Jordan said Sunday it plans to construct a Red Sea desalination plant operating within five years, to provide the mostly desert and drought-hit kingdom with critical drinking water, French news agency AFP reported.
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The cost of the project is estimated at "around $1 billion," Water and Irrigation Ministry spokesman Omar Salameh told AFP, adding that the plant would be built in the Gulf of Aqaba, in southern Jordan.
The plant is expected to produce 250-300 million cubic meters of potable water per year, and should be ready for operation in 2025 or 2026, Salameh said.
"It will cover the need for drinking water [in Jordan] for the next two centuries," he maintained, adding that the desalinated water would be piped from Aqaba on the Red Sea to the rest of the country.
