Jordan picks firms for ambitious canal project

AMMAN: Jordan said Monday it had chosen five international consortia to build the first phase of a multi-million-dollar canal linking the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea.

The ambitious $1.1 billion (Dh4.04 billion) project has been in the works for more than a decade and aims to provide much-needed water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

It moved closer to reality in December 2013 when Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority signed a water-sharing deal. Jordan’s water and irrigation ministry in a statement Monday said the consortia were made up of 20 engineering firms from Asia, Europe and North America. (AFP)