Samer Talozi

Water salinity is a major challenge for Jordanian farmers in the Jordan Valley negatively impacting crop yield and soil health. One potential solution to this issue is electronic water treatment (EWT): a novel technology that uses radio wave transmissions to alter the electric charge of dissolved ions and prevent the build‐up of salt compounds. This reduce water salinity enabling the use of saline water for irrigation without the adverse effects of salt toxicity in plants. To test the effectiveness of this technology, we evaluated the Max Grow electronic treatment device in an experimental trial cultivating cucumbers ( Cucumis sativus L.) at a research farm located in the north Jordan Valley. Our goal was to determine whether plants irrigated with electronically‐treated saline water (high‐salinity treated waste water [HSTWW]) can exhibit similar growth to plants treated with low‐salinity groundwater (LSGW), which is only attainable through desalination methods or by purchasing expensive water from private suppliers. Two sets of cucumber plants were grown: one group was irrigated with saline water (1000–1200 ppm) treated by the Max Grow device, and the other group was irrigated with high quality LSGW purchased from an outside source with low salinity (300 ppm). Plant length, stem thickness, and yield were monitored over 8 weeks for both groups. Statistical analysis showed significant improvements in plant length and yield in the Max Grow–treated group with no notable difference in stem thickness. These findings suggest that the Max Grow system can provide irrigation quality comparable to costly desalination methods at a lower cost, thereby offering a scalable and energy‐efficient solution for saline‐prone agricultural regions. Adoption of this technology could enhance agricultural resilience, reduce energy consumption, and support sustainable water management in arid environments.

Jordan is a relatively small country with limited natural resources, but it faces a burgeoning demand for water, energy, and food to accommodate a growing population, refugee migration, and the challenges of climate change that will persist through the rest of this century. Jordan’s Main Water Conveyance System is the backbone of distributing scarce water resources to meet domestic and agricultural demands. Therefore, understanding how the future energy requirements of this system may change is critical for managing the country’s water, energy, and food resources. This paper applied a water balance model to calculate the energy consumption of Jordan’s Main Water Conveyance System between 2015 and 2050, and the results point to high energy requirements for the future of distributing Jordan’s water. In the base year of 2015, the unmet water demand was 134.55 MCM, and the supplied water volume delivered was 438.75 MCM, while the energy consumption was 1496.7 GWh. The energy intensities for water conveyance and water treatment were 7.11 kWh/m³ and 0.5 kWh/m³, respectively. We examined five scenarios of future water and energy demand within Jordan: a reference scenario, a continuation of current behavior, two scenarios incorporating improved water management strategies, and a pessimistic scenario with no interventions. According to all scenarios, the energy consumption is expected to be doubled by the year 2050, reaching approximately 3172 GWh. It is recommended that Jordan prioritizes solar-powered conveyance and pumping to reduce the projected doubling of energy demand by 2050. Across all scenarios, the demand for nonrenewable energy associated with water conveyance is projected to rise significantly, particularly in the absence of renewable integration or efficiency interventions. Total water demand is expected to increase by up to 35% by 2050, with urban and agricultural sectors being the primary contributors.

Does the transition toward participatory management approaches improve access to irrigation water and lead to greater crop production for farmers? This paper answers this question using the case of the Jordan Valley, where local Water User Associations were established as an experiment in participatory resource management. We use remote sensing techniques to gather data on vegetation density and water content between the years of 2000 and 2018 to evaluate the success of these institutions in tackling existing challenges that limit the supply of water to farmers. Using farm-level NDVI and NDWI estimates as indicators of water access, we find that the WUA policy intervention had little-to-no distinct effect on water supply at the farm level.

"This study examines the impact of industrial water consumption by calculating the Water Footprint (WF) of major industrial products produced in Jordan. The WF assessment considers the entire supply chain, which is divided into the blue and grey WF, using chain-summation and stepwise accumulative approaches. A total of 28 industrial subsectors were analyzed, and comprehensive data was collected from diverse statistical databases for the period 2011–2013. The information covered various aspects including water consumption quantities, wastewater generation amounts, industrial production quantities, and additional relevant data obtained from industry surveys, environment surveys, and economic statistics provided by the Department of Statistics of Jordan. The results indicate that the mining of chemical and fertilizer minerals subsector had the highest blue WF at 13,517 m3/kg, while the highest grey WF was found for the refined petroleum products subsector at 1,193 m3/kg. Conversely, the lowest blue WF was observed in the chemical products subsector, and the lowest grey WF in the rubber products subsector. The average internal blue and grey WFs for the year 2011 were 733 m3/kg for blue water and 202 m3/kg for grey water. In 2013, these averages were 915 m3/kg for blue water and 108 m3/kg for grey water. This study reveals notable trends in industrial water consumption, providing valuable insights for policymakers in Jordan, highlighting the need for sustainable water management practices and informing strategies to address water scarcity and pollution issues in the industrial sector.

