Kuwait has welcomed an Iranian offer to supply up to 200 million gallons (760 million liters) a day of drinking water from the river Karun, which flows by Abadan in south-west Iran, a newspaper reported Friday.
"Kuwait has no objection to the offer, provided the price of the water is right," Electricity and Water Minister Adel al-Sabih told Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.
The offer came from a joint British-Kuwaiti-Iranian firm to deliver through an underwater pipeline that would link the two Gulf countries.
Sabih said the company, which was not named, had asked for six months to study the Kuwaiti conditions before final negotiations could start.
Kuwait obtains almost all its water needs for drinking and irrigation through five power and water desalination plants which have a production capacity of 250 million gallons (950 million litters) a day.
The minister said the production cost is under six dollars a gallon (1.57 dollars a liter) and the cost of the Iranian water should not exceed that.
Besides production from its power plants, Kuwait, where water is highly subsidized, has limited underground resources, mostly in the form of brackish water used mainly for irrigation.
No details on the cost of the project nor its duration have been disclosed - KUWAIT CITY (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
