Billion dollar desalination plant project in the Red Sea

Jordan plans to build a huge desalination plant in the Red Sea to provide drinking water in the face of severe drought .

The plant will be built in the Gulf of Aqaba in the south of the country and be ready to go into operation in the next five years, spokesman Omar Salameh of the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation revealed on June 13 . Project with an estimated cost of up to $ 1 billion with capacity to produce 250-350 million m ³ of water per year.

"It will meet the demand for drinking water in Jordan for the next two centuries ," Salameh stressed. "The desalinated water will be routed from the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea to the rest of the country."

The desalination plant will deliver clean water to Jordan's arid regions. (Photo: AFP).

Thirteen international consortiums have participated in the bidding for the project and the government will select five of them in July. Desalinated water requires a large energy source and companies must propose an efficient way to operate the plant. in Jordan, which does not have large oil reserves.

Jordan is one of the countries with the most shortage of fresh water in the world due to most of its territory being desert. Experts say the country of 10 million people is suffering from one of the most severe droughts in its history.

In a statement last month, Salameh said that Jordan needs about 1.3 billion m ³ of clean water each year, but the amount available is only about 850-900 million m ³ due to little rain, global warming, population growth numbers and refugees.

This year, the reserves of the important drinking water dams have reached a critical level. Many dams are now only 1/3 of their normal capacity.