Press release
Red Sea - Dead Sea Project: Thetis’ work nears completion
The meeting’s participants will include Thetis, the Venice-based engineering company that has been tasked
with performing one of the five studies required for the project’s feasibility report – an investigation of the transnational infrastructure’s potential environmental impact on the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat (Red Sea).
Thetis will present the initial results of the study, which is now approximately 70% complete. Begun in March 2010, the study will definitively conclude in the summer of 2011.
Thetis is acting as the team leader for this project in collaboration with institutes and experts that have been studying the Gulf of Aqaba for years, including the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science in Eilat and Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (Israel), the Marine Science Station in Aqaba (Jordan) and Prof. S. Monismith of Stanford University (USA).
With the objective of assisting the populations of Jordan, Israel and Palestine, the ambitious World Bank project will bring water from the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat (Red Sea) to the Dead Sea by means of an underground tunnel running 180 km across the desert and will produce freshwater by means of a desalinization plant.
The programme has attracted international attention due to its remarkable engineering and environmental aspects and the delicate relationship that exists between the countries in which the project will be implemented. It is being financed through the World Bank by France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Holland, Sweden, the United States and Greece. Representatives from these countries, along with representatives from the World Bank and the three areas that will benefit from the project (Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories), will meet in Milan on 22 February for an update on the progress of the feasibility study.
The amount of water that the tunnel will transfer to the Dead Sea is considerable – an estimated two million cubic metres per year. The project will cost approximately 10 million dollars and will require significant infrastructure construction in the areas involved. Thetis’ task force, coordinated by Dr. Andrea Barbanti (Director of the Environmental and Land Engineering Division), is completing an assessment of the impact that these structures will have on water circulation and the coral reef marine environment.
In conducting this study, Thetis capitalized on the considerable expertise it has gained through years of experience with international projects. In fact, the Italian company’s international experience includes: playing a leading role in the sustainability assessment analysis for the islands in Chongming County (China), conducting a sustainable mobility management study in New Delhi (India) and participating in numerous projects in other countries, including Croatia, Romania, Libya and Thailand.
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