Jordan Times
Sunday, November 22, 1998
Jordan, Syria open talks on Yarmouk River water sharing
By Ahmad Khatib
AMMAN — Jordan and Syria on Saturday agreed to avoid measures that might jeopardise
plans to build the Wihdeh Dam on the Yarmouk River, Water Minister Hani Mulki said
Saturday.
Commenting on the deliberations of a joint Jordanian-Syrian committee which opened its two-day meetings in Amman earlier Saturday, Mulki said “the dam is of vital importance for both sides.”
But he warned against increasing the number of ditches on the Yarmouk tributaries in Syrian territory.
Jordan has often complained that it is only getting a fraction of its water share because Syria has set up more than 30 ditches and pumping facilities to store water along the Yarmouk, whose flow has fallen from 470 million cubic metres (mcm) to 270 mcm per year in the Adassiyeh border area.
“If such construction works stop, the project would be feasible,” Mulki told reporters following a regular Cabinet session.
He said that “one of the most essential issues that the Jordanian side stressed in its presentation during the first meeting is the importance of getting high-quality water from the river.”
According to the minister, the only obstacle facing the project is “securing funds” for the JD283 million dam, which would have a storage capacity of 225 mcm.
Nevertheless, some officials believe dormant political tension between the two countries over their regional roles and Israeli reservations over the project pending a regional settlement have undermined progress to set up the dam.
The committee, headed by Jordan Valley Authority Secretary General Dureid Mahasneh and Syria's Ministry of Water and Irrigation Secretary General Barakat Hadid, discussed ways of better utilising the Yarmouk River's water next winter and the two countries' water shares.
In 1955, an Arab League committee on water set Jordan's annual share of the river's water at 330 mcm and 90 mcm for Syria, which currently gets 220 mcm per year.
The meeting is the fourth since October 1997, when both sides agreed to go ahead with plans to construct the dam in accordance with a 1987 agreement between the two countries.
Local newspapers recently quoted a senior Jordanian official as saying “the quality of the Yarmouk's water coming to Jordan has markedly deteriorated” because wastewater was leaking into the river's tributaries in Syria.
But University of Jordan professor and water expert Elias Salameh said tests conducted on the river's water showed that its quality is “better than Lake Tiberias' water, for example.”
“The Kingdom does not have the capability to store water in great quantities and treat it. Thus, any talks on water must focus on the quality of water coming to the country,” Salameh said.
The river, which provides Jordan with 135 million cubic metres of water a year, begins in Syria, flows along the Syrian-Jordanian border and then joins the Jordan River downstream from Lake Tiberias.
Israel agreed to give the Kingdom over 200 million cubic metres of water annually, mostly from the Yarmouk River, under the 1994 peace treaty.
Last month, Jordan and Israel began construction of a JD1.65 million diversion wall to more effectively utilise 40 million cubic metres of the Yarmouk River's overflow per year and regulate a year-round inflow of water to the 110-kilometre-long King Abdullah Canal. The government said such a project would not negate the partnership with Syria regarding the planned dam.
According to official Jordanian figures, the country's population, increasing by 3.5 per cent annually, will need 1.2 billion cubic metres of water per year between 1998 and 2000. But the Kingdom's current water resources provide only 960 million cubic metres a year.