Jordan gets 2 global bids for Red Sea project

The Jordanian government expects bids from potential master developer of a project to bring Red Sea water to the Dead Sea this week and will announce the winner in the third quarter of this year, according to the ministry of water and irrigation. Spokesman Adnan Zu’bi said a technical committee of the  Jordan Red Sea Project (JRSP)  will evaluate the bids and decide which is best for the kingdom. “Two international firms that submitted proposals to serve as the master developer of the JRSP are scheduled to visit the country soon to present their plans for implementing the mega-project,” Zu’bi was quoted as saying by the local media.  “The committee will study the proposals and announce the winning company later this year,” Zu’bi said. Work on the project is expected to begin early next year. Plans call for the project to supply Jordan with around one billion cubic metres of water annually by 2022. According to Minister of Water and Irrigation Musa Jamani, two companies will brief the JRSP committee on how they plan to implement, finance and invest in the project during separate meetings on April 18 and 22. The two companies have not been identified. Officials will say only that one of them is prominent in construction and financing and the other is a leader in investment. Both companies may be asked to implement the project as a consortium. 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 at the port of 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 metres (mcm) of water from the Red Sea every year” 930mcm will be desalinated and 1,220mcm will be channelled into the shrinking Dead Sea. In addition, 180 megawatts of electricity will be generated by projected hydropower stations.