The first $900-million phase of a mammoth project to pump water from the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea on the Israel-Jordan border—along with boosted water and power supply facilities for the region—has attracted design-construction proposals from teams that include 17 global firms.
Israel and Jordan water agencies last year issued an international build- operate-transfer tender to prequalify firms to build a 65-million-cu-meter-per-year reverse-osmosis desalination plant and related infrastructure; a 170-kilometer pipeline for residual brine from that plant to the Dead Sea; and a hydroelectric plant to supply 20% of the desal facility’s power.