Increasing Water Use Efficiency and Conservation in Jordan

Challenge

Jordan is one of the most water-poor countries in the world, and forecasted higher temperatures and lower rainfall in the coming decades will further strain its limited water resources. Agriculture consumes half of Jordan’s water resources and municipal and industrial demands are increasing. The Government of Jordan (GOJ) has embarked on the ambitious National Conveyor Project (NCP) that will annually desalinate 300 million cubic meters (MCM) of Red Sea water. Expected to be operational by 2030, the NCP is the most ambitious infrastructure project ever undertaken in Jordan. To successfully secure its water future, Jordan needs to successfully implement the NCP, and a comprehensive suite of NCP readiness infrastructure activities, while simultaneously improving water efficiency and conservation.

Solution

Tetra Tech is implementing the Jordan Water Efficiency and Conservation (WEC) Activity on behalf of DOS, providing on-demand technical assistance to the GOJ for the NCP. WEC aims to increase water use efficiency, conservation, and reuse in the agriculture, industrial, and tourism sectors, and support commercial diplomacy via promotion of innovative U.S. goods and services in the water and wastewater sector.

Specifically, Tetra Tech’s water experts support three primary activity streams:

• NCP Readiness and Water Governance: Coordinating integration of new potable water and treated wastewater volumes into existing systems; developing basin-level water accounting and budgeting tools; and conducting economic and policy analytics to design conservation initiatives.
• Agricultural Water Efficiency and Safe Reuse of Treated Wastewater: Assessing farm water use and implementing lowcost irrigation improvements; promoting commercially viable watersaving technologies, expanding safe treatedwastewater reuse; and delivering targeted training and behavior change support to improve onfarm practices.
• Public, Commercial, and Industrial Water Use Efficiency: Conducting water use audits and implementing process optimization, monitoring, and on-site treatment and reuse; assessing treated wastewater substitution (feasibility and preliminary designs); building local provider capacity; and supporting efficiency and pilot retrofit loss‑reduction programs.