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    Fanack Water Files: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project
    Fanack Water Files: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project
    Fanack Water Files: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project
    Ebook181 pages1 hour

    Fanack Water Files: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project

    By Fanack

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    About this ebook

    The Middle East faces a crisis of the most fundamental kind. Water is scarce. Resources have been depleted and environmental factors make solutions difficult to come by. The Fanack Water Files, presented by Fanack, provide in-depth, comprehensive, and balanced information on the state of water resources in twenty countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Fanack Water Files provide high-quality facts and figures on a range of topics, including water availability and use, pollution and groundwater overexploitation, and alternative sources of water such as seawater desalination.
    Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project is the first publication of The Fanack Water Files. It deals in-depth with the water situation in Jordan, a critical country in the region bordering Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCosimo Books
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781616409531
    Fanack Water Files: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea–Dead Sea Project
    Author

    Fanack

    Fanack is an independent organisation that aims to provide facts about and analysis of the MENA region and its history, society, economy, and culture. Its primary target group is Arab youth, who are exploring their roots and developing their identity in relation to both the Eastern and Western world. Fanack also wants to inform general audience readers that seek a better understanding of the region, including policy-makers, business people, academics, students, and tourists. Visit fanack.com and water.fanack.com.

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      Book preview

      Fanack Water Files - Fanack

      Introduction

      The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is facing growing environmental problems. Water is becoming increasingly scarce across the region and irreversible pollution threatens public health in many places. The situation is particularly acute in Jordan, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

      Most MENA countries are reluctant to share information about a sensitive topic like water; therefore there is little common understanding of the state and development of the region’s water resources. Still, countries within the region acknowledge this challenge and have a clear vision of how to address current and future water crises.

      As no country in the MENA region has access to sufficient water resources, finding solutions is necessarily a matter of cooperation. The sharing of detailed and reliable information is therefore crucial. In this context, Fanack, a Dutch organisation that seeks to promote a better understanding of the MENA region, has launched the Fanack Water Files. This ambitious initiative aims to broaden access to digital information on the precarious state of water resources in the region.

      Providing in-depth, comprehensive, and balanced information on water, the Fanack Water Files are aimed at policy-makers and advisors, but also at general audience readers, especially the younger generations. Fanack’s information about the MENA region and its water challenges can be found online at fanack.com and water.fanack.com (both in Arabic and English). Those seeking more comprehensive information and deeper insights into the water issues of this region are invited to consult Fanack Water’s print and eBook publications, the first instalment of which we are proud to present here: Water Challenges and Solutions in Jordan, with a Special Report on the Red Sea-Dead Sea Project.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Introduction to Water in Jordan

      The history of humans in Jordan throughout the last three to four millennia has been shaped largely by one major resource, water. In Jordan, the people’s lifestyle, their socio-economic status, and many conflicts have, to a very large extent, been determined by this basic factor, water.

      Climate and water

      Jordan has a varied climate that ranges from arid in the Jordan Valley to Mediterranean in the highlands, with continental influences in the eastern desert and plains region. During winter it is warm in the Jordan Valley, moderate to cool in the highlands, and cold and dry in the desert region. Summer is hot in the Jordan Valley, moderate in the highlands, and hot in the plains and desert regions.

      The precipitation, which falls only in the winter season, varies considerably with location, due mainly to the country’s topography. Annual precipitation ranges from less than 50 mm in the eastern and southern desert regions to 600 mm in the northern highlands (Fig. 1.1). As over 90% of the country receives less than 200 mm/yr of precipitation, the prevailing climate in Jordan can be classified as arid to semi-arid (Tabieh et al., 2010). The long-term average annual precipitation for the period 1937/38 to 2004/05 is 94 mm. The wettest period (1961-1990) registered 111 mm/yr, while the driest period (1995/96 to 2004/05) registered only 80 mm/yr (MWI, 2014a).

      The open-water evaporation rate is very high, ranging from more than 4,000 mm/yr in the hot eastern and southern parts of the country to 2,000 mm/yr in the cooler parts of northern Jordan (Fig. 1.2). As some of the precipitation turns into flash floods or recharges the groundwater, actual evaporation ranges from 99% in the desert regions to about 65% of the precipitation in a wet year in northern Jordan.

      Figure 1.1: Rainfall distribution in mm (source: modified after MWI)

      Water sources

      With its arid to semi-arid climate, Jordan has low precipitation levels and even smaller amounts of surface water runoff and groundwater recharge. Historically, local communities collected the water from rain- and snowfall for domestic and agricultural purposes. Intensive rainfall results in occasional flows and even flash floods (Fig. 1.3) in the otherwise dry riverbeds (wadis). These flows are also the main source of groundwater recharge. Groundwater discharges as base flow (groundwater outflow) in low-lying wadis and emerges from springs. Local communities have used this water for centuries (Fig. 1.4).

