Water ministry extends deadline for Red-Dead first phase proposals

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has modified the final submission date of the prequalification proposals for the first phase of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project (Red-Dead), according to an official source.

“The ministry has extended the original date for submitting the prequalification proposals of companies, and consortia of investors and developers for the development of the Red-Dead project’s first phase on a build, operate and transfer basis to May 30,” the official source told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

The original deadline was May 2, according to the official, who noted that the modification in the submission date has been announced on the project’s website and in local newspapers.

In the modification announcement, the ministry said the extension for the final submission date was “a result of the requests for clarifications received from candidates”, noting that all candidates were notified of the deadline change.

In December last year, the ministry published a call for tenders in local and international newspapers for the implementation of the first phase of the Red-Dead project.

At the time, the ministry said that it would start receiving bids from qualifying firms during the first quarter of this year.

The Red-Dead project’s main components are a seawater intake structure; an intake pump station; a seawater pipeline; a desalination plant with a capacity of 65-85 million cubic metres (mcm) per year; a desalination brine conveyance pipeline; two lifting pump stations; hydropower plants; and discharge facilities at the Dead Sea.

Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel and Palestine in December 2013 to implement the first phase of the Red-Dead project.

Palestine will receive 30mcm of freshwater to cover its water deficit, according to the memo, while Israel will buy its share of 50mcm of desalinated water from the project at cost value and sell Jordan the same amount of water in the northern Jordan Valley at a cost of JD0.27 per cubic metre.

Construction on the first phase is planned to start next year, according to the ministry, which said that under the first phase, a total of 300mcm of water will be pumped each year. In its following phases, the Red-Dead project entails transferring up to 2 billion cubic metres of seawater from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea annually, according to the ministry.

A total of 85-100mcm of water will be desalinated annually, while the seawater will be pumped out from an intake located in the north of the Gulf of Aqaba.

In addition, a conveyor will be extended to transfer desalinated water as well as a pipeline to dump the brine into the Dead Sea to stop its constant decline, estimated at one metre every year.

The Kingdom will receive an additional 50mcm of water from the Lake Tiberias Reservoir annually to be added to Jordan’s share from the desalination station to provide Aqaba with water, according to the ministry.