Overpumping Groundwater Drains Jordan’s Aquifers

Experts in agriculture have warned that excessive groundwater pumping may produce a temporary and superficial recovery in the agricultural sector by increasing production and meeting market demand in the short term. However, this short-lived growth masks severe depletion of aquifers at rates exceeding their natural recharge capacity, making such expansion unsustainable and consuming Jordan’s strategic water reserves.

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They stressed that the decision facing Jordan today is not a choice between water and agriculture, but how to protect agriculture from a gradual water crisis. Food security cannot be achieved simply by increasing production today; it requires ensuring the ability to sustain production in the future. Every delay in controlling excessive pumping increases the cost of remediation, reduces available options and could make restoring some aquifers extremely difficult.

Speaking to Al-Ghad, the experts called for smart meters electronically connected to all licensed agricultural wells, the publication of extraction data for each aquifer, genuine progressive pricing for any licensed allocation exceeded, and a program to purchase pumping allocations or decommission wells in the most heavily depleted aquifers. They also called for fair compensation and support to help farmers shift to less water-intensive crops or treated wastewater, while linking any new agricultural project license in the highlands to a water balance for the aquifer from which it would draw.

Declining Well Productivity

Water expert Dr. Fadel Al-Zoubi said that one figure summarizes Jordan’s water crisis more clearly than any speech: the Ministry of Water and Irrigation sets the safe annual groundwater extraction limit at about 419 million cubic meters, including around 275 million cubic meters of renewable water and approximately 143 million cubic meters from non-renewable reserves over a 50-year horizon.

Al-Zoubi said actual extraction reached about 699 million cubic meters in 2023, nearly 281 million cubic meters above the safe limit. In simpler terms, Jordan is extracting roughly two-thirds of the safe limit in excess every year, effectively recording the difference as a debt owed by future generations.

He said this debt is not theoretical. Groundwater levels have fallen by tens of meters in areas such as eastern Mafraq, Al-Dhulail and Al-Hallabat, while well productivity has declined and salinity has increased in many wells due to intensive pumping. With every additional meter of depth, pumping costs rise and water quality deteriorates, until a well reaches a point where it is no longer suitable for drinking or irrigation.

The Ministry of Water has made significant efforts to pursue violators. Since launching its campaign to tighten control over water sources in 2013 through last June, authorities have detected and sealed approximately 1,734 illegal wells and impounded 160 drilling rigs. However, while important, these efforts address only the visible part of the problem.

The question that must be asked frankly, Al-Zoubi said, is how much of the additional 281 million cubic meters comes from illegal wells and how much comes from licensed wells pumping beyond their allocations in the absence of reliable meters and effective monitoring. If the larger share comes from the latter, he argued, no expansion of well-sealing campaigns will fundamentally change the equation.

Al-Zoubi said highland agriculture is a key part of this equation. Some vegetables and fruit trees exported by Jordan are irrigated with non-renewable groundwater, meaning the country is effectively exporting strategic reserves at the price of agricultural produce. The value generated by exports does not account for the cost of water that will not be replenished.

He noted that an often-overlooked contradiction is that cities and farms frequently draw water from the same aquifers. Every cubic meter depleted for irrigation from a shared aquifer is effectively taken from the future drinking-water supply of nearby urban populations. Every decline in groundwater levels also increases energy costs for pumping for both farmers and the state.

The real cost of excessive pumping, therefore, is distributed across society, while the benefits remain concentrated among a limited number of beneficiaries.

This does not mean closing farms, Al-Zoubi said, but rather redefining groundwater as a strategic reserve for droughts and emergencies, rather than an open-ended source for daily consumption.

He outlined four steps. First, smart meters should be installed and electronically connected to all agricultural wells licensed before violations occurred, with extraction data published for each aquifer. Second, genuine progressive pricing should be introduced for extraction beyond licensed allocations. Third, a program should be established to purchase pumping allocations or decommission wells in the most depleted aquifers, with fair compensation and support for farmers shifting to less water-intensive crops or treated wastewater where available. Fourth, any license for a new agricultural project in the highlands should be linked to a water balance for the aquifer from which it would draw.

Al-Zoubi said groundwater is Jordan’s last line of defense in a country dependent on variable rainfall and transboundary water sources. When a severe dry season or regional crisis occurs, these reserves can make the difference between pressure and collapse. Depleting them today does not save money; it merely shifts the cost to a time when Jordan may be less able to bear it.

Exceeding Aquifer Recharge Capacity

Former Agriculture Minister Saeed Al-Masri said that when groundwater extraction continues beyond an aquifer’s capacity to recharge, and production expansion is built on maintaining such extraction, the country is consuming its water capital and passing the cost of current decisions on to future generations.

If this approach continues, he said, excessive pumping effectively becomes an undeclared policy of fait accompli, even if official strategies call for water protection and sustainability.

Al-Masri said responsibility begins with resource management and the policies governing its use. Excessive pumping is not limited to illegal wells, as the combined extraction from licensed and unlicensed wells may exceed sustainable limits for an aquifer.

