Jordan Water Project
20x20 | Delivering insights for investment in water security
The desert kingdom of Jordan is well-versed in making do with less when it comes to water. The country already had plans for a major desalination plant, but made the case for a dramatic $2.2 billion expansion with insights provided by an interdisciplinary team of researchers assembled by the Woods Institute’s Global Freshwater Initiative.
In the top ten of the world’s driest nations, Jordan’s annual decline in rainfall could lead to a 30 percent drop by 2100 along with a 6 degree (F) rise in temperature. Those are just two of the sobering findings of the team led by hydrologist and Woods Institute Senior Fellow Steve Gorelick.
Gorelick, who launched the Global Freshwater Initiative at the Woods Institute in 2010, had already set out to find sustainable water management policies in highly water stressed regions. He began by assembling scholars from Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Jordan, and Canada to assess multiple dimensions of the challenge, spanning water, food, energy, climate change, economics, urban sociology, human geography, and more. Supported by a consortium of national science-supporting agencies in Europe and North America, the team began developing the knowledge and insights needed to map a path to water security for the landlocked country. Early on they used satellite data to show how the Syrian civil war and subsequent refugee migration caused sudden changes in the area’s land use and freshwater resources. The conflict caused agricultural irrigation and reservoir storage to decrease by nearly 50 percent compared to pre-war conditions.
Soon they developed the Jordan Water Model, and conducted extensive in-field research to better understand factors contributing to the region’s dwindling water supplies. In 2021 they presented a comprehensive policy evaluation model that identified a combination of supply-side and demand-side management measures to secure freshwater resources through 2050 and beyond, with notable impacts of climate change and population growth.
The team's findings and tools for water security analysis – which they have shared at workshops for representatives from civil society, government, industry and academia – have provided concrete recommendations for contending with a severe water crisis in years to come. Team members have presented in multiple government forums and the project was officially endorsed by Jordan’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation as well as the country’s monarch, King Abdullah II.
Among their most recent findings is 2023 work showing that Jordan’s water tanker trucks illegally supply ten times as much water as the government’s sanctioned tanker market. These tankers primarily tap groundwater from rural areas, which is declining at an unsustainable average rate of 3.5 m per year. Tanker water is almost 5 times as expensive as piped water. These results and the team’s future projections were highlighted in the Jordanian press.
Visit links below for more details and resources related to the Jordan Water Project as well as details about FUSE, an extension of the project that has expanded to focus on research sites and collaborations in India.
Learn more about the Global Freshwater Initiative and other Woods Centers, Programs and Initiatives.
Photo Credits: Top (iStock); Inset (Steven Gorelick)