Saudi Arabia plans to create a huge water canal on their eastern border with Qatar, one kilometer away from the Saudi-Qatari border into KSA. The canal will be 60 kilometres long, 200 metres wide and up to 20 metres in depth. The 2.8 billion Saudi riyal project seeks to serve Saudi Arabia politically and economically, Gulf News reported.

This seems to be a mini copy of the Suez Canal of Egypt that today brings in huge transit revenues to Egypt. Currently, the UAE has not announced any participation in developing the proposed Salwa Water Canal. But personally, I don’t rule out a possibility of participation by UAE-based developers in building the canal, especially given the experience of successfully launching and developing the Dubai Water Canal that was completed in record time.

Economically, the canal is expected to bring in a considerable portion of sea trade and water tourism on the eastern shorelines of a fast-changing Saudi Arabia. The canal will house private beach villas, luxurious yacht piers, five-star hotels and resorts, sea ports on both banks, marina bays and other tourist attractions. The project will add thousands of jobs and act as a catalyst to Saudi economy. Water inflow will also help to create man-made coral reefs that will directly enhance tourism, under-water sports and maritime environment in that region.

The canal will also serve as a direct and a shorter shipping line access between main UAE sea ports, Dammam and Bahrain, all the way to Kuwait and Basra — avoiding the sensitive sea route that cuts between Qatar and Iran. This in turn will translate into less fuel, less travel time and, more importantly, a safer sea route from the UAE to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said in a Tweet that Salwa Water Canal is an open proof of Qatar’s failure in managing and resolving diplomatic crisis. It is fair to say Qatar has lost its Salwa border-crossing. Hence Salwa “Maaku”. In other words — Salwa, no more.

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