Prime Minister Nader Dahabi cut the ribbon on the 990-million-dollar plan to extract 100 million cubic metres (3.5 billion cubic feet) of water a year from the 300,000-year-old Disi aquifer in the Mudawwara area, 325 kilometres (200 miles) south of Amman.

Infrastructure work on the much-delayed project in the tiny kingdom -- where 92 percent of the land is desert -- is expected to take around four years.

"Drawing water from Disi to Amman is just a temporary solution," Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abu Soud said at a ceremony attended by representatives of GAMA Energy, a Turkish firm that will handle the project.

Jordan's overall population of nearly six million is growing by almost 3.5 percent annually, and it is one of the world's 10 most water-impoverished countries, relying mainly on rainfall to meet its needs.

And in Amman, per capita daily consumption of its 2.2-million population is 160 litres (42 gallons), according to the water ministry.

"The solution to our water problems is the Red-Dead Canal project," Abu Soud said.

He was referring to a multi-billion dollar plan to build a massive canal to channel water from the Red Sea to the slowly evaporating Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, and to construct a desalination plant.

It is expected to provide Jordan, which consumes more than 900 million cubic metres (31.5 billion cubic feet) every year, with 500 million cubic metres (17.5 billion cubic feet) of water annually.

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