Research Report 9 Figure to be inserted Historical Transformations of the Lower Jordan River Basin (in Jordan): Changes in Water Use and Projections (1950-2025) Rémy Courcier, Jean-Philippe Venot and François Molle Postal Address: IWMI, P O Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka Location: 127 Sunil Mawatha, Pelawatte, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka International Telephone: +94-11 2787404, 2784080 Fax: +94-11 2786854 Water Management Email: [email protected] Website: www.iwmi.org/assessment Institute ISSN 1391-9407 ISBN 92-9090-609 The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture takes stock of the costs, benefits and impacts of the past 50 years of water development for agriculture, the water management challenges communities are facing today, and solutions people have developed. The results of the Assessment will enable farming communities, governments and donors to make better-quality investment and management decisions to meet food and environmental security objectives in the near future and over the next 25 years. The Research Report Series captures results of collaborative research conducted under the Assessment. It also includes reports contributed by individual scientists and organizations that significantly advance knowledge on key Assessment questions. Each report undergoes a rigorous peer-review process. The research presented in the series feeds into the Assessment’s primary output—a “State of the World” report and set of options backed by hundreds of leading water and development professionals and water users. Reports in this series may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgement. Electronic copies of reports can be downloaded from the Assessment website (www.iwmi.org/assessment). If you are interested in submitting a report for inclusion in the series, please see the submission guidelines available on the Assessment website or send a written request to: Sepali Goonaratne, P.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Comprehensive Assessment outputs contribute to the Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment Knowledge Base. Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Research Report 9 Historical Transformations of the Lower Jordan River Basin (in Jordan): Changes in Water Use and Projections (1950–2025) Rémy Courcier Jean-Philippe Venot and François Molle with contributions by Rebhieh Suleiman and Aida Jridi International Water Management Institute P O Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka i The Comprehensive Assessment (www.iwmi.cgiar.org/assessment) is organized through the CGIAR’s System-Wide Initiative on Water Management (SWIM), which is convened by the International Water Management Institute. The Assessment is carried out with inputs from over 100 national and international development and research organizations—including CGIAR Centers and FAO. Financial support for the Assessment comes from a range of donors, including the Governments of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Sweden ( through the Swedish Water House) and Austria; EU support to the ISIIMM Project; the OPEC Fund; FAO; Challenge Program on Water and Food; World Bank in support of Systemwide Programs and the Rockefeller Foundation. Cosponsors of the Assessment are: FAO; the Ramsar Conventions and the CGIAR. The authors: Rémy Courcier was formerly head of the MREA (French Regional Mission for Water and Agriculture) of the French Embassy in Amman; Jean-Philippe Venot was formerly a master student at the ‘Institut National Agronomique de Paris-Grignon’ working with MREA. He is now a PhD student with the International Water Management Institute; François Molle is a Principal Researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France, currently seconded to the International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka. This report is the result of a comprehensive study of water resource development and use in the Jordanian part of the LJRB developed through to a collaboration between the French Regional Mission for Water and Agriculture of the French Embassy in Jordan (MREA) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), within the framework of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. This document greatly benefited from comments made by Peter McCornick and R. Orthofer on its earlier versions. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the help and support given by Susan Taha, Naief Seder, Youssef Hassan, Philip Magiera and Jochen Regner. Courcier, R.; Venot, J.-P.; Molle, F. 2005. Historical transformations of the lower Jordan river basin (in Jordan): Changes in water use and projections (1950-2025). Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute. 91p. (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Research Report 9) / river basins / water use / water resources development / history / water use efficiency / hydrology / water policy / water balance / land use / Jordan / ISSN 1391-9407 ISBN 92-9090-609 Copyright © 2005, by International Water Management Institute. All rights reserved. Please send inquiries and comments to: [email protected] Contents Summary .......................................................................................................... v Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Main Features of the Lower Jordan River Basin (LJRB) in Jordan ............... 2 History of Water Resources Development ...................................................... 5 Situation in the 1950s: Pre-exploitation Phase ............................................... 9 Situation in the Mid-1970s: The Exploitation Phase ....................................... 12 Situation in the 2000s: Growing Scarcity Problems ........................................ 15 Emerging Problems in 2000-2025 and Expected Evolutions ......................... 22 Water Accounting of the Lower Jordan River Basin: Historical Trends ......... 31 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 47 Appendix 1........................................................................................................ 49 Appendix 2........................................................................................................ 65 Appendix 3........................................................................................................ 66 Appendix 4........................................................................................................ 67 Appendix 5........................................................................................................ 68 Appendix 6........................................................................................................ 73 Appendix 7........................................................................................................ 75 Appendix 8........................................................................................................ 76 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 77 iii iii Summary The Lower Jordan river basin (LJRB), defined as Patterns of water use reflect changes in the a hydrological entity, is a region of prime wider economy. Extensive rain-fed agriculture in importance for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: the highlands increased before the mid-1970s but this area includes 83 percent of the total later declined with the change in the economy population of Jordan, and most of the main and the growth of cities. The most intensive part industries in the country, 80 percent of irrigated of the agriculture sector (cultivation in the agriculture, and receives 80 percent of the highlands and the valley, oriented to the export of national water resources. During the last 50 years, vegetables and fruits) is affected by changes in because of a demographic boom and generalized relative competitiveness with regard to other economic development, the Jordanian part of the regional producers and also by changes in market LJRB has experienced an intensive and rapid prices. Population growth, also linked to the wider process of mobilization of its rare water resources. political situation in the Middle East, increased This report presents a qualitative and pressure on the water resources. Because of the quantitative assessment of the history of water unquestionable priority given to domestic water resources mobilization and uses within the LJRB. use and the large share of the agricultural water It illustrates the gradual “artificialization” and use, the future of irrigated agriculture is uncertain. “complexification” of this river basin from a The most questionable part of agricultural use is situation around 1950, where only 10,000 the low-profitability olive trees planted in the hectares were irrigated, groundwater was desert plateau that make up half of the highland untapped and abundant water flowed to the Dead irrigated area and which consume about Sea, to the current situation where 46,000 one-fourth of the total high-quality groundwater hectares are irrigated and all surface resources abstracted for agricultural purposes in the LJRB. are tapped and committed, and groundwater is The resulting depletion of the aquifers is likely to being severely mined. Both the Jordan valley and jeopardize their use for domestic water supply as the highlands, on the one hand, and agriculture they become saltier. and cities, on the other, are now interconnected Intensive agriculture