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The Salwa Canal is a proposed shipping route and tourism project through Saudi Arabia along its border with Qatar, effectively turning the latter into an island. The project appears to be abandoned for the present.
The proposed waterway is wide and will be dug to a depth of up to providing a maximum ship draft of . This would allow the canal to accommodate cargo, container and passenger ships up to a length of . The preliminary cost has been estimated at Saudi riyal2.8bn (US$747m). The proposal includes building resorts with private beaches, the construction of ports, the possibility of a free trade zone, a military zone, and a dumping ground for nuclear waste.
Saudi media report the project could be completed within 12 months, comparing it to the second, lane, of the Suez Canal which took about 12 months to finish. However, only half of the distance involved digging new waterways while the remainder was only widening existing channels.
Some media sources seem to prefer a route avoiding maritime boundary passing through Khor Al Adaid, which is a bay and nature reserve also under the Tentative List of the World Heritage Site and mostly shared in a maritime border with Qatar.
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