Disi Water Conveyance Project
Encyclopedia
The Disi Water Conveyance Project is a water supply
project currently under construction in Jordan
. It is designed to pump 100000000 cubic metres (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) million cubic meters of water
per year from the Disi aquifer
,which lies beneath the desert in southern Jordan
and northwestern Saudi Arabia
. The water would piped to the capital, Amman
and be used to meet increased demand. Construction began in 2009 and it is expected to be completed in January 2013 with a total cost of USD 1.1 billion. An independent study revealed the water to be very radioactive and potentially dangerous to drink, surrounding the project with controversy.
. The aquifer is classified as a fossil aquifer
, meaning that the water is not replenished if it is removed. In fact, the aquifer has a recharge rate of 50000000 m³ (10,998,462,415 imp gal) of water per year. This recharge is dwarfed, however, by the current extraction rate of 90000000 m³ (19,797,232,346.9 imp gal) for agricultural and domestic needs, including 15000000 m³ (3,299,538,724.5 imp gal) of water that is supplied to Aqaba, Jordan. The current extraction rate of 90000000 m³ (19,797,232,346.9 imp gal), coupled with the future extraction rate of 100000000 m³ (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) for the project, is expected to produce a total extraction rate of 190000000 m³ (41,794,157,176.8 imp gal). At that rate, the water in the aquifer will last 50 years, according the Disi Water Company.
Only a small portion of the Disi aquifer lies beneath Jordan
, while the majority lies beneath Saudi Arabia
. Saudi Arabia also extracts water from the aquifer (called the Saq aquifer in Saudi Arabia). The aquifer has created controversy between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with each country demanding the other to use less of the shared water. There is no formal agreement between the countries regarding the water and the Disi Water Conveyance Project is being constructed without Saudi consultation or involvement.
Non-revenue water
is a serious problem in Amman. Currently, 40% of water in Amman is lost as non-revenue water. The city rations water, with individual residents averaging 36 hours of water access weekly. If the non-revenue water problem remains, it is possible that a large portion of the water provided by the Disi Water Conveyance project will also be lost as it is piped through Amman.
The Disi Water Conveyance project was first proposed in the 1990's, but was initially regarded as too expensive. It was not until 2007 that the Jordanian Government contracted a firm to begin construction.
The project proposed by the Jordanian government will pump 100000000 m³ (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) of water per year from 55 wells
in the aquifer. However, a total of 64 wells will be drilled, the extra wells to be used as piezometers to measure the elevation of the water. Nine of the 55 water producing wells will be used in emergencies only. The wells producing water will be drilled 600–700 m (1,968.5–2,296.6 ft) deep while the piezometers will be drilled to a depth of 400 m (1,312.3 ft). The plan is to pump the piezometer wells for 25 years, according to the project leader.
After being pumped from the wells, water will then be transported to Amman
, via a 325 km (201.9 mi) pipeline, passing through a pumping station, then flowing by gravity and being pumped up again. The reservoirs near Amman are only 200 m (656.2 ft) higher than the surface area where the pumping field is located. Nevertheless, the total elevation differential over which water needs to be lifted by both pumping stations is about 800 metres (2,624.7 ft). To pump the water through the proposed pipeline will require 4 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter of water. The entire project would require approximately 4 percent of Jordan's current electrical production. The project is expected to be completed by January 2013 and to run for 25 years or until the Two Seas Canal
is built.
The 100000000 m³ (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) of water will be divided between the Abu Alanda reservoir and the Dabouq reservoir. Approximately 40000000 m³ (8,798,769,932 imp gal) of water will be sent to the Abu Alanda reservoir where it will be diluted with water from the Zara Ma’en desalination plant as well as water from Wala. The remaining 60000000 m³ (13,198,154,897.9 imp gal) of water will be sent to the Dabouq reservoir where it will be diluted with water from the Zai Treatment Plant as well as water from Wala. It is estimated that the cost of one cubic meter of water from the project will be 0.74 JOD
($1.05 USD).
began construction. By February of 2011, eight piezometer wells and two water producing wells have been completed. Twenty-three other wells were to be drilled, and 85 km (52.8 mi) of pipe were to be installed. By April of 2011, 99% of the 340 km (211.3 mi) of project's piping had arrived from Turkey, an anonymous source told The Jordan Times. This source stated that the project was over 50% completed and that it was ahead of schedule.
