Jordan Times
Monday, May 31, 1999
Government plans to stop water supply to Jordan Valley vegetable farms
By Dana Charkasi
BAQA'A — The government plans to stop water supplies to vegetable farms in parts of the Jordan Valley area as of June 1 to protect the soil from alarmingly high levels of salt and sodium found in water supplies.
A national state of drought, brought about by scarce regional rainfall this winter, has been cited by water experts and officials as the main reason for unusual levels of salinity found in water that irrigates 60,000 dunums of land between Abu Obeideh and Karameh.
Officials said the controversial move, opposed by farmers who rely on the valley for their livelihood, was necessary to protect the soil's future productivity which will be adversely affected by excessive salt and sodium in water coming from the King Talal Dam — the main irrigation supply in the area.
“Only a low percentage of crops will fail due to the stop of water supply. Most of the vegetables in this area have already been harvested or are in the latest stage,” said Abdul Nabbi Fardos, deputy director of the National Centre for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer, on Sunday. The decision to cut the supply was in response to a paper based on national as well as international literary reviews on the effects of droughts and a study conducted by Fardos and his team at the centre on the impact of drought on vegetables and soil in the middle Jordan Valley.
“Vegetable farms in this area will not be supplied with water until next winter,” Fardos said.
“We should also restrict the irrigation of fruit trees and some fodder crops.”
Fardos said that the low rainfall this winter was not sufficient to dilute the water in the King Talal Dam. The water's salinity currently reaches 2,200 to 2,400 milligrammes per litre and is expected to further increase throughout the summer as more water evaporates.
“Under normal circumstances, with our regional conditions, we should only have a maximum of 1,200 to 1,400 milligrammes of salt per litre,” Fardos explained.
The use of fertilisers has also contributed to the salination of soil, Fardos told the Jordan Times during an earlier interview, which in normal years is leeched (flushed out) by floodwaters.
The mentioned area is irrigated by water stemming from both the King Talal Dam and the King Abdullah Canal, whereby the ratio of mixture is heavily in favour of the King Talal Dam.
“We should decrease the ratio of water from the King Talal Dam vis-a-vis the ratio of water from King Abdullah Canal. The ratio of water from King Abdullah Canal to water from King Talal Dam should not exceed one to two.”
Fardos would not disclose the exact current ratio, but said that the water from the King Talal Dam far exceeds the recommended ratio.
High salinity in the soil and future lack of floods in that area might make the planting of crops sensitive to salt impossible.
“Beans, lettuce, potatoes and tomatoes are sensitive to salinity in the soil. An alternative would be to plant crops tolerating salt in the soil such as barley or date palm trees. But these crops might not bring the farmers the needed [economic] returns,” Fardos said.
Another detrimental impact of poor water quality on the soil is the high amount of sodium which destroys the soil structure.
“The soil becomes `structureless' ... [eventually the soil] will look like powder,” Fardos explained.
“The result will be that water and root penetration will be minimal which results in limited growth of the plant,” he added.
In 1992 Saudi Arabia suspended its imports of Jordanian tomatoes, cucumber and other farm produce, claiming treated wastewater was being used to irrigate much of the crops. Jordan has argued that the area of land irrigated with treated wastewater is limited, but proposed different testing scenarios for exported produce.
Currently, Jordan is negotiating with the Saudis and other Gulf countries with regard to reopening their market to Jordanian products.
With regard to this subject, Fardos said that most of the exports to the Gulf region are products form the highlands where farms are irrigated by high quality water.