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Jordan: Water Scarcity: Difference between revisions
→Impact of current water use practices
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==Impact of current water use practices== | ==Impact of current water use practices== | ||
===Rationing and a crumbling water infrastructure=== | |||
Domestic water rationing was introduced as early as 1987, and many households in Ammam are without mains-water for six days a week. Such an obviously inadequate supply of water led to illegal tapping of water mains, resulting in 30,000 prosecutions for water violations in 2004 alone.<ref name="Alqadi" /> Water systems in Ammam are in a calamitous state with up to 54% of the 105 m3 entering the system lost or unaccounted for in 2004, while the majority of the city’s population thought the water supply polluted with chlorine, dirt, sediments and algae.<ref name="Alqadi" | |||
===Agriculture=== | ===Agriculture=== | ||
An exaggerated focus by the government on regulating the domestic water supply has diverted attention from the damage incurred to the water system through agricultural use where pollution from fertilisers and other agricultural outputs has had a large negative impact. | |||
Between 1953 and 1986, the government promoted agriculture production that it thought would align with the soil and water available. However, farmers preferred to grow crops with greater commercial potential, and this led to depleted water resources and soil quality. There was an overreliance on thirsty tree crops irrigated by flooding with open canals highly susceptible to evaporation in such an arid climate; most the land was used to grow vegetables (54% of land area, 99.8% irrigated) or permanent fruit tree crops (33% of land area, 99.2% irrigated) (average numbers between 1994 and 2008). <ref name=”Kubursi” /> As one would expect from these figures, much of the estimated cultivatable land in Jordan is located outside the zone of sufficient rainfall for rain-fed agriculture. Moreover, the land area that does receive sufficient rainfall for growing food crops is decreasing as climate change renders rain patterns more unreliable and urban expansion increases (Ammam, for example, covers some of the best rain-led land in the country). And as noted already, irrigation methods tend to be highly inefficient and wasteful due to the continued use of traditional flood irrigation systems rather than modern drip and sprinkler systems. | |||
===Over-pumping of groundwater=== | |||
==Resources== | ==Resources== | ||