Market brief
Jordan
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Jordan, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for JordanOverview
Jordan’s water market is defined by one transaction. The Aqaba to Amman desalination and conveyance carrier is a 30-year build-own-operate-transfer partnership, within the 35-year cap of the 2023 partnership law,1 with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation as contracting authority; its consortium was appointed in September 2024 and the project agreement signed in January 2025.2 3 Its lenders put the cost at about US$6 billion, with operations planned from 2030,3 most of the US$ 6.1 bn the register records in projects not yet operating.4 Beyond the carrier, the ministry and the Water Authority have an eleven-project readiness programme of bulk water schemes worth about US$840 million.2 The constraint is cost recovery: the government’s cost of water was JOD 1.93 a cubic metre in 2024, the first household tariff block is subsidised at 82% of cost, and the carrier itself is financed partly through government subsidies.5 6 2
Market snapshot
The commercial picture in Jordan: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Political stability; higher is more stable.7
Investment climate
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.7
Key institutions
- Ministry of Water & Irrigation (MWI)Ministry
- Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ)Water authority
- Miyahuna (Amman)Utility
- Yarmouk Water CompanyUtility
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (As-Samra BOT; Aqaba–Amman desalination PPP: Meridiam/SUEZ appointed September 2024, project agreement signed January 2025)
- Flagship budgetUS$ 4.3 bn capital cost (Aqaba–Amman carrier, April 2026 agreement)
- Active fundersKfW, United States (State Department and DFC), EIB, EBRD
- Climate adaptation planSubmitted to UNFCCC (March 2025; national plan adopted 2021)
Opportunities
- 01Aqaba–Amman desalination & conveyance (National Water Carrier)
- 02Non-revenue-water reduction PPPs
- 03Treated-wastewater reuse expansion to 2040
- 04Solar-powered pumping
Key challenges
- 01Among the world's water-poorest countries (~82 m³ total renewable water per person)
- 02Transboundary dependence (Yarmouk, Jordan, Disi)
- 03Non-revenue water at 41% (2026)
- 04Refugee-driven demand growth
Sources and notes
Sources: MWI Water Budget 2024 (total, use by sector, supply by source, desalination share); MWI Water Sector Facts & Figures 2022; FAO AQUASTAT 2021 (reuse share); National Water Strategy 2023–2040; MWI Wastewater Management and Reuse Policy (2023); National Adaptation Plan (2021); DOS Jordan; World Bank 2024. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2025).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Jordan. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; in Jordan the cabinet sets tariffs on the Water Authority’s recommendation.6
- Ministry of Water & Irrigation (MWI)Ministry
- Aqaba Water CompanyUtility
- MiyahunaUtility
- Yarmouk Water CompanyUtility
- Jordan Valley Authority (JVA)Irrigation & drainage
- Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ)Water authority
How deals are structured
The framework in Jordan is Active (As-Samra BOT; Aqaba–Amman desalination PPP: Meridiam/SUEZ appointed September 2024, project agreement signed January 2025), the flagship budget line is US$ 4.3 bn capital cost (Aqaba–Amman carrier, April 2026 agreement), and the funders most active in the sector are KfW, United States (State Department and DFC), EIB, EBRD.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are often engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 24 tracked schemes in Jordan, 1 names a concession or independent-producer structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Jordan’s partnership statute is Law No. 19 of 2023, which allows contracts of up to 35 years;1 it repealed Law 17 of 2020, which had itself replaced Law 31 of 2014.8 The market’s defining deal is the Aqaba to Amman carrier, where the consortium was appointed in September 2024 and the project agreement signed in January 2025, a sequence worth getting right because both dates are quoted as the award.2
| Procuring body | The Ministry of Water and Irrigation is the contracting authority and signs; ownership of the project transfers to the ministry after the concession ends, and the Water Authority of Jordan recommends tariffs to the cabinet.2 9 6 |
|---|---|
| Contract form and term | Build-own-operate-transfer over 30 years, inside the 35-year statutory cap, with the assets transferring to the government at the end. The lenders describe the same deal as design-build-finance-operate-maintain-transfer, so both labels appear in the documents.2 3 1 |
| Offtake counterparty | The government of Jordan, through the water ministry.3 |
| Payment security | State support sits inside the capital structure rather than in a separate guarantee: the carrier is financed through a mix of debt, equity and government subsidies, with a development-finance group around it.2 3 |
| Tax | Withholding tax at 10% plus the national contribution tax applies to imported services provided by a non-resident legal entity, the rate depending on the recipient’s industry.10 |
| What is coming | Beyond the carrier itself, the ministry and the water authority have an eleven-project readiness programme of bulk water schemes worth about US$840 million: the best-evidenced near-term opportunity set in the country, and absent from most pipelines.2 |
The carrier’s cost is disclosed by its lenders at approximately US$6 billion, subject to further optimisation, with IFC committing US$407 million, approved by its board on 19 February 2026, and operations planned from 2030.3
Regulatory intelligence
For companies entering the market, the regulatory picture matters as much as the resource one. The matrix below tracks the status of the standards and rules that most affect water investment in Jordan.
