Red Sea to Dead Sea Water Conveyance
Bulk conveyance + pumping, Design studies gave about 2 billion m3/year of Red Sea intake, 350 to 850 million m3/year of desalinated output and about 250 MW of hydropower; a first phase at Aqaba of 80 to 100 million m3/year in Jordan.
Stalled
The record
- Country
- Jordan
- Location
- Aqaba
- Coordinates
- —
- Technology
- Bulk conveyance + pumping
- Capacity
- Design studies gave about 2 billion m3/year of Red Sea intake, 350 to 850 million m3/year of desalinated output and about 250 MW of hydropower; a first phase at Aqaba of 80 to 100 million m3/year
- Capital cost
- US$900 million
- Stage
- Stalled
- Owner or client
- Ministry of Water and Irrigation, with Israel and the Palestinian Authority
- Contractor
- —
- Operator
- —
- Finance
- —
- Award or start year
- 2010
- Commissioned
- —
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 2010
memorandum of understanding signed by the Joint Water Committee chairs for a first-phase Aqaba plant of 80 to 100 million m3/year at about US$900 million
- 2012-06
World Bank environmental and social assessment of the full conveyance
- 2014
Jordan Valley Authority still presenting the 180 km conveyor with 350 to 850 million m3/year of desalination and two hydropower stations
- 2023
National Water Strategy 2023-2040 makes no mention of the scheme and builds national supply on the Aqaba to Amman National Conveyance Project instead
Sources
7 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Jordan Valley Authority, River Basin Management, presentation by JVA Secretary General Sa'ad Abu Hammour, International Integrated Basin Management Workshop, Istanbul, 25 to 26 February 2014, hosted by SESRIC. sesric.org.
- Ten main dams of 325 million m3 storage, 36,000 hectares developed for irrigation, and the 110 km King Abdullah Canal described as the backbone of the valley's hydraulic infrastructure.
- Slides 30 to 35 set out a 180 km conveyor with a 55 km open canal, pumping of 229 MW at a head of 273 m, two hydropower stations of 135 MW and 115.8 MW, desalination of 350 to 850 million m3/year, and a first-phase Aqaba plant of 80 to 100 million m3/year at a capital cost of about US$900 million under a memorandum of understanding signed by the Joint Water Committee chairs in 2010; it also cites a World Bank environmental and social assessment of June 2012. Ministry of Water and Irrigation, National Water Strategy 2023-2040. mwi.gov.jo.
- Thirteen main dams of about 280 million m3 total storage excluding Karameh; bulk supply shares for 2021; 31 wastewater plants of about 600,000 m3/day.
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- The 2023 strategy contains no mention of a Red Sea to Dead Sea conveyance and rests future municipal supply on the National Conveyance Project, which will desalinate at Aqaba and deliver an additional 300 million m3 by around mid-2028. Jordan Strategy Forum, Water: Jordan's Options in Light of Supply and Use Crisis, September 2025. jsf.org.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
names the National Carrier Project to desalinate Red Sea water and carry it to Amman as the flagship supply scheme, at about 300 million m3/year.