Beset by years of drought, the authorities are focusing their energies on two mega projects to develop water resources in a country where 92 percent of the land is desert.

They plan to draw water from the 300,000-year-old Disi aquifer in southern Jordan and build a massive canal to bring water from the Red Sea to the slowly evaporating Dead Sea -- the lowest point on the face of the earth.

"The two projects are vital," Munir Oweis, the water ministry secretary general, told AFP ahead of World Water Day on Saturday.

The government wants to dig 65 wells to extract water from the Disi aquifer, 325 kilometres (200 miles) south of Amman, in order to pump 100 million cubic metres (3.5 billion cubic feet) of water a year to Amman.

Daily water consumption per capita in Amman stands at 160 litres (36 US gallons).

But nationwide demand is constantly increasing with Jordan's population of nearly six million growing by nearly 3.5 percent a year and an influx of more than 750,000 Iraqi refugees since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Over the past two years, Jordan has also faced an annual water deficit of more than 500 million cubic metres (17.5 billion cubic feet), almost half of what it needs annually to sustain the population, the water ministry says.

Jordan has invited private firms to tender for the Disi project -- estimated to cost 944 million dollars -- on a build, operate and transfer basis under a 25-year-concession agreement.

"The treasury will handle around 220 million dollars of the project, which is expected to be ready in 2011 or 2012 to help tackle a growing water deficit," said Oweis.

Water drawn from Disi would meet Amman's demands for 50 years, experts say.

High hopes are also pinned on the much-touted project to build a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

The idea for the multi-million-dollar project has been around for years, but stalled amid tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

If it sees the day, Oweis said, "it will solve the water problem in Jordan and the region" as well as help stop the saline Dead Sea, which lies at 400 metres (1,312 feet) below sea level, from vanishing.

"If it's not done, the Dead Sea is in danger and might disappear."

In December 2006, officials from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority launched a feasibility study for the canal aimed at providing up to 850 million cubic metres of fresh water to be shared by the three neighbours.

The first phase of the proposed project consists in building a 180-kilometre (110-mile) pipeline to pump 1.9 billion cubic metres of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea at a cost of one billion dollars.

The second phase estimated to cost 2.5 billion dollars will involve the construction of a desalination plant in Jordan and a power plant to generate electricity.

The level of the Dead Sea has dropped by a third since the 1960s and restoring it to its natural water level would take 25-30 years, experts have said.

Oweis said the government has launched other projects to preserve water, nicknamed "blue gold," including a 250-million-dollar plan to rehabilitate old water networks in Amman.

The government is also mulling ways of building a desalination plant in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.

With Jordan plagued by dry spells, and only 50 percent of reservoirs filled by rain water this year, the Jordanians, including King Abdullah II, have turned to God.

As in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, prayers for rain (Salat al-Istesqaa) have become a common practice in Jordan, where water shortages are "a matter of life or death", an expert said.

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