In addition to various schemes to limit waste, such as using recycled water for irrigation, water minister Raed Abu Soud has recently announced the launch of a project to gain access to water from an ancient desert aquifer located 325 kilometres south of the capital, Amman.

To be undertaken by Turkish company GAMA Energy, the US$990million (£505million) project is expected to take four years to complete and to deliver 100 million cubic metres of water annually, helping to ease demand from Jordan’s six million inhabitants.

Despite the scale of the project, it’s only considered to be a temporary solution while a radical plan to build a canal linking the Red and Dead seas, along with a massive desalination plant, is carried out.

‘The solution to our water problems is the Red–Dead Canal project,’ Abu Soud said. ‘It is expected to provide Jordan with 500 million cubic metres of water annually.’

Jordan’s Royal Society for the Protection of Nature declined to comment on the possible effects of such a large project until the results from the environmental impact assessment, due out sometime this year, are released.  The Kingdom of Jordan is one of the top ten ‘water poor’ countries in the world, where demand exceeds natural supply by about 140 per cent.

October 2008