AMMAN — Prime Minister
Bisher Khasawneh said
that Jordan is bound to suffer from “real thirst unless we rush to implement
all possible water solutions," according to Jordan News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
Speaking at Wednesday’s
Lower House of Parliament
session dedicated to discussing the declaration of intent the Kingdom recently
signed with the UAE and Israel to explore the feasibility of a joint
energy-for-water project, the prime minister said "the water poverty we
have reached is unprecedented and threatens the level and quality of life for
current and future generations."
The "
declaration of intent is based on two
interrelated, simultaneous, and interdependent projects, one of which cannot be
implemented without the other, to eventually enable Jordan to obtain an
additional 200 million cubic meters of water annually if the two projects prove
to be feasible," Khasawneh said, stressing that the national water carrier
project, which is expected to provide Amman and regions across the Kingdom with
desalinated seawater from the Gulf of Aqaba, is "irreversible" and
the government will float the project's tender "very soon".
However, the prime minister said, the desalinated
water this project will only enable the Kingdom to maintain the current per
capita share of water until 2040, but "will not be sufficient to increase
the supply to the agriculture, industry, and tourism sectors that drive
employment and growth."
"Therefore, Jordan's need for additional water
sources to meet its growing needs and stimulate growth in vital economic
sectors is urgent and immediate,” the premier said, stressing that it is
imperative “to quickly secure additional water sources".
"Every day we delay implementing strategic and
sustainable solutions and projects that provide additional and new quantities
of water threatens our present and future generations," stressing that his
government "will remain committed to its national duty and will not accept
its hesitation to be the cause of Jordanians’ thirst in the future."
Speaking at Wednesday’s Lower House meeting,
Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar said that the Kingdom's annual all-use
water consumption currently stands at 1.1 billion cubic meters and that by
2040, the Kingdom will need 800 million cubic meters for drinking and municipal
use.
The National Water Carrier Project is expected to
provide the capital and other parts of the Kingdom with 300–350 million cubic
meters of desalinated seawater, said the minister, adding that tender for the
project, which will be the Kingdom's largest water venture, will be floated on Thursday
and will be presented to three prequalified consortiums.
If proven feasible, the energy-for-water project will
help supply the Kingdom with an additional 200 million cubic meters for
drinking and for agriculture, Najjar said, adding that the declaration of
intent does not have legal or financial implications for the Kingdom, and will
not replace the National Carrier Project under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, official figures issued by the General
Budget Department show no funds allocated to the National Water Carrier Project
in the 2022 budget, according to Ammon News, which Ministry of Water and
Irrigation Spokesperson Omar Salameh attributed to the fact that the project is
a build-operate-transfer endeavor whereby the entity responsible for the project
will implement it based on the plans and studies prepared by the ministry and
will sell water to the ministry according to a specific mechanism, such as the
Disi Water Transfer Project.
Salameh said that the cost of the project, which will
be completed at the end of 2022, is estimated at JD2.2 billion. Water will
start being supplied in 2027 and the project will be financed through grants,
loans, and government assistance.
The ministry announced that the specialized technical
teams had completed all documents related to the
Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project and all the documents pertaining to the project will be sent Wednesday
to the five coalitions that had qualified to submit financial and technical
bids.
The project is expected to start supplying all regions
of the Kingdom with their water needs during 2027.
In a related development, the
2021 Global Water and Sanitation Security Partnership (GWSP) report listed Jordan among six countries
where water is considered one of the greatest risks to sustainable development
and political stability, Al-Ghad News reported.
The report, started in 2017 and published recently by
the
World Bank, identified the most important challenges facing the six
countries in the region, namely Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey,
which have a high population, rapid growth in urbanization, and agriculture
that consumes water, saying that all these factors represent a tremendous
pressure on scarce water and available resources in the region, which has made
water one of the biggest threats to sustainable development and political
stability.
The most prominent challenge in the region is that 75
percent of the annual volume of surface water originates from outside the
countries, the report said, criticizing the lack of sharing of water between
countries and warning of the dangers of a drop in the groundwater level due to
over-extraction.
The report stressed the need for enhancing regional
cooperation to improve water security in the future and the fact that global
partnership supports countries to understand and address their water security
challenges, from the safety of dams to water storage.
The GWSP has continued to provide support to
governments as they face a triple crisis: achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals, responding to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and tackling the impacts of climate
change, in addition to making connections across sectors and providing a
comprehensive set of solutions.
As the effects of climate change intensify and the
world fights the long-term impact of the global pandemic, the report said that
progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will be delayed till
2030.
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