248
H. Kupfersberger
wastewater suitable for irrigation of crops will become available in return.
Between 1998 and 2000 the authority decided to reduce water allocation for
agricultural use in favor of easing the severe urban water shortage. However, there
are historic water rights to springs and wadi flows in the Lower Jordan Valley, and
farmers were dissatisfied with being provided with treated wastewater. Compared
to the Palestinian projections, agricultural water demand in the Jordanian part of
the Lower Jordan Valley will grow only modestly until 2020 (still being the
dominant water-consuming sector), but municipal water demand will double.
Increasing the efficiency of water use represents one alternative to cope with
the lack of water. In general, options to save water comprise rehabilitation (e.g.
pressurizing) of existing distribution networks and improvements of irrigation
techniques, among others. Wadi flood and natural surface runoff can be captured
if the building of reservoirs is to materialize. Yet, the feasibility of multi-year
storage reservoirs seems limited because of soil permeability, evaporation, and
unreliable recharge. All projects to augment the use of available water resources
should also consider implementation issues, e.g., costs, time horizon for
realization, reliability, political considerations, and not only volume.
Usually, there will be high development and distribution costs of almost all as
yet unused local and external water sources. All assumptions concerning
population dynamics, migration patterns, and growth of agriculture are critical for
water demand projections. Therefore, variation ranges of basic assumptions
should be given as a basis for sensitivity analyses to assess their impact. The latest
developments have shown that any kind of planning efforts is subject to
tremendous uncertainty.
2.2 Groundwater Resources
The subsurface water resources, i.e., outflow of springs and pumped groundwater,
are already overused in some areas, showing declining trends of water level and
locally facing salinity problems. The Eastern Mountain Aquifer is of particular
interest since it is shared by Israel and Palestine. The two unlike parties
characterizes the usage pattern of the EMA. There is on one hand a highly
developed country which essentially does not rely on the existence of the
groundwater resources in two ways: (1) Israel has implemented alternative
(surface) water supplies which by far exceed the extractable volume of the EMA,
(2) the Israeli economy is not based on an abundance of water since agriculture
accounts only for about 3% of the GDP. On the other hand, there is a less
developed country 'Palestine' which for this very reason has no access to other
water resources, has only limited access to the groundwater resources, and whose
main job options still are in agriculture, which in tum depends on water
availability. This general situation will persist during the next decades, though
food security is no longer of prime concern.
Due to the political situation, decisions to use the common aquifer have almost
never been based on hydrological studies or arguments. Rather, it can be
hypothesized that wells have been drilled so deep at predefined locations until
H. Kupfersberger
wastewater suitable for irrigation of crops will become available in return.
Between 1998 and 2000 the authority decided to reduce water allocation for
agricultural use in favor of easing the severe urban water shortage. However, there
are historic water rights to springs and wadi flows in the Lower Jordan Valley, and
farmers were dissatisfied with being provided with treated wastewater. Compared
to the Palestinian projections, agricultural water demand in the Jordanian part of
the Lower Jordan Valley will grow only modestly until 2020 (still being the
dominant water-consuming sector), but municipal water demand will double.
Increasing the efficiency of water use represents one alternative to cope with
the lack of water. In general, options to save water comprise rehabilitation (e.g.
pressurizing) of existing distribution networks and improvements of irrigation
techniques, among others. Wadi flood and natural surface runoff can be captured
if the building of reservoirs is to materialize. Yet, the feasibility of multi-year
storage reservoirs seems limited because of soil permeability, evaporation, and
unreliable recharge. All projects to augment the use of available water resources
should also consider implementation issues, e.g., costs, time horizon for
realization, reliability, political considerations, and not only volume.
Usually, there will be high development and distribution costs of almost all as
yet unused local and external water sources. All assumptions concerning
population dynamics, migration patterns, and growth of agriculture are critical for
water demand projections. Therefore, variation ranges of basic assumptions
should be given as a basis for sensitivity analyses to assess their impact. The latest
developments have shown that any kind of planning efforts is subject to
tremendous uncertainty.
2.2 Groundwater Resources
The subsurface water resources, i.e., outflow of springs and pumped groundwater,
are already overused in some areas, showing declining trends of water level and
locally facing salinity problems. The Eastern Mountain Aquifer is of particular
interest since it is shared by Israel and Palestine. The two unlike parties
characterizes the usage pattern of the EMA. There is on one hand a highly
developed country which essentially does not rely on the existence of the
groundwater resources in two ways: (1) Israel has implemented alternative
(surface) water supplies which by far exceed the extractable volume of the EMA,
(2) the Israeli economy is not based on an abundance of water since agriculture
accounts only for about 3% of the GDP. On the other hand, there is a less
developed country 'Palestine' which for this very reason has no access to other
water resources, has only limited access to the groundwater resources, and whose
main job options still are in agriculture, which in tum depends on water
availability. This general situation will persist during the next decades, though
food security is no longer of prime concern.
Due to the political situation, decisions to use the common aquifer have almost
never been based on hydrological studies or arguments. Rather, it can be
hypothesized that wells have been drilled so deep at predefined locations until