Water, water-related environmental and resource protection

Jordan is one of the countries that suffer most from water scarcity. At the same time its population is growing very rapidly at nearly 3 percent per annum. Since the 1980s water consumption has exceeded availability, causing groundwater levels to drop dramatically. Agriculture alone consumes 70 percent of existing water resources and hence endangers the quantity and quality of water available to the population and industrial enterprise.

Jordanian-German cooperation therefore promotes sustainable, integrated water management. GTZ’s water programme focuses on Greater Amman, the Jordan Valley and the northern part of the country, together accounting for 90 percent of water consumption. In these areas, competition for water as drinking water, for irrigation and for industrial purposes is particularly apparent. GTZ’s water projects hence concentrate on

• institutional structural reform and enhanced private sector participation,
• sustainable use of purified wastewater, improved management of water supply and wastewater disposal systems,
• integrated information management.

The following projects are currently underway:

• Operations Management Support of the Water Authority of Jordan,
• Water Resource Management in Irrigated Agriculture,
• Reclaimed Water Project (Jordan Valley),
• Improvement of the Steering Competence in the Water Sector,
• Use of GIS in Water Resource Management.

GTZ works closely with other German Development Cooperation organisations active in the Jordanian water sector to make the best possible use of existing know-how and resources and in turn, to achieve the strongest synergies.

GTZ is a lead agency also in the bilateral, multilateral and international donor community, chairing several technical committees of the United Nations "Water" donor group.

Jordanian-German cooperation is already showing success in the following fields:

• Increase in revenues generated by the state drinking water supplier in the northern region,
• Improved monitoring of agricultural use of purified wastewater in the Jordan Valley,
• Handover of responsibility for water distribution from the state supplier to farmer-user groups in the Jordan Valley,
• Water Ministry’s use of digital planning applications in national water framework planning.

In future, measures will concentrate on establishing an independent regulatory authority and increasing the amount of purified wastewater used in industry and the service sector.