Sources in the Chancellor’s office: Kohl was surprised by the project’s lack of progress.
The proposed dam construction project to collect run-off floodwaters in the north of Jordan and desalinate spring waters flowing into the Sea of Galilee will top the agenda in talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl scheduled for next week. Sources in Kohl’s office confirmed today that the Chancellor would give the green light to the $400 million project.
Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Bonn on September 26. He will stay in the city for a day. The development of water resources in the north of Jordan is the most important practical issue on his agenda.
Kohl inaugurated the water project at a gala ceremony in Jordan in June last year attended by Jordan’s King Hussein and Israel’s late Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin. Since then, nothing further has been done on the project apart from a feasibility study conducted by the European Union to lay down pipes to conduct water to Jordan from Israeli sources.
In the framework of the project, Israel made a committment to supply Jordan 50 million cubic meters of water per annum, free of charge, in order to ease severe water shortages in the Hashemite Kingdom.
A source in the Chancellor Kohl’s office told “Globes” that Kohl was surprised by the fact that construction work on the dams had not yet begun.