Beirut (APD) - Jordan's ministry of water and irrigation at the start of this week short-listed 14 companies including two consortia for a tender to carry out the long-awaited $600 million Disi Water Conveyor Project on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.
Earlier this year, 18 local and international companies had purchased tender documents for the pre-qualifying round of the 325-kilometre water pipeline that is to link Amman with the ancient Disi aquifer in the south of Jordan.
"Out of the eighteen bids received for the project, only fourteen were qualified by the ministry for the second round. The winner will be announced by mid September," an official at the ministry told APD Tuesday.
Upon completion, the Disi conveyance system is expected to supply Jordan with around 100 million cubic meters of drinking water annually from 65 wells located in the Disi aquifer for a minimum of 100 years.
Jordan is in strong need for developing new water resources. According to statistics released in February, the country offers each of its citizens 170 cubic meters of water per year, in comparison to the global average of 7,000. In other words, Jordan's water supply per capita is a meager 2% of the global average.
Details on the timeframe of implementing the project and the proposed duration of the BOT contract were not available. Plans for tendering the Disi project had been launched initially under a 20-year BOT concept in 2001 but cost factors impeded their realization.
"Just like a new sequel in a boring movie, the long-awaited Disi water conveyor project is back to square one," said Batir Wardam, a Jordanian Environmentalist, commenting on the project.
The first attempt at implementing the project in 2001 was aborted by the Jordanian government. It revoked a plan to award the tender to an international bidder, citing the high end cost of JD 0.89 per cubic meter to customers under this bid.
"The ministry's goal is to find a bidder who can offer water for a price not exceeding JD 0.69 per each cubic meter," the official told APD.
The project was later assigned to the Jordan Armed Forces' Investment Projects Fund, which failed to meet the deadline to submit the technical and feasibility studies.
In July 2005, the ministry of water and irrigation decided to invite companies for re-bidding on the strategic project.
In September 2005, the ministry set the final recommendations for the project. Last week, and after receiving all documents from companies expressing their interest in the water conveyor project, the ministry qualified fourteen companies for the second round.
"Names of winners were published on the ministry's website after a thorough study of the technical and financial offers of these companies," the ministry official said adding that one consortium and three international companies, including an Israeli company, were excluded from the second round.
The Hariri family's Saudi Oger, Saudi Arabia's Al Mada Company for Industrial and Commercial Investment and Kuwait's UDC Holding (Utilities Development Company) were all qualified for the project.
Arabian Consortium for Disi Project (ACDP), a consortium of local, Arab and international companies, will also run for the bid.
UK's Investech Bank, Russia's Ctroytransgas (CT Russia), Canada's SNC-Lavalin, Japan's Mitsui & CO and Dutch ING Wholesale Banking are five international companies bidding for the Disi conveyor.
Other international companies include Turkey's Gama Enerji, Italy's Societa Italian per Condotte and the California-based Earth Tech.
Two consortia were also qualified by the ministry, namely, Oasis Consortium and Befesa Consortium.
"Foreign companies teaming up with a proposed local national water company is an option but not a condition," the official told APD. [TS]
By Mirna Sleiman, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2006
