US gives cash support to Jordan water sector

The US has committed some US$ 125 million over the next five years to support projects in water conservation and efficiency in Jordan according to newspaper reports.

US Ambassador Alice G. Wells was reported in The Jordan Times to have said Washington would continue its backing for the Middle East state’s water sector which has run since the 1950s and includes the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project (Red-Dead) with its associated desalination project.

According to Jordan’s water minister, Hazem Nasser, the scheme will pump 300 million m3 of Red Sea water each year to feed a 65 million m3 desalination plant to be built at Aqaba and to replenish the falling level of the Dead Sea.

Nasser said a memorandum of understanding between Palestine and Israel related to the implementation of the Red-Dead Project was to be signed within six weeks. He went on to say the winning bid for the project will be selected by the end of the year with construction scheduled to start in 2017 for completion by 2020 he added.

 The US Congress committed in 2015, U$ 100 million in support to Jordan’s water sector, said Wells. She said the pressure on Jordan’s water resources had grown with the influx of Syrian refugees.