Water minister, Meridiam Suez consortium sign MoU on water carrier project

AMMAN — On the sidelines of his participation in the One Planet Summit for water cooperation, held in Saudi Arabia, Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abul Saud signed a memorandum of understanding with Meridiam Suez consortium for implementing the National Water Carrier Project.

Abul Saud said that under the MoU, the two sides agreed to proceed and conclude negotiations related to the project in a way that serves national interests, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Thursday, citing a ministry statement.

The memo also sets a clear timeline to ensure the project's execution and the delivery of water according to the planned schedule, without any legal obligations between the two sides, safeguarding the agreement that will be signed soon to implement the project.

He added that the project is one of the largest seawater desalination projects in the world, involving the desalination of the Red Sea water and transporting it from Aqaba to Amman. 

The project will follow "the best" environmental practices and maximise the use of renewable energy to operate the scheme, ultimately supplying most regions of the Kingdom with 300 million cubic meters of drinking water annually, the minister noted.

Abu Saud stressed that the project is a strategic national option to secure additional sustainable water resources within the framework of the National Water Strategy 2023–2040. 

The project will span some 400 kilometres and will be implemented as a public-private partnership under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan and National Water Carrier Project Manager Saddam Khleifat attended the signing ceremony.