JORDAN INCREASINGLY DESPERATE FOR WATER THIS SUMMER

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 004692 SIPDIS SIPDIS INTERIOR FOR USGS/INTERNATIONAL/FOOSE, SCHNEIDER E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2016 TAGS: EAGR JO SENV XF SUBJECT: JORDAN INCREASINGLY DESPERATE FOR WATER THIS SUMMER REF: A. A) AMMAN 4654 ¶B. B) AMMAN 2108 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Daniel Rubinstein for reason 1.4 b, d ¶1. (C) Summary: Jordan's senior water officials are trapped between dwindling water supplies, fixed water obligations under treaties, and ever-growing demand from Amman and other cities for domestic water. Irrigation in the Jordan Valley is the only place they can cut some deliveries. Even under the pressure of the dry summer, officials seem unwilling to make politically tough policy decisions on irrigation water but instead continue to hope that mega-projects such as Red-Dead (ref A) will solve their problems. End summary. ¶2. (C) During his June 8-13 visit to Amman, NEA Senior Advisor for Science and Technology Dr. Chuck Lawson reviewed Jordan's regional and domestic water situation with government and private sector water specialists, including Minister of Water and Irrigation Zafer Alem and Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) Secretary General Mousa Jamani. There was a palpable sense of desperation over major short-term supply shortages expected in summer 2006. ¶3. (U) BACKGROUND ON JVA: The Jordan Valley Authority is a powerful bureau within the Ministry of Water and Irrigation that manages all of Jordan's bulk water supply except from groundwater. The JVA manages Jordan's dams, the King Abdullah Canal, water inflow from the Yarmouk River along the Syria/Israel/Jordan border, deliveries of water to and from Israel, bulk water shipments from the Jordan Valley to Amman, and irrigation in the agricultural Jordan Valley. -------------- -------------- MWI - Jordan Getting Squeezed by Upstream Neighbors -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) In separate meetings, Minister Alem and JVA S/G Jamani had similar points: -- Jordan desperately needs additional water supply this summer in the period of peak demand in July and August for irrigation, and to meet ever-rising demand for domestic use in Amman; -- Flows in the crucial Yarmouk River at 1.2 cubic meters per second are critically low, and there is "nothing left" after diverting the 1.1 cubic meters per second needed to meet Jordan's treaty obligations to Israel; -- Syrian diversion of water in the Yarmouk watershed with dams, wells and pumps, many of which in the Jordanian view contravene the 1988 Jordan-Syria water agreement, is capturing water that should flow to Jordan; -- Israeli groundwater pumping in the Golan is also reducing flow in the Yarmouk, although Alem said it is much less than the water taken by the Syrians); -- The JVA has slashed irrigation water in the north part of the valley to survival levels for permanent crops such as citrus trees, and to zero for annual crops. Note: The north part of the valley, between the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers and Deir Allah, is the section of the system from which water can be diverted to Amman. End note; -- The addition of 40 million cubic meters per year of water supply starting in fall 2006 from the USAID-supported Zara Ma'in dam and water treatment project will help address medium-term issues, but... -- Jordan is counting on mega-projects like the Disi pipeline to Amman, and the "Red-Dead" Red Sea to Dead Sea water conveyance (ref A),to fully address their long-term (10-30 year) water needs. -------------- -------------- Upstream/Downstream - Jordan in "Very Bad Condition" -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) JVA S/G Jamani said that the water supply situation in Jordan this summer is "very bad." Low flows on the crucial Yarmouk River are one reason. The Yarmouk River starts in Syria and flows into Jordan, where it is apportioned between the King Abdullah Canal, the Jordan River and delivery to Israel. Minister Alem and S/G Jamani both commented that the Yarmouk flows are being reduced because of dams, wells and pumping in Syria in the headwaters of the Yarmouk watershed. Jamani jokingly wondered if the Al-Wihdah (Unity) Dam on the Yarmouk will be collecting air or water when it begins operations in the fall of 2006. Jamani said that much of the Syrian off-take violates a 1988 Syria-Jordan agreement on water resources in the Yarmouk basin. Yarmouk