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.
Nike Shox Deliver
State-owned Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has unveiled plans for a 1200 megawatt (MW) clean coal power plant and is seeking bidders to build what would be the first such project of its kind in the Gulf Arab region. The utility has issued a request for tenders for the plant, which will be built in two phases to generate 600 MW each when completed in 2020 and 2021 respectively, a statement from DEWA said on Tuesday.
German power giant Siemens said on Tuesday it has won a $966m contract to supply key components for a major combined-cycle power plant in Saudi Arabia. The power station is designed to deliver electricity to the Jazan Industrial city area in the southwest of the country and to the refinery of Jazan, which will additionally be supplied with process steam.
Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co (Al Hosn Gas) has awarded Ametek Process Instruments an estimated $4.6m contract to supply UV process gas analysers for the Sulphur Recovery Units (SRU) and Tail Gas Treating Units (TGTU) at its Shah gas field in Abu Dhabi. Upon completion, the SRU-TGTU complex is expected to be the largest in the world. Each of the SRU's four processing trains is so large that it will require twin reaction furnaces with three tail gas analysers per train, making the project the largest single order for tail gas analyzers ever.
South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has been awarded a contract by Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) to build a SR12.2bn ($3.4bn) power plant in Shuqaiq, Reuters has reported. To be built within five years, HHI will install four steam generating units with highly efficient boilers to produce 2,640 megawatts of capacity, SEC said.