The Dead Sea, bordered by Palestine, Israel and Jordan is a global wonder. It's the lowest point on earth and the saltiest body of water in the world, so salty that visitors can easily float in its waters. China is now in the running to oversee a multi-billion-dollar project to increase water supplies and keep the Dead Sea from slowly disappearing. In the first of our five part series called "Red to Dead Project," CGTN's Stephanie Freid takes us to the Dead Sea to explain what the project will and won't do.

 

NADR AMR, MANAGER DEAD SEA SPA "Each year, the dead sea level is going down by almost one meter. If this goes on, maybe in twenty, thirty years, there will not be a dead sea anymore."

 

The World Bank endorsed Red to Dead Sea Project aims to prevent that the cost more than twelve billion dollars. The long term plan.

 

ODED FIXLER, DIRECTOR RED TO DEAD SEA PROJECT "We will be pumping from the Red Sea about two billion cubic meters a year. In the full project we are going to desalinate nine hundred million cubic meters a year."

 

Beyond building a pipeline to connect the two seas hundreds of kilometers apart.

 

ODED FIXLER, DIRECTOR RED TO DEAD SEA PROJECT "The deal is complex. It's saving the Dead Sea. It's desalinating water. It's water conveyance. It's a swap deal and yes. It's cooperation, a regional cooperation."

 

Water deals, hydro-electric plants, the biggest desalination facility in the world and saving a sea. But environmentalists are worried the project could "kill" the Dead Sea.

 

GUNDI SHAHAR, ENVIRONMENTALIST ECOPEACE MIDDLE EAST "Gypsum will build up in large quantities because of the different chemicals in the two seas, algae will probably bloom most of the year - the donanyella algae blooms red - and they also believe that there will be a slimy layer building up on the top of the Dead Sea all are not good prospects at all."

 

ODED FIXLER, DIRECTOR RED TO DEAD SEA PROJECT "And that's why we are advancing carefully, monitoring carefully the effects."

 

GUNDI SHAHAR, ENVIRONMENTALIST ECOPEACE MIDDLE EAST "How are you gonna reverse such a mega project? Like in many other mega-projects in the world - like for instance the suez canal or all kind of dams - you only know the damage that you have done to the environment after it was too late."

 

That includes possibly contaminating underground drinking water with saltwater if pipes crack open. The Red to Dead conduit is being built along one of the world's deepest, active seismic rifts.

 

Parties responsible for implementing the project maintain: the World Bank and Israel's Geological Survey would not have backed the plan if it included grave environmental risks.

 

The Red Dead Project is currently in the bidding phase. It will be about two years before groundbreaking begins. Stephanie Freid, CGTN.