Jordan is planning a scaled-back version of a long-touted water-delivery project linking the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. It would supply the kingdom and possibly southern Israel, Jordanian officials announced on Aug. 19.
The proposed project's first phase would involve building a 100-cubic-meter-per-year desalination plant at a cost of about $1 billion, less than one-tenth of the price tag of the far more ambitious project that had been envisioned for decades.