Construction was delayed by disgruntled members of a Bedouin tribe
living in the area, who allegedly intimidated workers by shooting in the air and at construction equipment. All work was stopped for two weeks after two employees were killed in January 2011 — allegedly murdered by a member of the Bedouin tribe. The tribe had been upset because GAMA did not rent its water tankers, according to Adnan Zu’b, Assistant Secretary Genera at the Ministry of Water and Irrigationl. To satisfy the tribe, GAMA then announced plans to rent tankers from the tribe. However, near the site of the killings, the town of Ma'an
had protests against the government's failure to punish the killers.
concession contract between the Jordanian government and the Disi Water Company (Diwaco), a subsidiary of the Turkish construction company GAMA Energy. GAMA Energy is a joint venture between the Turkish GAMA Holding and the US firm General Electric
Energy Financial Services. Diwaco is responsible to build the project over a 4-year period and to operate it for another 25 years. After that time ownership will transfer to the Jordanian government. Diwaco will retain any profits and will bear the risk of losing its equity. Construction is undertaken by Gama Power Systems, a subsidiary of Gama Holding, under a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction
contract with Diwaco. Operation will be undertaken by Disi Amman Operation Maintenance LLC, a fully owned subsidiary of the French water company Suez Environnement
, under a separate operating contract with Diwaco.
The project is funded through an equity contribution of about USD 200m from Diwaco, a USD 300m grant and a USD 100m stand-by facility from the Jordanian government, as well as USD 475m in foreign loans to Diwaco. The project's total cost is expected to be $1.1 billion USD. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation
has lent USD 250m to Diwaco to support U.S. foreign investment on the basis that General Electric partially owns GAMA Energy. The state-owned French bank PROPARCO, which is the part of the French Development Agency
(AFD) that supports private sector development, and the European Investment Bank
(EIB) each lent about USD 100m to Diwaco. The loan package has been put together by the Arab Banking Corporation. Much of the government grant supporting the project comes from sovereign soft loans
that the government of Jordan has borrowed from the EIB and AFD and passes on as a grant to the project. AFD provided USD 50m for the state grant and USD 48m for the stand-by facility.
revealed the Disi water to be highly radioactive. Water was tested from 37 existing wells in the aquifer, and all but one had concentrations of radioactive radium-226 and radium-228 isotopes that exceeded international standards for drinking water. Some of the water tested exceeded standards by 2,000%. Drinking water with these isotopes has been linked to bone cancer and leukemia
. Though expensive, the water could be purified of the radioactive isotopes through ion-exchange purification.
Jordan's Ministry of Water and Irrigation has stated that the radioactivity is not a problem because the water is to be diluted with an equal amount of water from other sources. This dilution would presumably halve the radioactivity of the water which, according to Vengosh's data, would not be enough to bring the water up to standards. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation, however, has declared Vengosh's data to be inaccurate, as his study did not test water from any of the wells that will be used in the project. As radiation varies from well to well, it is possible that the data Vengosh collected does not accurately reflect the water sources to be used in the project.
Although testing at the well sites
that supply Aqaba reveals high radioactivity, testing performed using water from the tap in Aqaba shows the water to be safe. There is no confirmed explanation for this phenomenon, although it is hypothesized that the depth of the wells (the ones that supply Aqaba are relatively shallow) may play a role as the radiation varies greatly at shallow depths.
In May, 2011, the President of the Jordanian Geologists Association Bahjat Al Adwan stated that the radiation is present in the water in the form of Radon, and thus dissipates harmlessly when the water is exposed to air on the surface. This explanation has not been confirmed scientifically, however.
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
project currently under construction in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. It is designed to pump 100000000 cubic metres (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) million cubic meters of water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
per year from the Disi aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
,which lies beneath the desert in southern Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
and northwestern Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. The water would piped to the capital, Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
and be used to meet increased demand. Construction began in 2009 and it is expected to be completed in January 2013 with a total cost of USD 1.1 billion. An independent study revealed the water to be very radioactive and potentially dangerous to drink, surrounding the project with controversy.
Background
The water in the Disi aquifer gathered 30,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era. It is 320 kilometres (198.8 mi) long and located 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) below ground inside of porous sandstoneSandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
. The aquifer is classified as a fossil aquifer
Fossil water
Fossil water or paleowater is groundwater that has remained sealed in an aquifer for a long period of time. Water can rest underground in "fossil aquifers" for thousands or even millions of years...
