The Water Authority of Jordan has invited contractors to submit bids for a contract to expand and upgrade the wastewater system in the capital city of Amman.

Contractors have until 21 August to submit bids for the tender. The project will involve building 5,800 metres of new wastewater pipelines at four locations within Amman, which will include all connections to existing pipelines and valve chambers.

The contract will also involve the construction of the new Dabouq pump station.

The project is the latest of a number of major contracts that the kingdom has tendered to upgrade its utilities infrastructure in recent months.  

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga), the political risk insurance arm of the Washington-based World Bank Group, recently signed an agreement to insure the existing As-Samra wastewater plant and its expansion, located northeast of Amman.

The As-Samra facility is the biggest wastewater treatment plant in Jordan, and is the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project in the country. The $184.3m planned expansion will increase the existing 840,000 cubic metres capacity of the plant by 37 per cent. The sludge treatment capacity of the plant will increase by 80 per cent.