French-led consortium to build giant desalination plant in Jordan

Jordan, one of the world’s most water-scarce nations, has signed a landmark agreement with a consortium of French-led investors to construct one of the world’s largest desalination plants.

This project, valued at over $5 billion, marks Jordan's biggest infrastructure initiative to date, according to the state-run Petra News Agency.

The agreement involves French infrastructure firm Meridiam, in partnership with SUEZ, Orascom Construction, and VINCI Construction Grands Projets.

Once completed, the desalination plant will supply more than 300 million cubic meters of drinking water annually to the capital Amman and the southern city of Aqaba, serving over three million people.

According to Meridiam, the project will boost Jordan's total annual domestic water supply by nearly 60%. It will also involve the construction of approximately 445 kilometers (276 miles) of pipelines to transport desalinated water from the Red Sea to key urban centers.

Jordanian Water and Irrigation Minister Raed Abu al-Saud highlighted the project’s transformative impact, stating it would represent a "significant shift in Jordan’s water security landscape." Prime Minister Jafar Hassan informed Parliament that the project is expected to take about four years to complete.

This ambitious project replaces a previous initiative to link the Red Sea and the Dead Sea through a pipeline system. That plan, formalized in a 2013 memorandum of understanding between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians, aimed to construct a desalination plant at the Red Sea. 

However, growing public discontent in Jordan, largely due to stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, led to its cancellation. In June 2021, former Water Minister Mohammad al-Najjar declared the Red Sea-Dead Sea project was "now a thing of the past."

Jordan has historically relied on water cooperation with Israel as outlined in the 1994 peace treaty. 

However, diplomatic tensions have strained these agreements. In November 2021, Jordan withdrew from a UAE-brokered deal that would have seen Jordan supply solar energy to Israel in exchange for additional desalinated water. 

Yet in March 2023, reports indicated that Amman sought to extend the deal by another year, prompting Israel to request that Jordanian officials soften their public criticism of Israel.

As Jordan grapples with severe water scarcity, the new desalination project represents a critical step toward securing sustainable water resources for its growing population and ensuring long-term water security in one of the world’s driest regions.