, meaning that the water is not replenished if it is removed. In fact, the aquifer has a recharge rate of 50000000 m³ (10,998,462,415 imp gal) of water per year. This recharge is dwarfed, however, by the current extraction rate of 90000000 m³ (19,797,232,346.9 imp gal) for agricultural and domestic needs, including 15000000 m³ (3,299,538,724.5 imp gal) of water that is supplied to Aqaba, Jordan. The current extraction rate of 90000000 m³ (19,797,232,346.9 imp gal), coupled with the future extraction rate of 100000000 m³ (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) for the project, is expected to produce a total extraction rate of 190000000 m³ (41,794,157,176.8 imp gal). At that rate, the water in the aquifer will last 50 years, according the Disi Water Company.
Only a small portion of the Disi aquifer lies beneath Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, while the majority lies beneath Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. Saudi Arabia also extracts water from the aquifer (called the Saq aquifer in Saudi Arabia). The aquifer has created controversy between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with each country demanding the other to use less of the shared water. There is no formal agreement between the countries regarding the water and the Disi Water Conveyance Project is being constructed without Saudi consultation or involvement.
Non-revenue water
Non-revenue water
Non revenue water is water that has been produced and is “lost” before it reaches the customer. Losses can be real losses or apparent losses . High levels of NRW are detrimental to the financial viability of water utilities, as well to the quality of water itself...
is a serious problem in Amman. Currently, 40% of water in Amman is lost as non-revenue water. The city rations water, with individual residents averaging 36 hours of water access weekly. If the non-revenue water problem remains, it is possible that a large portion of the water provided by the Disi Water Conveyance project will also be lost as it is piped through Amman.
The Disi Water Conveyance project was first proposed in the 1990's, but was initially regarded as too expensive. It was not until 2007 that the Jordanian Government contracted a firm to begin construction.
Design
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
in the aquifer. However, a total of 64 wells will be drilled, the extra wells to be used as piezometers to measure the elevation of the water. Nine of the 55 water producing wells will be used in emergencies only. The wells producing water will be drilled 600–700 m (1,968.5–2,296.6 ft) deep while the piezometers will be drilled to a depth of 400 m (1,312.3 ft). The plan is to pump the piezometer wells for 25 years, according to the project leader.
After being pumped from the wells, water will then be transported to Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
, via a 325 km (201.9 mi) pipeline, passing through a pumping station, then flowing by gravity and being pumped up again. The reservoirs near Amman are only 200 m (656.2 ft) higher than the surface area where the pumping field is located. Nevertheless, the total elevation differential over which water needs to be lifted by both pumping stations is about 800 metres (2,624.7 ft). To pump the water through the proposed pipeline will require 4 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter of water. The entire project would require approximately 4 percent of Jordan's current electrical production. The project is expected to be completed by January 2013 and to run for 25 years or until the Two Seas Canal
Two Seas Canal
The Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal is a proposed canal which would run from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and provide electricity and potable water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This proposal has a major role in plans for economic cooperation between Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians,...
is built.
The 100000000 m³ (21,996,924,829.9 imp gal) of water will be divided between the Abu Alanda reservoir and the Dabouq reservoir. Approximately 40000000 m³ (8,798,769,932 imp gal) of water will be sent to the Abu Alanda reservoir where it will be diluted with water from the Zara Ma’en desalination plant as well as water from Wala. The remaining 60000000 m³ (13,198,154,897.9 imp gal) of water will be sent to the Dabouq reservoir where it will be diluted with water from the Zai Treatment Plant as well as water from Wala. It is estimated that the cost of one cubic meter of water from the project will be 0.74 JOD
Jordanian dinar
The dinar is the currency of Jordan. The dinar is divided into 10 dirham, 100 qirsh or 1000 fils....
($1.05 USD).
Construction
In June 2009, the Turkish firm GAMAGAMA Endustri
GAMA Industrial Plants Manufacturing and Erection, Inc. is the construction arm of the Turkish company Gama Group, which was established in 1970...
began construction. By February of 2011, eight piezometer wells and two water producing wells have been completed. Twenty-three other wells were to be drilled, and 85 km (52.8 mi) of pipe were to be installed. By April of 2011, 99% of the 340 km (211.3 mi) of project's piping had arrived from Turkey, an anonymous source told The Jordan Times. This source stated that the project was over 50% completed and that it was ahead of schedule.
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
living in the area, who allegedly intimidated workers by shooting in the air and at construction equipment. All work was stopped for two weeks after two employees were killed in January 2011 — allegedly murdered by a member of the Bedouin tribe. The tribe had been upset because GAMA did not rent its water tankers, according to Adnan Zu’b, Assistant Secretary Genera at the Ministry of Water and Irrigationl. To satisfy the tribe, GAMA then announced plans to rent tankers from the tribe. However, near the site of the killings, the town of Ma'an
Ma'an
Ma'an is a town in southern Jordan 218 km away from the capital Amman. It is the capital of Ma'an Governorate. Ma'an has a population of around 50,000. The city had a population of 22,989 in the 1992 census and is estimated as being about 50,000 as of 2007 according to the Ma'an Municipality...
had protests against the government's failure to punish the killers.
