By Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN - Water from the Disi Water Conveyance Project is expected to be running through the capital's water network by the end of 2012, six months earlier than anticipated, a GAMA official said Monday.
"The project went into effect as of June 30. We will do our best to finish before the deadline and deliver water to Amman in three-and-a-half years… by the end of 2012 the water will be in Amman, hopefully," GAMA Managing Director Arif Ozozan said yesterday during a press conference to announce the project's action plan.
An agreement signed last year between the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and GAMA, the Turkish company implementing the Disi project, stipulated that the construction of the megaproject would take four years.
In the meantime, Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abu Saud told reporters Monday that the Disi project "kickoff meeting" between GAMA and the ministry will be held today. The company will, at the meeting, "provide a clear timeframe and roadmap for implementing the project".
The minister noted that the price of one cubic metre of water generated from the Disi project went down from JD0.87 to JD0.82 after the government raised its stake in the project, dropping further to JD0.74 after steel prices fell on the international markets.
Briefing the press on the project's action plan, Ozozan said the company will finalise the purchase of steel and pipes after the detailed engineering studies are completed.
"We want to take advantage of the current financial market conditions so during the coming 12 months the purchases of steel and pipes will be completed," he said at the press conference.
He noted that the cost of steel constitutes 30 per cent of the project's total cost or approximately $333 million, excepting transport costs.
"The company is currently working on the engineering studies… the mobilisation of our teams at the site will be during August," Ozozan told The Jordan Times.
Meanwhile, GAMA Assistant Managing Director for Technical Affairs and Operations Sitki Serifeken said in order to finalise the project's implementation schedule, the company must present certain documents to the ministry, such as the technical specifications of the construction materials.
"The schedule cannot be defined now as we have to wait for such processes to be completed… it is also subject to improvement and review," Serifeken told The Jordan Times.
Dismissing news reports claiming that the company lacks the financial stability to implement the scheme, Ozozan said the company has been successfully operating for 50 years with around 30,000 employees in different countries.
"We are not a company established yesterday. All employees are paid on time, and this transaction and its closing show our financial strength as well, so we have a vote of confidence from the financial community," Ozozan said.
For his part, Abu Saud said the government had not provided GAMA's creditors with any guarantees.
"We did not guarantee GAMA before the lenders in any way… All guarantees are provided by GAMA, whether to the government or the lenders," Abu Saud asserted.
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.
The project, which will be carried out on a build, operate and transfer basis, entails constructing a 325-kilometre pipeline that will convey water from the ancient Disi aquifer in the south of Jordan to Amman.
Projected to supply the capital with 100 million cubic metres of water annually, the Disi project will be one of the Kingdom's main water generators, but it will not put an end to the country's water crisis.
The Kingdom has faced increasing demand for the limited resource as a result of demographic shifts and a growing population, but local experts believe climate change has caused a 30 per cent reduction in the country's surface water.
According to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the per capita water share in Jordan is estimated at 145 cubic metres annually, while the international water poverty line is 1,000 cubic metres per capita annually.
