The establishment of the fund, which will follow the signing in late September/early October of an agreement between international donor agencies, will trigger a tender for a feasibility study into the project. Expressions of interest for the $15.5 million, two-year study are expected to be issued once the agreement is signed. 'We are working with the donors for their signature at this time,' says a World Bank official.

Interest in the study has already attracted international companies such as the UKs Fosters & Partners. 'We have carried out some work recently on the Red-Dead project,' says a Fosters representative. 'We were not commissioned by Amman and havent met anyone in an official capacity, but we have carried out studies looking at the environmental impact [of the project] and sustainable energy production which we have shown to interested private companies.'

Once the two-year study is finished, tender documents will be prepared for a second phase that will involve the construction of a canal, water conveyors and desalination plants. The contract is likely to be let on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The planned 180-kilometre-long conveyor will carry about 870 million cubic metres a year from the Red Sea near Aqaba to the Dead Sea. Amman will take about 66 per cent of the total water conveyed. The Water & Irrigation Ministry is handling the project in the

kingdom (MEED 16:9:06).