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water reuse standards (JS 893) | In force | 2021 | Reclaimed-water quality classes for restricted & unrestricted irrigation.11 |
| Desalination & brine discharge | Project standard | 2025 | The carrier’s environmental and social assessment predicts a salinity increase of less than 2% above ambient seawater at 100 m from the diffusers.12 |
| Groundwater abstraction & wells | In force | 2002 | Licensing and metering of wells; enforcement strengthened since 2013.13 14 |
| Water tariffs & cost recovery | Approved | 2023–2029 | Cabinet endorsed a plan on 17 September 2023 to restructure household water and sanitation tariffs for 2023–2029, in line with the 2023–2040 National Water Strategy.6 |
| Drinking-water quality (JS 286) | In force | 2015 | National drinking-water standard aligned with WHO guidance.15 |
| Environmental & social safeguards | Applies | 2025 | The National Carrier project’s impact assessment and action plan address EBRD and lenders’ environmental and social requirements.16 |
| Energy efficiency for water utilities | Policy | 2023–2040 | The Water Sector’s Energy Policy sets goals to improve energy efficiency across water-sector operations and increase renewable-energy integration.17 |
Projects
Tracked schemes in Jordan, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Sources and notes
Interactive map: switch views, hover or focus a marker, and use the +/− controls (or double-click, then drag) to zoom and pan. Geometry and data from the MENA Water Review library.
24 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
Contracts on record in Jordan, from the awards log and the major projects register, dated by commissioning where known.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Jordan carrying a published value
1 further award in this sector has no value recorded in our register and is not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Aqaba–Amman Water Desalination & Conveyance (AAWDC) | Meridiam, SUEZ developer | 6,000 |
| 2020 awarded | North Balqa Wastewater Treatment Plant | Passavant Energy & Environment contractor | 86 |
| 2020 on line | Wadi Al Arab Water System II | Mapa, Özaltın İnşaat contractor | 129 |
| 2013 on line | Disi Water Conveyance (BOT) | GAMA developer | 988 |
| 2008 on line | As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant | SUEZ, Degremont, Morganti developer | n/a |
| 2006 on line | Zara–Ma'in Water Treatment | Morganti, Degremont contractor | 135 |
Sources and notes
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. Register rows without a commissioning date show their stage instead: awarded, with the year recorded, or under construction or operating, with no year. 6 rows in total for Jordan.
Repeat winners
- Degremont2 tracked awards, 1 as developer, 1 as contractor
- Morganti2 tracked awards, 1 as developer, 1 as contractor
- SUEZ2 tracked awards, as developer
Sources and notes
Firms appearing on two or more tracked awards in Jordan. For a PPP, BOT, BOO or independent water, power or sewage project the winner counted is the developer or sponsor consortium; for an EPC or works contract it is the contractor. Each consortium member is counted on its own. EPC contractors working for a developer, subcontractors and equipment suppliers are not counted, and a PPP whose developer is not recorded counts for no firm.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Jordan, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.31 upward | $2.72 | 2024 | Cabinet decision reported by the Jordan Times, 17 September 2023 (tariff); International Growth Centre, 25 November 2025 (cost)6 5 |
Seven monthly blocks under the restructuring the cabinet approved on 17 September 2023 for 2023 to 2029. The first block, to 6 m³ a month, was JOD 0.218/m³ for water and JOD 0.23 for sanitation in 2024, subsidised at 82% of cost; the subsidy falls block by block and the seventh block, above 42 m³, is not subsidised. Billing moved from quarterly to monthly with the September 2023 bill. The cost of supply is the government's cost per m³ of water, JOD 1.93 in 2024 (down from JOD 2.16 in 2021), converted at the dinar's peg to the dollar.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Jordan, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- September 2026The United States International Development Finance Corporation approved a loan and risk insurance for the national water carrier on 16 September. Financial close not yet reached.From the October 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
17 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Jordan Strategy Forum (2025), Public-private partnership: concepts and applications, on Law No. 19 of 2023 and the 35-year cap.
- EBRD and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (2025), Aqaba-Amman project, environmental and social impact assessment: non-technical summary.
- IFC, summary of investment information, project 47924, disclosed 17 October 2025 and updated 25 February 2026.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
- International Growth Centre, blog on Jordan’s water tariff reforms and costs, 25 November 2025: the cost to the government per cubic metre of water fell from JOD 2.16 in 2021 to JOD 1.93 in 2024.
- The Jordan Times, “Gov’t approves water, sanitation tariff restructuring 2023-2029”, 17 September 2023 (archived copy).
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2025 update: political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- Ministry of Investment (Jordan), PPP Guidelines, 2024: Law No. 19 of 2023 repealed and replaced Law No. 17 of 2020.
- Jordan News, report on the signing of the National Carrier project: ownership transfers fully to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation after the concession ends.
- PwC, Jordan: withholding taxes, worldwide tax summaries.
- Resources 14(5), 69 (2025), doi:10.3390/resources14050069, citing JS 893:2021, the fourth edition of the reclaimed-wastewater standard.
- IFC, environmental and social review summary, project 47924.
- Underground Water Control By-law No. 85 of 2002, FAOLEX.
- IWMI, Water resources use and management in Jordan: a focus on groundwater, Report 11, 2017.
- Jordanian Standard for Drinking Water, JS 286:2015 (sixth edition), as cited in the literature.
- EBRD, project summary document 53620, Aqaba–Amman water desalination and conveyance.
- Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Jordan), The Water Sector’s Energy Policy, 2023–2040.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.
Sources and notes
Summary of the standards and reforms most relevant to water investment; confirm current requirements with the national regulator (MWI / WAJ / JSMO).