flow at the entrance to the King Abdullah Canal is down to 1.2 cubic meters per second, barely adequate to supply the 1.1 cubic meters per second that Israel is due under the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty. Jamani added, though, that even if 100% of the Yarmouk's flow could be kept by Jordan and none was sent to Israel, it would still only reduce Jordan's water shortage, not fix it. ¶6. (SBU) Jordan has a complex series of water swaps in its Peace Treaty and other water deals with Israel, done in part to get Jordan through the dry summers. Under the treaty, Jordan sends to Israel up to 20 million cubic meters of Yarmouk water in the winter, and Israel transfers that amount back to Jordan during the summer. During the past winter, Israel received only 8 million cubic meters from Jordan, but Israel has already agreed to send Jordan the full 20 million cubic meters, thus "loaning" Jordan 12 million cubic meters. (ref B). However, domestic demand in Amman takes 95% of that water, according to Jamani. There is "nothing left" for irrigation in the valley, Jamani said, and he is considering approaching the Israelis for more water concessions. ¶7. (U) In response to the current water shortage, the JVA has terminated water deliveries for irrigating annual crops in the Jordan Valley north of the Deir Allah control station, and is delivering only enough water there to keep permanent crops such as citrus trees from dying. -------------- 40 MCM More Than a Drop in the Bucket -------------- ¶8. (U) Even the modest 40 million cubic meters per year expected from the USAID-supported Zara Ma'in dam, water treatment and pipeline project has become an important component of Jordan's overtaxed water equation. Water from this project will be pumped to Amman for municipal and industrial consumers, substituting for some of the water from the King Abdullah Canal that currently is sent to Amman from Deir Allah. This will free up water in the King Abdullah Canal for irrigation in the valley. Unfortunately, the Zara Ma'in project will not being producing water until October 2006, said Jamani, too late to be useful in 2006 for the critical July-August summer crunch. -------------- Looking to the Future -------------- ¶9. (U) Jamani said that demand management and re-use of treated wastewater will be important elements of Jordan's water supply in the future. He said he has met farmers in the valley five times in the last three months to discuss water deliveries. He said he supports efficient use of the water, but added that this a farm-level issue that is a responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture. He said that the JVA's efficiency rate for water delivery in the King Abdullah Canal system is 85% (of 100 cubic meters that enter the system, 85 make it to the delivery points along the network),but that water efficiency drops to 50% at the farm level (of 100 cubic meters that are delivered to the farm, only 50 are used by the crop - the rest goes down to shallow saline groundwater or drains into the Jordan River). He added that a German-funded project to create water user committees in the valley was underway and would help to JVA to efficiently allocate water and to reduce illegal water use. -------------- -------------- Pipe dream - A Wistful Look Forward to Mega Projects -------------- -------------- 10 (C) Comment: Jordanian officials seem transfixed by both their immediate needs and what they see as long-term panaceas: the Disi pipeline and the Red-Dead project (ref A). There is a note of surrealism here, though. Consistent with GOJ language on Red-Dead, Jamani described Red-Dead as an environmental project (protecting the ecology of the Dead Sea) and called the extra fresh water from Red-Dead a beneficial "side-effect." In fact, Jordan is keenly interested in and seemingly counting on receiving a major portion of the 850 million cubic meters of water that would be desalinated as part of the project. ¶11. (C) Comment continued: What was not said in the meetings was instructive. There was no mention of the politically painful policy reform needed to wean Jordanian agriculture away from virtually free water that consumes up to 60% of the country's water while contributing single digits to GDP. There is focus on today's problems and on theoretical solutions like Red-Dead, but little attention is being paid to unglamorous, medium term projects to maximize efficient use of Jordan's scarce water. ¶12. (U) Dr. Lawson has cleared this cable. Rubinstein