Commentary
Jennifer Aguinaldo
Energy & technology editor

Jordan’s national water carrier programme, previously known as the Aqaba-Amman water desalination and conveyance project, achieved a major milestone in December when a developer consortium submitted a bid to develop the project.

It is a much-anticipated water infrastructure project to alleviate the kingdom’s gaping water scarcity issue.

Jordan has only 97 cubic metres of water available per capita annually, less than one-fifth of the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cu m/capita a year, according to the World Bank.

The project has so far received pledges in the form of loans and grants from financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, the EU and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

These total roughly $730m in loans and $107m in grants, far smaller than the total investment the project requires.

Notably, in 2022, the heads of Jordan’s Planning Ministry and Water Ministry confirmed that the pledges and commitments at the time reached a total of $2.2bn, although a breakdown was not published.

A source close to the project says there are no legal obstacles to awarding the contract to the single bidder, “provided the client finds the price acceptable”.

The bidding team comprises Paris-headquartered Meridiam, a shareholder in Suez, Vinci, also of France, and Egypt’s Orascom.

The proposed levelised water cost for the project has not been disclosed.

Some prequalified bidders have told MEED they did not bid for the contract due to potential challenges in obtaining financing for the project, which is estimated to cost between $2bn and $3.5bn depending on its final configuration.

The build-operate-transfer project is Jordan’s single largest planned infrastructure scheme to date. It will pipe water from the southern coast to the country’s northern regions.

The desalination component of the project will have the capacity to treat 835,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of water, of which 250,000 cm/d to 300,000 cm/d are expected to be transported to the capital Amman.

The conveyance segment of the project includes the construction of a seawater intake pump station, reservoir, pipeline, booster pump stations and freshwater collection pipes.

The project is expected to use clean energy in line with the government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

An estimated 1.6 million people, roughly a 10th of the kingdom’s population, are expected to benefit from improved water services through the project. 

It is not the only project planned to alleviate Jordan’s worsening water woes, which result from population growth, the influx of refugees, and leaking, ageing pipes.

In June, the World Bank approved a $250m financing to improve and rehabilitate Jordan’s water distribution network. An estimated 50 per cent of Jordan’s municipal water is considered non-revenue water (NRW), meaning it either leaks from pipes or is not paid for by the consumer.

Water levels in the country’s 14 major dams are also understood to sit at about 43 million cubic metres – roughly a 10th of their total capacity of 336.4 million cubic metres.

Jordan’s treaty with Syria to import water has fallen through, with Syria rejecting the latest request to import 30 million cubic metres of water.

Its only other water source is Israel, with whom it signed a peace treaty in 1994. Under this deal, Israel agreed to provide Jordan with 55 million cubic metres of water a year. In 2021, Israel agreed to supply Jordan with an additional 50 million cubic metres of water outside the framework of the 1994 treaty.

In late 2022, Jordan and Israel signed a water-for-energy deal brokered by the UAE and US. Under the plan, Jordan will build a 600MW solar power plant and export the capacity to Israel. In return, Israel will provide Jordan with 200 million cubic metres of desalinated water.

The project appeared to be advancing in 2023 before the Israel/Hamas conflict began on 7 October.  

Jordan said in November that it would not sign the deal, which leaves Jordan’s water problem unsolved until the water national carrier project is completed – assuming it is successfully awarded, financed and developed – in three or four years’ time.