AMMAN - Detailed designs have been finalised for the Disi Water Conveyance Project, scheduled to begin later this month, a government official said on Thursday.
The blueprints include the project's plan and engineering designs, Disi Project Director Othman Kurdi said yesterday, noting that all that remains is "fine-tuning" for the project.
"Excavations on the route where the pipeline will be laid will start by the end of this month in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing and Public Works' excavations for expanding the airport road," Kurdi told The Jordan Times.
To be carried out on a build-operate-transfer basis, the project entails constructing a 325-kilometre pipeline that will convey water from the ancient Disi aquifer in the south of Jordan to Amman.
The Disi project is expected to supply the capital with 100 million cubic metres of water annually by the end of 2012.
The first phase of the excavation work includes extending pipes from Madaba Bridge to Dabouk, in the western outskirts of Amman, while the second phase entails extending a pipeline from a plant in Madaba to the Abu Alanda area, southeast of the capital.
Kurdi did not say when digging will begin on the wells from which the water will be pumped, noting that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and GAMA, the Turkish company implementing the project, are negotiating the time frame.
The project entails digging 55 underground wells in the Disi aquifer to a depth of 500 metres. The water will be transferred to Amman via a pipeline, which will pass through several water stations, from Maan-Tafileh-Karak-Madaba and finally to Amman.
The project went into effect on June 30 last year after the financial closure was signed. The government's equity in the project totals $400 million, $100 million of which is allocated as "standby" funding, to be used if international prices of construction materials, including steel, increase.
The European Investment Bank and the French Development Agency extended two $100 million soft loans to the government for the project.
The price of one cubic metre of water generated from the Disi project went down from JD0.87 to JD0.74 after the government raised its stake in the project and steel prices fell on international markets.
© Jordan Times 2010
