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Israel hailed an “historic agreement” Monday that it claimed would save the sinking Dead Sea by linking it with the Red Sea through a 180-kilometre underground pipeline.

The Red-Dead Conduit deal was due to be signed by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority at the World Bank headquarters in Washington after years of deliberation and feasibility studies.

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The project is expected to see 100,000 litres of water a year pumped northwards from a desalination plant to be built at the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan, near the mouth to the Red Sea.

Some will be distributed to Israel, Jordan and the occupied West Bank while four pipes will pump the rest to the Dead Sea.

Water levels in the Dead Sea, whose banks are in Israel and Jordan, have dropped by more than 24 metres in the past 50 years – with experts forecasting that it could be dried up by 2050 at current rates of decline.

Silvan Shalom, the Israeli energy and regional development minister, said the deal was a result of “strategic co-operation of diplomatic significance” between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. “This is a breakthrough after many years of efforts. It is nothing less than a historic move,” he told Israel Radio before concluding the agreement at a signing ceremony with Hazem Nasser, Jordan’s water minister, and Shaddad Attili, the Palestinian Authority’s minister in charge of water affairs.