Jordan launches $990m water project

Prime Minister Nader Dahabi has launched a $990m plan to extract 100 million cubic metres of water a year from an aquifer close to the Saudi Arabian border, according to an AFP report. Water will be carried from the 300,000-year-old Disi aquifer, 325 km to Amman. The infrastructure for the project will take four years to build.This will include using 250,000 tonnes of steel and digging 55 wells to pump water from Disi to Amman, where per capita daily consumption of its 2.2-million population is 160 litres (42 gallons), he said.

Jordan's overall population of nearly six million is growing by almost 3.5 percent annually, and it is one of the world's 10 most water-impoverished countries, relying mainly on rainfall to meet its needs.The demand for water is constantly rising in Jordan, which has seen an influx of around 750,000 Iraqi refugees since the US-led invasion of its eastern neighbour in 2003.

Current water consumption is some 900 million cubic metres (31.5 billion cubic feet) per annum.

The water ministry says Jordan, where 92 percent of the land is desert, will need 1.6 billion cubic metres (56 billion cubic feet) of water a year to meet its requirements by 2015.