AMMAN — A report published recently
by the
UNICEF on water-stressed Jordan said that numerous factors have combined
to exacerbate the pressure on the country’s already limited water resources,
including demographics, urbanization, and climate change.
اضافة اعلان
The report, titled “Tapped Out: The costs of water stress in Jordan” and
released in July, said that Jordan’s water crisis increases competition for
access to safe water needed for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as
agriculture and industrial processes, undermining social and economic
development.
The report added
that the impact of climate change and the water stress are among the key risks
to long-term growth in Jordan, exacerbating the already difficult economic
situation the country.
The report pointed to the
National Plan for Sustainable Agriculture
2022–25, launched in January, which aims to mobilize investment to address
water usage and unemployment in the agricultural sector. The government also
agreed to a deal with USAID for help to finance the construction of a new water
pipeline from Israel to Jordan, due to be completed by mid-2023, it added.
Building on existing in-depth research by the World Bank, UNICEF and
USAID, the report sought to explore and quantify the linkages from water stress
to economic production (agricultural, manufacturing, and services) and human
capital (infant mortality, educational attainment, and nutrition) based on
cross-sectional regression and scenario analysis.
Among the key findings, the report predicted that the water situation in
Jordan is likely to deteriorate further. It said that less than 100 cubic
meters of renewable water resources are available per person annually. This is
already significantly below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic
meters.
It pointed to a study that expects water-stress levels in Jordan to
increase at an average annual rate of 1 percent to 1.5 percent until 2100,
making more than 90 percent of low-income households in Jordan subject to
critical water vulnerability. These impacts are particularly devastating in the
modeled worst-case scenarios of adverse climate change effects, in which
surface water inflows could decline by a staggering 60 percent to 70 percent by
the end of the century.
The report also said that Jordan’s agricultural production is
significantly vulnerable to increasing water stress. Agriculture contributes
roughly 5 percent of Jordan’s GDP and employs 3 percent of its workers, but it
consumes more than 50 percent of the country’s fresh water.
Water stress will also affect manufacturing, the private sector, and
Jordan’s food security challenge, the report said. Furthermore, reduced water
consumption is associated with higher infant mortality, while inadequate water
services could undermine educational attainment by Jordanian youth —
particularly girls, according to the report.
Other socioeconomic factors involved are migration and regional
cooperation.
The report said that in the long-term, Jordan will need to enhance the
amount of water that can be supplied to end users, pointing to the fact that
around a quarter of the water in the piped network is lost due to technical
issues, such as leaks. It also said that recent breakthroughs in sea water
desalination technology have reduced the potential desalination costs to less
than $0.60 per cubic meter, making desalination affordable to middle-income
economies. It also said that wastewater treatment offers an alternative source
for Jordan, but currently covers only around 14 percent of the country’s water
supply.
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