Stories from the field – Jordan
Amman. September 2013
Jordan is a land of scarce water resources and an extraordinary and constant increase in water demand is going on since decades, thus bringing the Country to an unbalanced use of the available resources. Current trends can no longer be sustained. Therefore, solutions have to be sought in order to adapt current demand to available supply, by means of improving water efficiency in all sectors, where any available drop will contribute towards a more sustainable water resources management.
As many others, also irrigation sector in Jordan has definitely scope of performance improvements.
Indeed, along with fresh surface and underground water resources, the use of treated wastewater in irrigated agriculture is actually increasing the water supply. Currently there are twenty-four wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), located near the major urban settlements, that use different treatment strategies and allow the reuse of wastewater either directly in irrigated field or stored in water basins.
ACCBAT project has started a survey of the WWTPs in the Country and so far has selected four sites, where further studies and experiments will allow an efficient intervention. The selected sites are located in the highlands of Jordan, next to the cities of Ramtha, Baq’a, Salt and Madaba, where population is quite dense, land is suited to agriculture and production of wastewater is constant all year long and can cover surfaces of 100-150 hectares.
ICU, along with its local partner NCARE, is currently undertaking detailed analysis of the irrigated agricultural basins and potential farmers that could get most benefits. After an initial phase of study at NCARE experimental station, different interventions will be adjusted and scaled up at the basin level in the selected locations.
Figure 1. ICU and NCARE team at Salt WWTP
Figure 2. NCARE Dr. Luna at Ramtha WWTP.