Structure and funding
The project is funded on a build-operate-transferBuild-Operate-Transfer
Build-own-operate-transfer or build-operate-transfer is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract...
concession contract between the Jordanian government and the Disi Water Company (Diwaco), a subsidiary of the Turkish construction company GAMA Energy. GAMA Energy is a joint venture between the Turkish GAMA Holding and the US firm General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
Energy Financial Services. Diwaco is responsible to build the project over a 4-year period and to operate it for another 25 years. After that time ownership will transfer to the Jordanian government. Diwaco will retain any profits and will bear the risk of losing its equity. Construction is undertaken by Gama Power Systems, a subsidiary of Gama Holding, under a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction
EPC (contract)
EPC stands for Engineering, Procurement and Construction.It is a common form of contracting arrangement within the construction industry. Under an EPC contract, the contractor will design the installation, procure the necessary materials and construct it, either through own labour or by...
contract with Diwaco. Operation will be undertaken by Disi Amman Operation Maintenance LLC, a fully owned subsidiary of the French water company Suez Environnement
Suez Environnement
Suez Environnement S.A. is a French-based utility company which operates largely in the water treatment and waste management sectors. Formerly an operating division of Suez, the company was spun out as a stand-alone entity as part of the merger to form GDF Suez on 22 July 2008. GDF Suez remains...
, under a separate operating contract with Diwaco.
The project is funded through an equity contribution of about USD 200m from Diwaco, a USD 300m grant and a USD 100m stand-by facility from the Jordanian government, as well as USD 475m in foreign loans to Diwaco. The project's total cost is expected to be $1.1 billion USD. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is an independent agency of the United States Government that mobilizes U.S. private sector investment in new and emerging markets overseas in order to support both the sustainable economic development of those markets and the creation of American jobs...
has lent USD 250m to Diwaco to support U.S. foreign investment on the basis that General Electric partially owns GAMA Energy. The state-owned French bank PROPARCO, which is the part of the French Development Agency
French Development Agency
French Development Agency is the French international development agency.The Agence Française de Développement is a public institution providing development financing...
(AFD) that supports private sector development, and the European Investment Bank
European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...
(EIB) each lent about USD 100m to Diwaco. The loan package has been put together by the Arab Banking Corporation. Much of the government grant supporting the project comes from sovereign soft loans
Soft loan
A soft loan is a loan with a below-market rate of interest. This is also known as soft financing. Sometimes soft loans provide other concessions to borrowers, such as long repayment periods or interest holidays. Soft loans are usually provided by governments to projects they think are worthwhile...
that the government of Jordan has borrowed from the EIB and AFD and passes on as a grant to the project. AFD provided USD 50m for the state grant and USD 48m for the stand-by facility.
Radioactivity
The project became controversial in 2009 when a study performed by Avner Vengosh of Duke UniversityDuke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
revealed the Disi water to be highly radioactive. Water was tested from 37 existing wells in the aquifer, and all but one had concentrations of radioactive radium-226 and radium-228 isotopes that exceeded international standards for drinking water. Some of the water tested exceeded standards by 2,000%. Drinking water with these isotopes has been linked to bone cancer and leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. Though expensive, the water could be purified of the radioactive isotopes through ion-exchange purification.
Jordan's Ministry of Water and Irrigation has stated that the radioactivity is not a problem because the water is to be diluted with an equal amount of water from other sources. This dilution would presumably halve the radioactivity of the water which, according to Vengosh's data, would not be enough to bring the water up to standards. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation, however, has declared Vengosh's data to be inaccurate, as his study did not test water from any of the wells that will be used in the project. As radiation varies from well to well, it is possible that the data Vengosh collected does not accurately reflect the water sources to be used in the project.
Although testing at the well sites
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
that supply Aqaba reveals high radioactivity, testing performed using water from the tap in Aqaba shows the water to be safe. There is no confirmed explanation for this phenomenon, although it is hypothesized that the depth of the wells (the ones that supply Aqaba are relatively shallow) may play a role as the radiation varies greatly at shallow depths.
In May, 2011, the President of the Jordanian Geologists Association Bahjat Al Adwan stated that the radiation is present in the water in the form of Radon, and thus dissipates harmlessly when the water is exposed to air on the surface. This explanation has not been confirmed scientifically, however.