Developers Present Plans for “Jordan Red Sea Project”

The Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation will meet next month with representatives of two international companies that submitted proposals to serve as the master developer of the Jordan Red Sea Project (JRSP).

Minister of Water and Irrigation Mousa Jamani said the two companies will present their plans for implementing the mega-project.

“We want to hear from the companies how they plan to implement, finance and invest in the JRSP for us to decide later this year on which firm to select as the master developer,” Jamani said.

The JRSP is projected to supply the Kingdom with around one billion cubic meters of water annually by 2022, with implementation of the first phase to start early next year.”Two separate meetings will be held with the companies on April 18 and 22,” Jamani said.

The minister did not name the two companies, but highlighted that one of them is prominent in construction and financing, while the second is a leader in investment.”We will likely ask both companies to implement the project as a consortium,” he said.

Under the first phase of the JRSP, water will be conveyed from the Red Sea through pipelines to a desalination facility that will be built in Aqaba. Water generated from the plant will be distributed to the port city and surrounding development projects.

The project entails extracting 2,150 million cubic meters of water from the Red Sea every year; 930mcm will be desalinated and 1,220mcm will be channeled into the shrinking Dead Sea. In addition, 180 megawatts of electricity will be generated by projected hydropower stations, as Jordan Times stated.

In addition to providing much needed water, the JRSP includes an economic development program that entails the establishment of gated communities, resorts, industries and other projects, according to the ministry.