Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06AMMAN4692
2006-06-25 14:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

JORDAN INCREASINGLY DESPERATE FOR WATER THIS SUMMER

Tags:  EAGR JO SENV XF 
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VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #4692/01 1761449
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 251449Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1677
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHDOI/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
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

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