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Record-breaking year for Jordan’s water sector

11 June 2025

 

Jordan’s utilities sector made a record-breaking start to 2025 with the award of the $3bn Aqaba-Amman water conveyance and desalination project contract. 

The long-planned project is a major step forward in addressing Jordan’s water scarcity and represents the kingdom’s largest planned water infrastructure project to date. 

The Aqaba-Amman award means that by the end of May, there had been $3.5bn of contract awards in 2025, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, which exceeds the cumulative total for the previous 10 years.

It is also only the second time on record that Jordan will award more than $1bn-worth of water construction projects in a calendar year. The last time was in 2007, when there were $1.1bn of contract awards.

The contract for the build, operate and transfer project was signed on 12 January by Jordan’s Ministry of Water & Irrigation and a consortium led by Paris-based firms Meridiam and Suez.

The project’s desalination plant will have an initial capacity of 300,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), expandable to 835,000 cm/d, using reverse osmosis technology. It also includes 450 kilometres of pipelines to transport desalinated water from the Gulf of Aqaba to Amman.

The developer consortium also includes Egypt’s Orascom Construction and France’s Vinci Construction Grands Projets.

Wastewater tender

In addition to the Aqaba-Amman project, another significant water development this year is the tendering of package five for the West Irbid wastewater network project. Water Authority Jordan (WAJ) has invited bids for sewerage collection systems and gravity trunk lines for the towns of Soum and Kufr Youba. 

The project will be financed by a loan and grant administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The West Irbid wastewater treatment plant project, for which WAJ secured $30m in financing last year, will treat 12,000 cm/d once completed.

Power contracts

In the power sector, there had been $33m of contract awards by the end of May, according to MEED Projects. The full-year total last exceeded $100m in 2022, when there were $111m of contract awards, and the last time there was a significantly large total was in 2018, when there were $910m of contract awards.

The totals may improve soon. This year, Jordan’s Energy & Mineral Resources Ministry (MEMR) sought interest from firms for a 200MW solar photovoltaic project. This project will be developed on a build, own and operate basis and will connect to the national grid via National Electric Power Company (Nepco).

Additionally, Nepco plans to procure a gas-fired power station with a design capacity of around 500MW, which is expected to be developed using an independent power project model. Advisers are currently being sought for this project.

In February, Nepco secured a €67.1m ($70.2m) financing package from the EBRD and the EU. This package, consisting of an EBRD loan of up to $56.5m and an EU investment grant of up to €12.4m ($13m), will fund the construction of a high-voltage electricity substation in northern Jordan.

This substation aims to improve the grid’s capacity to handle existing and new generation, facilitate cross-border interconnections and reduce transmission losses. The project includes the construction of four overhead transmission lines, supporting Jordan’s renewable energy targets for 2030.

Regional leader

Today, solar and wind power account for over 30% of Jordan’s total installed capacity of approximately 7.1GW as of 2023. This makes Jordan one of the leaders in renewable energy installed capacity in the Middle East and North Africa region relative to its overall generation capacity. 

Completed projects include the 89MW Fujeij wind power plant, which became operational in 2019, and the 373MW Qatrana gas-fired combined-cycle power plant, which was commissioned in 2011. Both are backed by long-term power-purchase agreements with Nepco. 

These projects highlight Jordan’s ability to attract financing, particularly from GCC states, for its renewable energy projects.

Reassurance required

Looking ahead, the status of upcoming water and power projects indicates both progress and challenges. While significant strides have been made with the Aqaba-Amman water project, some projects face delays. 

According to data from MEED Projects, there are $3.3bn of power projects either under way or planned in Jordan, with generation plants accounting for 59% of this total. 

Despite Jordan’s strong renewable energy resources and regulatory framework, inconsistencies in energy policy, such as the introduction of additional taxes and reluctance to allocate land for renewable energy projects, have created bottlenecks and reduced investor confidence. This has led to several slow-moving projects.

The fact that only one developer team submitted a bid for the Aqaba-Amman project shows the limited appetite for large-scale projects and Jordan’s utility sector in general. Smaller water treatment and desalination schemes, as well as power substation projects, have proven to be more successful at attracting bidders. 

For Jordan to overcome these challenges, it must reassure investors and contractors. The award and successful execution of the $3bn Aqaba-Amman project will go a long way towards providing the market with the reassurance it needs.

MEED's July 2025 report on Jordan also includes: 

> ECONOMY: Jordan economy nears inflection point
> GAS: Jordan pushes ahead with gas plans

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Colin Foreman

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