Therefore, monitoring individual wells from a legal perspective is not enough. Authorities must establish extraction ceilings for each aquifer, measure actual volumes, publish the data and implement plans to reduce depletion without exceptions or selectivity.

Non-renewable groundwater should be treated as a limited strategic reserve whose use is managed according to clearly stated national priorities.

Al-Masri said agriculture is a major part of this equation, but it is not a single sector that can be held responsible through generalizations. There is a difference between agriculture that uses treated or surface water and agriculture that depends on depleting freshwater aquifers.

Production should therefore be evaluated according to the source and volume of water used, net returns to farmers, and its nutritional, economic and social value. Expanding cultivated areas or exports should not automatically be considered a success if it comes at the expense of a water reserve that is difficult to replenish.

He said farmers cannot simply be asked to change their activities and then be left to bear the costs alone. What is needed is a practical transition program providing financing, technical guidance, appropriate technologies and marketing contracts, helping farmers shift toward production that generates greater returns per cubic meter of water.

Farmers’ unions, well-governed cooperatives and agricultural marketing organizations should play a direct role in organizing production, reducing costs and protecting farmers’ incomes during the transition.

Al-Masri added that modernizing irrigation must actually reduce water extraction. If the savings are instead used to expand cultivated areas, the depletion problem will not have been addressed.

The same applies to solar-powered pumping. While solar energy can reduce production costs, its use should be accompanied by binding water extraction ceilings.

The use of treated wastewater suitable for specific crops and soils should be expanded to replace freshwater, while new desalination sources should be linked to plans aimed at reducing pressure on aquifers, alongside reducing network losses and stopping illegal water connections and encroachments.

Al-Masri said food security requires sustainable agriculture, while water security requires decisions aligned with agricultural, energy and investment policies.

Protecting farmers means protecting the resource on which their livelihoods depend. Supporting agriculture should reward economically viable production and water savings while being accompanied by firm action to stop depletion. Groundwater is a national asset, and excessive consumption today threatens both drinking-water supplies and agricultural production in the future.

Managing Available Resources

Dr. Khaled Khreisat, Executive Director of the Academia-Industry Integration Platform, said Jordan’s water crisis is not merely a challenge caused by limited rainfall and declining natural resources. It has become a question of how available resources are managed and whether declared policies are aligned with actual decisions.

He said excessive groundwater pumping has emerged as a national priority, with official figures clearly indicating the scale of the challenge.

Jordan’s National Water Strategy 2023–2040 shows that around 61% of wells exceeded safe extraction limits based on the 2021 baseline. Annual safe recharge of renewable groundwater was estimated at about 280 million cubic meters, while total recorded use of renewable and non-renewable groundwater reached around 619 million cubic meters in 2021, including 210 million cubic meters for irrigation, highlighting the pressure on the resource.

Khreisat also cited the strategy’s finding that groundwater levels are declining by as much as 10 meters annually in some areas and between 4 and 5 meters in others. This means higher extraction costs in the future, a potential deterioration in water quality and a threat to the continuity of economic activities dependent on groundwater, particularly agriculture.

He stressed that the problem is not agriculture itself, which is a pillar of both food and economic security, but the compatibility of agricultural patterns with the actual water capacity of each aquifer.

Continuing to grow water-intensive crops in water-scarce areas, resulting in extraction beyond the aquifer’s recharge capacity, turns short-term production into depletion of the natural resource on which that production itself depends.

Khreisat called for greater attention to the expected gap between national strategy targets and actual results on the ground. Plans to protect groundwater are insufficient without an executive action plan that applies the law fairly and equally, establishes measurable indicators and provides effective monitoring of extraction volumes.

He said the figures require a serious review of the effectiveness of existing policies and their ability to change the situation. The central role of the Ministry of Agriculture cannot be overlooked, as it is a key partner in protecting both water and food security.

Its responsibility extends beyond supporting agricultural production and improving competitiveness to ensuring that agricultural policies match Jordan’s actual water capacity, in coordination with the Ministry of Water and other relevant authorities.

This includes reviewing agricultural maps and calendars according to the resources available in each region, directing agricultural support and extension services toward higher-value, less water-intensive crops, linking agricultural expansion to sustainable water availability, and strengthening alternatives that reduce pressure on groundwater.

The success of water policy will remain limited unless its objectives are clearly reflected in agricultural decisions and programs. The goal should not be to place agriculture against water, but to build an agricultural policy that protects farmers and preserves their ability to produce in the future.

This requires shifting from general water-demand management to mandatory management of each aquifer according to its water balance and recharge capacity.

The process should begin with updating well data and extraction volumes, installing reliable meters and connecting them to monitoring systems, setting clear extraction ceilings for each aquifer and applying them to everyone without exception.

New agricultural licenses, expansion plans and government support programs should also be linked to a water and agricultural map identifying suitable crops for each area, with gradual transition pathways for affected farmers rather than forcing them to bear the full cost of change.

