WATER POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND IRRIGATION WATER MANAGEMENT IN JORDAN

Jordan is facing a chronic imbalance in the population-water resources equation. Despite the huge investment in the water sector, a considerable water deficit is still facing Jordan; where the annual water consumption has reached an average of 935 MCM for the last few years, about 63% of which is used for agricultural purposes. It is expected that the water deficit for all uses to be more than 360 MCM/year by year 2020. During the last 15 years the government of Jordan, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, has initiated and developed two water policies and strategies. In 2002, the MWI published the Jordan water policy and strategy consisting of: (1) a water strategy for Jordan, (2) a groundwater management policy, (3) a water utility policy, (4) an irrigation water policy, and (5) a wastewater management policy. The issues covered by the irrigation water policy are the sustainability of irrigation water resources, development and use, research and technology transfer, farm water management, irrigation water quality, management and administration, water pricing, regulation and control and irrigation efficiency. Specific and practical strategies of water saving are introduced and recommended in this paper under the arid conditions of Jordan and the Middle East region.

From the irrigation point view, management of irrigation water requires new ways of thinking since the subject is multi disciplinary and has different approaches to the various technical, economic and social aspects. For the technical part, determining the actual evapotranspiration of different crops in Jordan’s irrigation projects is essential to estimate the plant water requirements for different plant growth stages. The paper also discusses an irrigation management information system approach developed by NCARE researchers with the help of USDA-ARS. The system is capable of providing farmers with online crop water requirements based on automated meteorological data published on the internet (www.ncare.gov.jo/imis, and www.merimis.org). This Middle Eastern Regional Irrigation Management Information Systems (MERIMIS) project, which started in 2003, has focused on improving irrigation scheduling in Jordan, Palestine, and Israel with cooperators from the region and the U.S.