billion Mediterranean-to-
Dead Sea Canal Project
BY CHARLES HOFFMAN
Special to The Jewish News
Art by Michael Marzullo
ploratory" tunnel dug into the mountain-
For the last 10 years Israel has been in-
side where the power plant's outlet to the
tensively studying an imaginative plan to
Dead Sea' was supposed to be; and the
harness its unique topography to its ener-
dashed hopes of Israel Bonds holders who
gy needs, in an enterprise known as the
sought to have a share in the project?
Mediterranean-Dead Sea Hydroelectric
What lessons can be drawn from the MDP
•
Project (MDP ► .
to guide Israel's future planning of
Three years ago, analysts predicted that
complex alternative energy projects?
the project would be an economically los-
This post-mortem has led to some rather
ing proposition. But work oh the MDP,
troubling
conclusions about the MDP'6
which was the centerpiece of Israel Bonds
legacy,
based
on its record of misleading
campaigns for over two years, continued. .
feasibility reports, wildly exaggerated
Millions of dollars were wasted in the
claims by Israel Bonds, excessive secrecy
process. Now the project has finally been
concerning key project data and political
killed, and it is time to examine the.
acrimony between the cabinet ministers
troubling legacy of the MDP.
jointly
responsible for. the project. These
The Med-Dead Project, or as it has been
factors
created a situation where work
popularly known, the "Med-Dead Canal,"
on planning and researching the project
was based on utilizing the 400 meter drop
dragged out for at least two years more
from the mountains of the Negev to the
than it should have.
Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. The
Before this problematic legacy is docu-
idea was to channel the waters of the Med-
mented, a word of caution is in order. Any-
iterranean Sea across the Negev for 120 , one who thinks that there is some magic
kilometers and diop them down into the
formula for weighing the future costs and
Dead Sea through giant generating tnr-
benefits of unconventional alternative
bines, thus creating hydroelectric tower.
energy projects such as.the MDP should
More than $18 million was spent over the
look again. Such projects require a consid-
last 10 years in studying this project,
erable amount of careful -- and expensive
whose estimated cost has grown steadily,
— study before they can be consigned
and lately reached about $2 billion.
either to the drawing board or the waste-
What legacy does the MDP leave, us, be-
basket. In.the case of the MDP, economic
sides some valuable research on the
feasibility wasn't the only question mark.
hydrology and geology of the Negev and ,
Attention also had tnbe'paid the prac-
Dead Sea 'regions; a kilometer-long"ex-
,
ticality of its engineering concepts, which
included building a system of canals and
tunnels across the Negev, and to the eco-
logical implications of diluting the mineral-
rich waters of the Dead Sea.
And even if a project looks good on
paper, there is still a considerable margin
for error in estimating what" the future
' prices of oil and coal will be, since this
factor determines how much an alternative
energy source will save on conventional
fuels. •
In early 1981 the government set up the
Mediterranean-Dead Sea Co., whose major
task was to determine if the project was
technically, ecologically • and economically
feisible. This step was based on severals
preliminary studies conducted starting in
1974. Engineering consultants from Israel
and abroad pronounced the MDP techni-
cally workable, and scientific studies
pointed to no major ecological drawbacks.
It was thus assumed that the project
would ultimately stand or fall on the
results of the economic feasibility studies,
which weighedits anticipated costs against
its expected• benefits and tried to deter-
mine whether the hydroelectric plant would
make or lose money over a 50-year period.
It was also taken into account that the
power plant would not run 24 hours a day,
since this would raise the:level of the bead
Sea far beyond what was considered desire
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