Water scarcity, high unemployment rates and high debt can
all be attributed to the absence of strategic planning on the part of
governments. More important, is the absence of priorities, which these
governments should have identified and then addressed.
اضافة اعلان
An estimated 80 million cubic meters of water deficit and a
considerable shortage in this year’s dam reserves, all go back to our
consumption of water in quantities greater than those provided by renewable
sources.
The implementation of comprehensive developmental policies
was something that previous governments have failed to do and that has in turn
led to several challenges, including the large deficit in water resources.
According to international reports, Jordan has the second
highest ratio of refugees to population, with 89 refugees per 1000. Most of
these refugees live in urban areas and as such have increased the pressure on
infrastructure, and widened the gap between the supply of and demand on water.
The Kingdom’s water comes from a number of primary sources,
including renewable groundwater, which comprises 52 percent of all water,
followed by renewable surface water, found in dams and bodies of water across
the Kingdom, which comprises 28 percent of the volume of water in Jordan.
The remaining quantities come from non-renewable groundwater
and treated wastewater, which make up 9 percent and 12 percent of the Kingdom’s
water, respectively.
Around 65 percent of our water goes into the agricultural
sector, while around 70 percent of water in the northern regions of Jordan,
goes to waste, mainly due to the rundown water networks
We need to start thinking of a few solutions immediately:
Utilizing rainwater by building dams and desert excavation, renovating deteriorating
water networks to reduce loss, desalinating salt- and seawater, fairly
distributing water from the
Jordan River between Jordan, Palestine and Israel,
and using technology to treat sewer water for use in irrigation.
Water scarcity continues to grow with every year, primarily
due to the mismanagement of water resources; let alone its impact on economic
development, in its agricultural and industrial components.
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