Jordan’s Water and Irrigation Ministry has short-listed five teams, out of 17 original proposals, to submit definitive bids for the $1.1-billion first phase of the project to pump water from the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea on the Israel-Jordan border. The work also will include boosted water and power supply facilities for the region, including a new desalination plant.
Consortia for the Red-Dead Sea Water Conveyance project are headed by the China National Technical Import and Export Corp., Hong Kong-based Hutchison Water International Holdings, Korea Water Resources Corp., Japan-based Mitsubishi Corp. and France’s Suez International SAS. Three Israeli companies active in the desalination-and-water sector also submitted proposals. A winner is expected to be announced in the first half of next year.