Jordan Basin CASE STUDY Flashcards
The Jordan Basin background
The Jordan basin is in the middle east, the river jordan rises on the border of Syria and Lebanon and flows south to the dead sea.
Area of 18,000 KM2 and about 40% is in jordan with some in Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
The area is arid, annual prcipitaion of 380mm, temperatures are often abouve 30 degrees and average at 18 degrees. In some areas 70% of rainfall is lost through evaopration.
Much of the rock is limestone which is relatively permeable, there is little runoff.
How do people contrbute to water scarcity
7 million people and the population is growing, increasing the demand for water.
Countries around the basin are developing, this involves huge increases in industrial activity and wealth, plus large rising energy use.
River discharge in the south has decreased due to damming, diversion and groundwater abstraction in the north.
Dams and canals have been built in syria and jordan to divert the water from the Yarmouk river for irrigating farmland.
Israels National water carrier scheme diverts water from the sea of galilee for irrigation and to provide water for cities such as Tel Aviv, lowering Jordan river discharge by 25%
Civil war impact
Civil war in syria in 2011 meant there was a influx of refugees in Jordan, putting more pressure on water supplies, regugees are concentrated in samm areas and some are concerend with inadequate water treatment in these areas may pollute groundwater and rivers.
Water shortages impact on human welfare
Water shortages are common e.g in 2016 some villages in the West Bank had no water supply for two weeks, while more than 80% of rural households in Jordan run out of water at least once a month.
Water is sometimes available to buy from private sellers, but it is expensive and the quality is low, shortages effects health and wellbeing.
From 1998 to 2012 the region experienced its most severe drought in 900 years, this caused huge reducations in agricultural yields, less than 1% of cereal crops in Jordan were havested from 1998 to 2001.
Threatened farmers livelihoods and left 25% of the population vulnerable to water insecurity.
Conflicts impact human welfare
Water has caused tension around the Jordan basin, for example since 1949 there have been disputs between Israelis and Palestinians over access to land and water.
Lack of cooperation over water management has also resulted in conflict, for example plans to divert water from River Jordan to Syria and Jordan were one cause of the six day war agaisnt Israel in 1967, which killed around 19,000 people.
Conflicts and land disputes have also made it hard for countries to establish water treatment plants, this means waste water is often pumped directly into watercourses, decreasing the amount of drinking water available.
Pollution of watercourses also affects human health, for example in 2013 residents of Bruqin in the West bank suffered from respiratory illness and skin prolnlems when there homes were flooded with sewege and industrial waste after heavy rainfall.
Jordan Water Strategy
The JWS started in 1998 and has been extended until 2025, water supply is intermittent so part of the strategy is to fit rooftop tanks on homes to store water.
Another method involves using treated wastewater for irrigation so more high quality water is available for domestic use.
This has increase water security, over 90% of its residents now have access to mains water and effective sanitation systems. However water supply is still failry infrequent and groundwater reserves are still being over exploited.
Desalination
The country now draws and desalinates 75 percent of its drinking water from the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel repurposes nearly 90 percent of its water for agricultural projects
However a lot of Israel are a long way from desalination plants so alot of water is taken from the Sea of Galilee.
Agriculture
Israel is using new agricultural technology to reduce water use while maintaing crop yields, for example drip irrigation used up to 75% less water than flood irrigation.
Water is piped directly to each plant, reduced evaporation losses.
Dams
Many dams have been constructed in the Basin, in 2005 construction finished on the Wahdah Dam on the Yarmouk river to supply water to Jordan.
Dams and resevoirs supply 90 million cubic metres of water to Jordan each year, water is transfered to Amman, the capital of Jordan by the King Abdullah Canal.
Diversion by various contries has meant that the river Jordan has lost 95% of its natural flow.
Cross boundary strategies and agreements
Israel and the West bank formed the joint water committee in 1995 as part of an agreement to secure peace, the committee aims to imrpove water supply and wastewater treatment in the West Bank for example imrpoving the water network and building new storage faciltiies.
Ongoing disputes between Israel and the west bank mean little has been achieved however in 2017 they agreed to renew coopertion on the project.
Red Sea-Dead sea water conveyance project
This is a scheme involving Israel Jordan and the West bank, it aims to build tunnels and pipelines to transfer water over 100 miles from the Red sea to the Dead sea at a cost of up to US $10 Bn.
This would provide an additional water source that could be converted to fresh water by desalination, and could also be used to generate HEP.
However the project could take up to 20 years to complete and there are concerns of the envirmental damage to coral reefs in the red sea and ecosystems in the dead sea.