Khreisat added that incentives should be directed toward higher-value crops that consume less water, while the use of treated wastewater and water harvesting should be carefully expanded wherever technically safe and appropriate.

Technologies that demonstrably and verifiably reduce actual consumption and improve irrigation efficiency should also be supported.

He said the decision facing Jordan today is not a choice between water and agriculture, but how to protect agriculture from gradual water collapse. Food security is not achieved simply by increasing production today; it depends on ensuring the ability to maintain production in the future.

Every delay in controlling excessive pumping increases the cost of remediation, reduces available options and could make restoring some aquifers extremely difficult.

A Strategic Reserve for National Security

Dr. Nael Al-Thaher, a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, said groundwater in Jordan represents a strategic reserve for national security, rather than merely an additional source for meeting daily water needs.

In a country facing limited water resources, fluctuating rainfall, rising demand and partial reliance on shared and transboundary water sources, groundwater has exceptional importance as one of the key elements of the country’s ability to confront climate and regional crises.

Al-Thaher said that when rainfall declines, some supply sources are disrupted or pressure on water resources increases, underground reserves become a strategic buffer that helps maintain water supplies for the population and economic sectors.

Depleting groundwater therefore does not merely mean consuming a limited natural resource; it also weakens Jordan’s ability to confront future crises.

From an economic perspective, he said, the fundamental problem is that the cost of extracting groundwater does not always reflect its true cost to society and the national economy.

Water extracted from wells may appear relatively inexpensive for some uses, but continued pumping at rates exceeding natural recharge causes groundwater levels to fall, increases pumping and energy costs, risks deteriorating water quality and increasing salinity, and raises the future cost of securing alternative sources.

Groundwater thus shifts from a productive natural asset into a resource whose strategic value declines over time. More importantly, the short-term economic gains resulting from expanded use may be far smaller than the future losses caused by depletion.

Every cubic meter extracted today without regard for the sustainability of the reserve represents a potential cost for future generations, which may have greater difficulty and expense in dealing with it.

In agriculture, Al-Thaher said, the relationship between groundwater use and the economic and social returns of agricultural production must be reconsidered.

The objective should not be to arbitrarily reduce agricultural activity, but to shift toward agriculture that generates the greatest economic, nutritional and social value from every cubic meter of water while preserving farmers’ incomes and the sustainability of rural communities.

This requires evaluating crops according to their water productivity, profit margins, market opportunities and importance to food security, rather than simply according to production volumes.

It also requires distinguishing between areas relying on relatively renewable groundwater and those depleting limited or non-renewable reserves.

It is important to recognize that improving irrigation efficiency at the farm level does not necessarily reduce water consumption at the aquifer level if it is accompanied by expansion of cultivated areas or increased production intensity.

At the national level, Al-Thaher said, protecting groundwater requires moving from managing pumping and consumption to managing underground reserves as a long-term strategic resource.

This can be achieved by establishing sustainable extraction ceilings for each aquifer, strengthening oversight of wells and unlicensed pumping, developing digital systems to monitor groundwater levels and quality, and directing agricultural incentives toward crops and activities with higher water productivity.

The careful expansion of treated wastewater for appropriate uses, investment in rainwater harvesting and artificial aquifer recharge where technically and environmentally feasible, and development of alternative water sources are also needed to reduce pressure on groundwater.

Most importantly, agricultural, water and economic policies should be integrated within a single institutional framework that balances current production requirements with the rights of future generations.

Al-Thaher said the central message is that water security is not measured only by the amount of water available for use today, but also by the size of the reserves that can be preserved for tomorrow.

Groundwater is not a resource that can be easily replaced during crises and should not be treated as a permanent solution to annual water shortages.

Protecting it is therefore an investment in Jordan’s resilience and in the stability of its economy, agricultural sector and food security.

The strategic question that should guide public policy is not only how many cubic meters can be extracted today, but how many cubic meters must be preserved to ensure that Jordan remains capable of facing the next crisis.

Expanding Groundwater Extraction

Water expert Dr. Nabil Bani Hani said excessive groundwater pumping creates a temporary and superficial recovery in the agricultural sector by allowing expanded water extraction, increasing production and meeting market needs in the short term.

However, this short-lived boom masks severe depletion of aquifers at rates exceeding their natural recharge capacity, placing this growth within an unsustainable model that consumes Jordan’s strategic water reserves.

Bani Hani said excessive groundwater extraction over the long term will lead to deterioration of strategic reserves and declining water quality as salinity levels rise. It will also lower water levels in major aquifers such as Disi and Amman-Zarqa.

This gradual depletion will result in wells drying up and extraction costs increasing, ultimately harming the agricultural sector itself through shrinking green areas and weakening food security.

He said this approach poses a direct threat to the highest national priority: ensuring drinking water for citizens.

Allocating groundwater supplies to agriculture competes with essential domestic uses. As the water gap widens, the domestic supply crisis will intensify, imposing substantial costs to secure expensive alternatives such as desalination and water transportation to ensure sustainable water security.

Source: Al-Ghad