Jordan Times
Thursday, August 19, 1999
Conference proposes project to improve water use
in arid land farming
By a Staff Reporter
AMMAN — A two-day regional workshop concluded here on Wednesday, shedding light on a proposed project to improve the efficiency of water use in arid land agriculture and to help sustain the region's most scarce resource.
Organised by the Middle East and Mediterranean Desert Development Programme, the seminar examined an integrated plan to help conserve, develop and effectively manage the region's scarce water and other natural resources while supporting sustainable development, according to Programme Director Bonnie Stewart.
The Middle East and North Africa group five per cent of the world's people but have less than one per cent of the globe's renewable fresh water, experts say.
Jordan, the Palestinian National Authority, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, the International Arid Lands Consortium and San Diego University Foundation will focus on the optimisation of water distribution at regional and national levels, as well as the optimisation of water use through scientific and technological solutions.
Abuse of water for agricultural, industrial and domestic purposes has reduced the already-limited per capita supply to one-third of its 1960 level, water studies show.
The plan, whose USAID-funded idea was initiated in 1998 in Tucson, Arizona, has two main goals. The first is to improve the efficiency of water use in irrigated agriculture through the development and adoption of intensive agricultural management and irrigation technologies and strategies. The second is to supplement existing fresh water supplies with alternative resources, and to release available high-quality water for municipal and industrial purposes.
Under Objective 1, the project will work to develop irrigation scheduling and crop management systems for the improvement of intensive agricultural production systems throughout the region; facilitate technology transfer for the improvement of on-farm water management; promote improved protected agricultural systems for the production of high value crops using soilless cultures and adopt water-and-chemical-efficient irrigation techniques.
In line with Objective 2, the scheme will develop improved water supplies and cropping systems to better utilise saline water resources and alleviate negative environmental effects.
A recent study, entitled “Water for the Future,” conducted by scientists from the U.S., Jordan, the PNA and Israel warned that “fresh water supplies in the Middle East now are barely sufficient to maintain a quality standard of living.”
The MEMDDP, which held several similar workshops since its establishment in 1993 through the efforts of leaders in the region, is budgeted at $5 million annually for five years, while additional annual inkind contributions from involved countries are estimated at around $2.5 million.