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Jordan Water
The government was concerned that scarcity of water could
ultimately place a cap on both agricultural and industrial
development. Although no comprehensive hydrological survey had been
conducted by the late 1980s, some experts believed that demand for
water could outstrip supply by the early 1990s. Average annual
rainfall was about 8 billion cubic meters, most of which
evaporated; the remainder flowed into rivers and other catchments
or seeped into the ground to replenish large underground aquifers
of fossil water that could be tapped by wells. Annual renewable
surface and subterranean water supply was placed at 1.2 billion
cubic meters. Total demand was more difficult to project. In 1985
Jordan consumed about 520 million cubic meters of water, of which
111 million cubic meters went for industrial and domestic use, and
409 million cubic meters went for agricultural use. By 1995 it was
estimated that domestic and industrial consumption would almost
double and agricultural demand would increase by 50 percent, so
that total demand would be about 820 million cubic meters. By the
year 2000, projected demand was estimated at 934 million cubic
meters. Jordan, therefore, would need to harness almost all of its
annual renewable water resources of 1.2 billion cubic meters to
meet future demand, a process that would inevitably be marked by
diminishing marginal returns as ever more expensive and remotely
situated projects yielded less and less added water. The process
also could spark regional disputes--especially with Israel--over
riparian rights.
The government had completed several major infrastructure
projects in an effort to make maximum use of limited water
supplies, and was considering numerous other projects in the late
1980s. The King Talal Dam, built in 1978 on the Az Zarqa River,
formed Jordan's major reservoir. In the late 1980s, a project to
raise the height of the dam by ten meters so as to increase the
reservoir's capacity from 56 million cubic meters to 90 million
cubic meters was almost complete. A second major construction
project underway in 1989 was the Wadi al Arabah Dam to capture
flood waters of the Yarmuk River and the Wadi al Jayb (also known
as Wadi al Arabah) in a 17 million cubic meter reservoir. These two
dams and innumerable other catchments and tunnels collected water
from tributaries that flowed toward the Jordan River and fed the
50-kilometer-long East Ghor Canal
(see Jordan -
fig. 4). Plans called for
the eventual extension of the East Ghor Canal to the Dead Sea
region, which would almost double its length. In 1989 about fifteen
dams were in various stages of design or construction, at a total
projected cost of JD64 million.
By far the largest of these projects was a joint JordanianSyrian endeavor to build a 100-meter-high dam on the Yarmuk River.
The project, which had been contemplated since the 1950s but had
foundered repeatedly because of political disputes, was revived in
1988 after the thaw in Jordanian-Syrian relations and appeared to
be progressing in early 1989. Called the Maqarin Dam in previous
development plans, it was renamed the Al Wahdah Dam to reflect the
political rapprochement that made construction feasible (Al Wahdah
mean unity). The dam was to create a reservoir of 250 million cubic
meters. The Jordanian estimate of the cost, which Jordan was to
bear alone, was US$397 million. Independent estimates placed the
figure at more than US$500 million. Building time was estimated at
two years after the planned 1989 starting date, but new political
problems threatened to stall construction. In 1988 the United
States attempted to mediate between Jordan and Israel, which feared
the dam would limit its own potential water supply; Syria, however,
refused to join any tripartite negotiations.
In 1989 serious consideration was being given to two proposals
to construct major pipelines to import water. Completion of either
project could be a partial solution to Jordan's water scarcity.
Because of cost, however, neither project was likely to be
constructed in the near future. One project was to construct a
multibillion dollar 650-kilometer-long pipeline from the Euphrates
River in Iraq. The pipeline would supply Jordan with about 160
million cubic meters of water per year. The other project, on which
feasibility studies had been conducted, was to construct a 2,700-
kilometer-long pipeline from rivers in Turkey, through Syria and
Jordan, to Saudi Arabia. Jordan could draw an allotment of about
220 million cubic meters per year from this second pipeline. The
estimated US$20 billion cost of the latter project was thought to
be prohibitive.
Data as of December 1989
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