Zara-Ma'in Project Will Supply Water to Two Million Jordanians with U.S. Agency for International Development Support

(January 25, 2006, as appeared in US Fed News)

The American Ambassador to Jordan, David Hale, today praised the progress of the Zara-Ma'in project in addressing critical human needs during a visit to the site. Once completed later this year, the project will increase the potable water supply of Greater Amman and the Dead Sea tourism area by 40 percent, directly benefiting two million people and enabling the expansion of Jordan's tourism infrastructure. It will also allow water that is currently diverted from the Zarqa and Mafraq systems to Amman to remain in those areas, benefiting a further half million people. The acute and frequent shortage of water in the Greater Amman area has been identified as among Jordan's principal development challenges.

The completed facilities will treat saline water collected from three nearby wadies - Mujib, Zara, and Ma'in - delivered to the site under a separately-funded Jordan Valley Authority project. The Zara-Ma'in project includes a pre-treatment system, a desalination plant, six pumping stations, and an advanced monitoring and control system. A 40-kilometer pipeline will convey the water to the Greater Amman area. It too is near completion.

The private sector has played the central role in the plant's completion and operation through a "Design-Build-Operate" (DBO) arrangement involving the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in association with Ondeo-Degremont, Inc., the Morganti group, Harza Engineering, Black & Veatch Corp., and Metcalf & Eddy. It is noteworthy that this is the first DBO project of a water system in Jordan. Total cost of the project is $125 million, of which the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided $104 million.

Addressing journalists at the site, Ambassador Hale said, "The U.S. is proud to support this project which responds to the needs of Jordanians." He noted that support of the water sector has been a feature of the fifty-four year development partnership between the U.S. and Jordan. Since 1997, the American people have invested almost $490 million in water-related programs in Jordan through USAID, one of the largest such investments worldwide.

For more information on the program and other USAID programs in Jordan, please visit: http://www.usaidjordan.org or http://amman.usembassy.gov.

Copyright 2006, US Fed News