A plan to link the Red Sea with the shrinking Dead Sea could save it from total evaporation and bring desalinated water to thirsty neighbors Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians.
But environmentalists warn that the "Red-Dead" project could have dire consequences, altering the unique chemistry of the landmark inland lake at the lowest point on earth.
Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur said on Monday that his government had decided to press ahead with the 980-million dollar project which would give the parched Hashemite kingdom 100 million cubic meters (3.5 billion cubic feet) of water a year.
"The government has approved the project after years of technical, political, economic and geological studies," Nsur told a news conference.
Under the plan, Jordan will draw water from the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern end of the Red Sea to the nearby Risheh Height, where a desalination plant is to be built to treat water.
"The desalinated water will go south to (the Jordanian town of) Aqaba, while salt water will be pumped to the Dead Sea," Nsur said.
The Dead Sea, the world's saltiest body of water, is on course to dry out by 2050.
It started shrinking in the 1960s when Israel, Jordan and Syria began to divert water from the Jordan River, the Dead Sea's main tributary.
Israel and Jordan's use of evaporation ponds for extracting valuable minerals from its briny waters has only exacerbated the problem.
With a coastline shared by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, the Dead Sea's surface level has been dropping at a rate of around a meter a year. According to the latest available data form Israel's hydrological service, on July 1, it stood at 427.13 meters (about 1,400 feet) below sea level, nearly 27 meters lower than in 1977.
Under the plan most of the desalinated water would go to Jordan, with smaller quantities transferred to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.