Scarce and unreliable urban water supply in many countries has caused municipal users to rely on transfers from rural wells via unregulated markets. Assessments of this pervasive water re-allocation institution and its impacts on aquifers, consumer equity and affordability are lacking. We present a rigorous coupled human–natural system analysis of rural-to-urban tanker water market supply and demand in Jordan, a quintessential example of a nation relying heavily on such markets, fed by predominantly illegal water abstractions. Employing a shadow-economic approach validated using multiple data types, we estimate that unregulated water sales exceed government licences 10.7-fold, equalling 27% of the groundwater abstracted above sustainable yields. These markets supply 15% of all drinking water at high prices, account for 52% of all urban water revenue and constrain the public supply system’s ability to recover costs. We project that household reliance on tanker water will grow 2.6-fold by 2050 under population growth and climate change. Our analysis suggests that improving the efficiency and equity of public water supply is needed to ensure water security while avoiding uncontrolled groundwater depletion by growing tanker markets.

Protecting the quality of the groundwater is of the utmost importance, particularly in countries such as Jordan, where the groundwater comprises a significant portion of the total water resources. A groundwater vulnerability assessment is one of the viable preventive measures that is normally used to preserve this strategic water resource. Groundwater vulnerability maps provide information on the groundwater basins that are vulnerable to contamination, particularly those coming from the landfills, and thus, they can be used for sustainable land use planning. The general goal of this study was to map the groundwater vulnerability to contamination and evaluate the impact of landfills on the groundwater quality at five landfill sites in Jordan, i.e., Akaider, Al-Husaineyat, Madaba, Dair Alla, and Azraq by using a COP hydrogeological model. The COP method is an European approach for aquifer vulnerability in the karst regions. This method uses the parameters: C—Concentration of flow; O—Overlying layers; P—Precipitation. Unlike the other methods, the COP model allows for us to assess the impact of the karst systems if they exist. For the study area, daily rain records from three weather stations surrounding each landfill were used. Along with the vulnerability maps, Peizometric maps for Akaider, Azraq, Dair Alla, Madaba and Al-Husaineyat were produced that assisted in our efforts to determine the wells located in the upstream and downstream of each targeted landfill. The water quality was tested two times in the upstream and downstream wells of each targeted landfill to explore the potential impacts of the landfills on the groundwater wells. The developed vulnerability maps show that most of the lands surrounding the landfills’ areas, within a diameter of 15 km, are located in low to very low vulnerability areas, except for the Al-Husaineyat landfill in Mafraq where a significant part of it lies in a moderate vulnerability area across a fault section. Additionally, the results of the water analysis from the surrounding wells indicated that there was no clear evidence of the contamination of the groundwater resulting from surrounding landfills, which was in agreement with the produced vulnerability maps.

Drip irrigation is a micro-irrigation technology that has been shown to conserve water and significantly increase crop yield. This technology could be particularly beneficial to the world's estimated 500 million smallholder farmers, but these systems tend to be financially inaccessible to this population. Drip systems require costly components including a pipe network, emitters, a

This study aims to investigate the influence of treated wastewater (TWW) on the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation emitters. A field experiment was conducted in order to test two types of online emitters, a low pressure (LP) and a standard pressure (SP), at different working pressures (0.25 bar, 0.50 bar, and 1.00 bar) using TWW. The emitters were initially evaluated in the laboratory and the field for the discharge exponent (X), discharge coefficient (Kd), average emitter discharge (Q_avg), coefficient of variation (CV), distribution uniformity (DU), the mean discharge ratio (Dra), and the main degree of clogging (DC). The main effect of the emitters on the hydraulic parameters of irrigation performance was not significant, while the operational pressure and operational time of irrigation had a significant effect. For the LP emitter, the average emitter discharge was 7.6, 7.7, and 7.8 Lh⁻¹ at 0.25, 0.50, and 1.00 bar, respectively. For the SP emitter, the average emitter discharge was 7.6, 7.8, and 7.8 Lh⁻¹ at 0.25, 0.50, and 1.00 bar, respectively. The EU values for the LP and SP emitters varied from low to moderate at 0.25 bar, as the EU values at 0.50 and 1.00 bar were considered high for both emitter types.

Significance: Jordan is facing an unfolding water crisis, exacerbated by climate change and conflict-induced refugee influxes. We present a freshwater security analysis for the country, enabled by an integrated systems model that combines simulation of Jordan’s natural and built water environment with thousands of representative human agents determining water allocation and use decisions. Our analysis points to severe, potentially destabilizing, declines in Jordan’s freshwater security. Without intervening measures, over 90% of Jordan’s low-income population will be experiencing critical water insecurity by the end of the century. To gain a foothold on its water future, Jordan must enact an ambitious portfolio of interventions that span supply- and demand-side measures, including large-scale desalinization and comprehensive water-sector reform.