Jordan Times
Friday, April 18, 2008
Royal Water Committee to
develop comprehensive national strategy
AMMAN (Petra) - HRH Prince Feisal on Thursday urged for the Kingdom’s national
water strategy to be divided into several sections in order for the country to
maximise its resources.
The Prince’s comments came during a meeting of the Royal Water Committee, which
is currently examining ways to ensure fair distribution to citizens and better
manage water resources.
Prince Feisal, who chairs the committee, said these separate focuses should
include water resource management, finding alternative water sources, and sewage
system management.
His Majesty King Abdullah ordered the committee’s creation earlier this year to
upgrade the Kingdom’s water strategy and to develop policies and programmes in
light of scarce water resources.
The strategy should also include a long-term agricultural policy and provide for
an organised and streamlined water sector, Prince Feisal told committee members.
He gave directives to divide the committee into sub-groups, so that each
subcommittee would be entrusted with preparing and upgrading segments of the
national strategy, paving the way for an integrated water sector strategy.
“Guaranteeing the right of the individual and the various sectors to a fair
share of water, meeting household, industrial and agricultural needs and
arriving at efficient water resource management are the most important
priorities that His Majesty King Abdullah places on this committee,” Prince
Feisal told the attendees.
During the meeting, Prince Feisal also listened to remarks made by committee
members on the strategy and means to confront challenges facing the water
sector.
Major challenges facing the sector are historical conflicts over water rights,
low water per capita and rainfall scarcity.
The Kingdom’s water situation has become alarming, with the current annual water
per capita reduced to 150million cubic metres (mcm).
With the country’s major dams only holding 110mcm of water out of their total
capacity of 327mcm coupled with an expected 5 per cent increase in demand during
the summer, the Kingdom’s water situation is expected to worsen.
Jordan is one of the 10 poorest countries of the world in terms of water
resources. Dams and rainwater harvesting are some of the solutions for
addressing the shortage, which is only worsening in light of demographic
changes.