PRESS RELEASE — Water expert Elias Salameh has argued, forcefully, that
desalination offers the best short- and long-term solution to the 400 million
cubic meters of
water shortage facing Jordan.
اضافة اعلان
Jordan University professor Elias Salameh gently criticized
successive Jordanian governments for ignoring this recommendation that was the
heart of the Jordanian Water 2009 -2022 Water strategy plan that was headed by
Prince Faysal Bin Al Hussein. “In light of the threats from Jordan’s neighbors
of cutting off the sale of water, we must implement immediately some water
alternatives,” Salameh said to the
Amman Cosmopolitan Rotary Club Wednesday.
Salameh suggested that Jordan should rent a desalination
vessel to park outside the Aqaba shores. “Such a vessel could desalinate all
the water needs of the Aqaba governorate and therefore, the water needs coming
from the Disi wells could be shifted to Amman and the north of Jordan.
Professor Salameh argued that a desalination project would
be cheaper than what is spent on water purchased from Israel; “If you add the
cost of water we pay to Israel, the transport of this water and its
purification, the cost of every cubic meter would be around JD 1.2,” he said.
“At the same time, the cost of desalination using a vessel outside of Aqaba
would be a fourth of the cost and should not exceed JD. 35 per cubic meter.”
Salameh suggested that one of the donors to Jordan could cover the temporary
rental of the desalination vessel for a couple of years until a permanent
desalination plant is established and begins pumping water from the Red Sea.
The speech at the Landmark Hotel illustrated the rise in
demand due to population growth, climate change, and limited water sources
while no serious effort is being made to curb water usage by agriculture and
other needs.
In answering to questions from
Rotarians the Jordan
University water expert said that water harvesting could also be deployed to
help cover the needs in certain water-deprived areas. “Historically from
thousands of years ago, we know that sophisticated water harvesting channeling
and storing efforts took place. We need to revisit water harvesting,” he
answered.
Rotary Club of Amman Cosmopolitan is already involved in
helping villages in the Mafraq district to deal with their water needs by
helping renovate old water channels in Um Aljimal historical village and by
clearing out 17 old cisterns dug under the ruins of old houses that are now
used to service water for the new Um Aljimal village.
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