Jordan: US$600 million project to end water shortage

Jordan has launched a US$600 million project to pump water from its Disi aquifer in the south, signaling an end in sight to the kingdom's chronic water shortage, experts and government officials say. A Turkish company named Gama was declared the winner of the project's bid, floated by the government to build pipelines and pumping stations to bring water up to 250km from Disi, on the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border, to Amman , the capital, and other cities. The project will be executed on a BOT (build operate and transfer) basis, whereby the Turkish firm will sell water to Jordan for 40 years before handing the project to the Jordanian government.