New Gulf pipeline plan

Plans to build one of the world's most ambitious fresh water pipelines have been unveiled in London.

The pipeline -- five-hundred-and-forty kilometres long -- will carry water from a dam in Iran to the coast of Kuwait, across Iranian territory and under the sea.

It's to be built by a consortium of European, Arab and Japanese companies at a cost of two-billion dollars, and will eventuallly supply around two-hundred-million litres of drinking water a day to Kuwait.

Officials say the new pipeline will enable Kuwait to rely less heavily on desalination, which is believed to be causing environmental damage to the coastline.

But some critics say it will put excessive strain on the water supply of northern Iran.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service