      Figure 1.2: Annual open-water evaporation in mm (source: modified after FAO and MWI)

      Water use

      In the past, the availability of water and the technologies used for its exploitation determined lifestyles and economic activity, and indirectly controlled population growth, as the amount of food that could be produced with the scarce water resources was limited. In the last few decades, the Middle East as a whole has experienced very high population growth rates.

      In Jordan in particular, the sharp population increase can be ascribed not only to natural growth, but also to the successive waves of refugees from Palestine, Iraq, and, most recently, Syria. This rapid population growth has put significant pressure on the country’s water resources.

      Only about 886,400 ha, or 10% of the total area of the country, is arable land. In 2005, the total cultivated area was estimated at 270,000 ha, of which 184,000 ha consisted of annual crops and 86,000 ha of permanent crops. In dry years, up to half of the rain-fed land may be left fallow as a result of fluctuating and unevenly distributed precipitation patterns.

      Traditionally, agriculture in Jordan was rain-fed and therefore mainly developed in areas with precipitation levels of more than 200 mm/yr. Irrigated agriculture has also been practised for generations along watercourses such as the Jordan, Yarmouk, and Zarqa Rivers, at springs discharging into the Jordan Valley, and around the oases in the eastern desert. Data for the last three decades shows an increase in irrigated agriculture and in land planted with permanent crops, mainly in the traditionally rain-fed parts of the highlands (FAO, 2008).

      Domestic water needs in urban centres and rural areas have traditionally been met through supplies from various sources including precipitation, river and wadi flows (Fig. 1.5), springs, and, more recently, wells. In recent decades, the expanding urban belt around Amman and Zarqa has put significant pressure on the country’s water resources.

      Figure 1.3: Flash flood in Wadi Madoneh near Amman (source: Nonner)

      Figure 1.4: Sandstones in Wadi Rum discharge spring water (source: Shutterstock)

      Water scarcity

      Jordan’s growing water scarcity can be ascribed to a combination of factors, including increased demand due to rapid population growth, and the mismanagement and overexploitation of water resources in recent decades. This has led to the exhaustion of non-renewable groundwater resources and deterioration in water quality. From the 1960s to the 1980s, agriculture was at the centre of Jordanian national development policies. The emphasis lay on irrigated agriculture, which required the large-scale development of water resources (Fig. 1.6). Investment in irrigated agriculture created jobs for both Jordanians and refugees, averting the risk of poverty and hunger, and fostering domestic peace. However, rapid population growth, higher standards of living, irrigation of low-value crops, industrialisation (e.g. the mining of potash and phosphate, and production of fertilisers), and other activities led to the overexploitation of natural resources, and today supplies no longer meet development aspirations.

      Despite the implementation of large-scale water projects and conservation measures, the limited water supply continues to form the main obstacle to Jordan’s development. This puts specialists and politicians under severe pressure with respect to the future of the country’s economic growth.

      Water quality

      During the last few decades, population growth, industrialisation, and irrigation projects, increased wastewater production, solid landfill sites, and industrial dumps have caused a deterioration in the quality of both surface and groundwater resources. In addition to the impact of human activities, groundwater quality is in places also affected by high salinity levels.

      Figure 1.5: Components of the hydrological cycle (source: modified after Government of Tasmania)

      Figure 1.6: Water use by sector (source: MWI & GTZ, 2004)

      International context

      The main surface and groundwater resources in Jordan are shared with neighbouring countries. The shared rivers are the Yarmouk River, which is shared between Israel, Jordan, and Syria, and the Jordan River, which is shared between Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. The main shared or transboundary groundwater systems are the Basalt Aquifer that underlies Jordan and Syria and the Disi Aquifer that underlies Jordan and Saudi Arabia. As Jordan is mostly the downstream riparian (country bordering the river downstream), water resources are vulnerable to activities by upstream riparians (country bordering the river upstream).

      Scope for the future

      Desalination of seawater at Aqaba remains the preferred option to increase Jordan’s freshwater resources in the future, but the use of desalinated water for irrigation will not be economically viable. Desalination would take place on the shores of the Red Sea near Aqaba. The Red Sea-Dead Sea (RSDS) Project aims to desalinate seawater, rehabilitate the rapidly shrinking Dead Sea, and generate hydropower (see Ch. 11).

      CHAPTER TWO

      Surface Water

      Jordan’s only large river is the Jordan River, which used to discharge about 1,400 MCM/yr of fresh water into the Dead Sea. However, over the last 60 years, the construction of dams and diversion schemes on the Jordan River and its tributaries has caused water levels in the Lower Jordan River to decrease sharply. The Jordan River is a comparatively small river, with

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