AMMAN--Water scarce Jordan approved Monday a $980 million project to desalinate water from the Red Sea for drinking water needs, which at the same time would help to replenish the retreating Dead Sea.  The desalination plant will have a capacity of 100 million cubic meters a year in Wadi Araba, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told reporters, and a pipeline from the plant will discharge the brine into the Dead Sea.

Jordan is one of the world's most water-poor nations, suffering chronic drinking water shortages. And the Dead Sea is shrinking around one meter every year amid drought, and pumping for mineral extraction and agricultural needs.

"The Jordanian government has decided to go ahead with the project after conducting thorough geological, geographical, environmental and economic studies," Mr. Ensour said.

Jordan would also swap desalinated water produced by the project with drinking water produced by Israel from Lake Tiberias--known as Sea of Galilee--north of the Jewish state.  Mr. Ensour said that Jordan would buy drinking water from Israel produced from Tiberias and sell Israel instead desalinated water produced from the new project in the south in order that the kingdom reduces costs of transporting water from the south to north.

The project will be financed partially by the government, while between $300 million and $400 million would be secured from grants, the Minister of Water and Irrigation Hazem Nasser said in a statement Sunday following a cabinet meeting.  Last month Jordan inaugurated the $1 billion water supply project transporting around 120,000 cubic meters a day from the Disi aquifer in southern Jordan to the capital Amman and nearby provinces.