AMMAN — The first
meeting of the National Economic Workshop, bringing together water experts,
academics, sector representatives and officials, convened on Saturday at the
Royal Hashemite Court.
اضافة اعلان
The water sector
workshop, attended by
Water Minister Mohammad Najjar, discussed the most
prominent challenges the sector is going through, as well as some solutions
proposed to develop more water sources.
According to the
experts who spoke to
Jordan News, the goals of a new strategy, which
will be implemented by the end of the workshop, are to increase job
opportunities and improve the government response to citizen expectations.
Chairman of
EDAMA’s
Board of Directors Dureid Mahasneh told
Jordan News that water is a
vital element that must be judiciously utilized to ensure the continuity of
life and its sustainability, especially in light of the climate change and its
potential negative impact on Jordan and the world.
Mahasneh added that
“we need clean water for drinking and consumption, and we must also realize
that water is an important economic element for the industrial, tourism and
other sectors, and not limited to agricultural use”.
He added that “the
agricultural sector is a drain on water, we do not have a variety of water
sources, and this is certainly a real problem that must be taken into
consideration and solved”.
He also said that
“we are working through this workshop to find solutions for desalinating water
at reasonable prices by also opening the way for the private sector to
participate, so that the project is implemented with Jordanian capital. Finding
new investments would also provide
job opportunities”.
“I hope that we
will come out, through this workshop, with good results and recommendations
that we can use to provide water in regions of the Kingdom other than Amman,
and to save pumping costs. We are still in the first week of the workshop and
we still have many suggestions and discussions,” he said.
Water Expert Suzan
Kilani told
Jordan News that the most prominent challenges that are
discussed at the workshop are the unsustainable use of water, poor water
management, the loss of main natural water sources, as well as climate change
and groundwater depletion.
She added that the
discussion covered some other important issues, such as raising the per capita
share of water, reducing the water deficit, introducing technology with the aim
of saving water, and activating and accelerating the completion of projects.
Kilani said that
partnering with the private sector is necessary, as is the need to diversify
water sources, which would contribute to addressing the most prominent
challenges.
Muna Hendieh, yet
another water expert, told
Jordan News that participants in the workshop
“discussed success stories related to the water sector in Jordan, to emphasize
the idea that just as there are challenges and difficulties, there are also
success stories that we should be proud of”.
An example of these
success stories, she said, is the sewage infrastructure, which is “excellent”,
and the “more than 33 water purification plants that have maintained the health
of citizens over the past years”.
Speaking about
challenges, Hendieh said that one of the biggest is the lack of staff working
in the water field in the public sector, and that those working “need training
in order to benefit from their expertise in building projects”.
She added that “we
still suffer from water shortage and lack of sources, and this has been
exacerbated by the presence of refugees in Jordan”.
The quality of
water in Jordan “is one of the best among the neighboring countries”, she said,
but “only 68 percent of the population is served by sewage networks”.
“We look forward to partnering with
Arab countries,” she
said, adding that “some neighboring countries, for example, lack energy, so we
provide them with energy in exchange for water, in addition to partnering with
the private sector in order to fund mega projects for self-reliance on water
sources.”
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