The Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) expects to begin prequalification for the first stage of the Red Sea Dead Sea conveyance scheme in September or October 2015.

A consortium of desalination, pipeline and electromechanical specialists will carry out the $900m first phase.

The project is intended to increase desalination capacity for Israel, Palestine and Jordan, while conveying the waste product, brine, to revitalise the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is retreating at a rate of over 1m a year due to overexploitation of the Jordan River and phosphate extraction.

“We are aiming to start construction in early 2017, so it would be finished in late 2019,” says Nabil Zoubi, project manager for the scheme at the JVA. “The contract will be on a build, operate, transfer, basis so the contractor will finance 70 per cent of the project and 30 per cent of funding will come through the governments of Israel and Jordan.”

The first phase involves a 65-80m cubic metres a year (cm/y) desalination plant, reservoirs, pumping stations and 180km of pipelines.

Israel will purchase 50m cm/y, while the remainder will be consumed in Jordan. Israel will in turn release 50m cm/y of Jordan River water to Jordan and sell an additional 20-30m cm/y to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The World Bank has completed multiple studies, but questions remain over the environmental impact of introducing brine into the unique Dead Sea ecosystem.

The project has been planned for over a decade, but political obstacles make cooperation with Israel difficult. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and peace talks have made little progress since the early 1990s.

The JVA signed a bilateral agreement with Israel in February 2015 to carry out the project.