Societal and Economic Developments Leading to Water Resources Deterioration versus Mitigation Measures in Semi-Arid Areas—Case Study: Jordan, Where Do We Stand?

Abstract

During the last few decades, countries in the arid and semiarid climate zones have witnessed increases in socio-economic development. This development has been challenged, on the one hand, by scarce water resources and water quality deterioration, and on the other by the mitigation measures and programs to balance between the negative water development impacts and the mitigation measures. These issues were additionally complicated by unevenly distributed water resources within the territory of countries and with limited relation to water demand centers, which complicated the utilization of the resources and increased the efforts and cost of their development and of their mitigation measures. In the current study, the water sector situation of Jordan as a semi-arid country is taken as an example of socio-economic development and its quantitative and qualitative impacts on the main surface water resources. For that purpose, the policies, programs, and action plans, which have been adopted to minimize the stresses and damages inflicted throughout the last 6 decades, are discussed. The study illustrates the very positive role of dams in saving good quality floodwater, for the downstream water users, and in improving the water quality in the downstream areas. At the same time, urbanization and other human activities added pollutants to the dams’ water, a situation which was counteracted by the construction of household and industrial wastewater treatment plants, and the safe disposal of solid wastes. The study concludes that the undertaken mitigation measures to protect the surface water resources in quantity and quality have been successful, and that they should be enhanced by increasing and improving these measures in order to address the present and future challenges facing the surface water sector in the country. Highlighted here is the urgency and importance of increasing the share of Jordanians in household water supply, which is expected to better reflect on the wastewater quality and on the quality of wastewater treatment effluents. For Jordan, the only viable and secure solution to increase its water resources is by resorting to seawater desalination.