As soon as the minister of water announced that the
Kingdom will have a harsh summer attempting to secure its water needs, he was met with
striking critique and accusations of stirring up public sentiment.
اضافة اعلان
Adding insult to injury, an interview resurfaced from two
years ago in which the now minister and then senator revealed that a powerful
five-person network had been infringing upon the water network and had been
referred to the judicial authorities. This interview was dug up to take the
minister’s most recent statements out of context.
Thank you to the minister who rung the alarm bells on
Jordan’s water shortage, uncovering in the process, the shortcomings of
previous governments in securing the
Kingdom’s water needs.
Thank you to the minister for also standing against those
who violate the water network and wells using illegal means.
But what has led us to this difficult stage and who is
responsible?
Everyone knows that Jordan has been relying on underground
resources to secure drinking water for decades, and since these are natural
resources, it is expected that the annual per capita share would decrease due
to population growth and forced, and unplanned migration.
In 1985, the government began utilizing surface water
resources by treating the water in the
King Abdullah Canal, at the expense of
the agricultural share of the Jordan Valley. This was followed by the
desalination of 60 cubic meters of water per year and the siphoning off of
underground water, considering that its 12 tanks faced the threat of running
dry. Therefore, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation opted for non-renewable
underground tanks at the bottom of Disi in 2010. And as soon as the project
began pumping water in early 2013, some 1.5 million refugees fled to the
Kingdom.
Since then, water officials have not attempted to plan for
the only sustainable alternative, which is desalinating Red Sea water. Rather,
they have continued to dig wells and tried to manage crises only as they came
up.
Only now are real steps being taken to desalinate 300
million cubic meters per year, which cover 70 percent of the quantity currently
being consumed.
Over the past years, the water sector has suffered from poor
administration and slacking, as no real efforts went into addressing water
loss. What exacerbated the situation was the lack of financial resources and
high cost of delivering water, particularly electricity costs. This was
followed by the spread of financial and administration corruption, and the
absence of planning for coming years in terms of water quantities, increasing
the efficiency of facilities and securing sustainable resources.
Among the causes of administrative weakness is what previous
governments have done in terms of letting employees go under the pretext that
they have reached the age of early retirement, which stripped the public sector
of its front and second-line workers, leaving matters in the hands of the
inexperienced, which in turn disrupted projects, disoriented priorities, and
caused sloth that led to a loss of control over the water file.
Things are gradually changing, the ministry is setting plans
and priorities for projects, which would set the course towards stability,
should things flow smoothly.
The sector needs support through the implementation of laws
and the provision of human competencies, and funds to secure a safe and
comfortable future. Therefore, let the water minister work on the basis of a
clear plan and vision to salvage what is possible and expedite the achievement
of what previous governments could not. Time is not on our side, we need both
speed and courage to make fateful decisions.
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