The WRRC's May 21st Brown Bag seminar featured a presentation by Professor Uri Shani, titled "Policy Principles, the Red-Dead Conduit and Regional Solutions". A professor of soil and water physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Uri Shani was the General Manager and Chairman of the Israeli Governmental Water and Sewage Authority and Head of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Steering Committee for many years. His talk began with an overview of the water challenges faced by Israel and its neighbors and what Israel has been doing to address them. The region is experiencing increased water demands due to population growth and decreased supplies due mostly to climate change. Use of reclaimed water for agriculture, improved efficiencies, and desalination have made Israel water independent. However, the Dead Sea is shrinking rapidly and saving this important resource is an international problem. Donors from around the world are willing to invest in protecting the Dead Sea, and in 2005, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority agreed to initiate the Red Sea-Dead Sea Feasibility Study. The goals for a Red-Dead Conduit were to save the Dead Sea from environmental degradation, desalinate water and generate electricity at affordable prices for Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, and build a symbol of peace and cooperation in the Middle East. In 2013 the parties agreed to pursue a pilot program to build a desalination plant near the Red Sea that would supply water to Israel and would allocate Jordan more water from Lake Kineret (Sea of Galilea). Efforts are now underway to proceed to a Phase 1 project that would move water from the Red Sea and discharge water into the Dead Sea, with desalination of water for use by Israel and Jordan. This project exemplifies Professor Shani's principle that regional approaches can lead to water solutions rather than conflicts.