Zarqa River Basin Restoration and Economic Development Project

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Zarqa River Basin Restoration and Economic
Development Project

• International Union for Conservation of Nature

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Zarqa River Basin Description

• Area 3,900 Km2, c.a.
• Annual rainfall 300 mm/year
• Annual stream flow about 63 MCM
• Zarqa River is perennial, with
• summer monthly flows of 2 to 3 MCM
• winter monthly flows of 5 to gt8 MCM

MCM Million Cubic Meter
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River Flow

• Abstraction for water supply from aquifers in the
  upper Amman-Zarqa groundwater basin has reduced
  the natural base flow of the Zarqa River, which
  was negatively reflected on the flow quantity of
  the river.

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River Flow

• The flow characteristics have been further
  modified by discharging treated domestic and
  industrial wastewater to the river.
• This wastewater constitutes nearly all of
  summer flow, substantially degrading the water
  quality.

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Three main problems are associated with Zarqa
River

• 1- Decrease of natural flow.
• 2- Pollution by disposing industrial wastewater
  and solid wastes.
• 3- Pollution by partially-treated domestic
  wastewater.

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Socio-Economic Aspects

• Length of river watercourse is 70 Km, passing
  through 4 governorates.
• 65 of Jordans total population and more than
  90 of the small medium industries are
  concentrated in the river basin area.
• About 10,000 donums (i.e. 2380 H) are used for
  agriculture in the watershed.

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The Environmental Condition in Zarqa Basin

• Environmental components that are at risk in
  the Amman-Zarqa Basin include
• High air pollution due to the surrounding
  industrial areas (such as thermal power plants,
  the oil refinery, industrial stack emissions).
• Over-pumping of groundwater for agricultural and
  industrial uses as well as drinking.
• Surface and groundwater resources pollution
  caused by wastewater from partially operated
  treatment plants.

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Environmental Increasing Risks

• Solid waste management constitutes a big
  challenge in a heavily populated and
  industrialized region.
• Poverty and degraded livelihood conditions
  aggravated the negative environmental impacts.

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Zarqa River Basin Restoration Project

• good analysis and planning, leading to more
  effective and economically sound water resources
  management and improving rural livelihoods,
  environmental and water security.
• promoting increased participation and
  representation of stakeholders (mainly end-users)
  in the planning and decision making processes.

• Long-Term Goal
• Restoration of the river basin
• Economic development
• Purpose
• Test and demonstrate a systemic and participatory
  approach for planning, development and management
  of the watershed/river basin at the intermediate
  and local levels

through
by
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Constraintsto Improved Water Management

• Lack of
• Information on water and environmental
  flows in the basin
• (interaction of groundwater with surface water,
  etc).
• Awareness on water conservation and
  management.
• Experience / knowledge in systematic approaches
  relevant to water resources management.

• Unclear governance of
• the water basin, manifested in
• difficulties in the enforcement
• of water legislations and policies.
• Absence of inter-stakeholder agreement.
• Limited knowledge on
• socio-economic consequences.

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Project Beneficiaries

• Communities within the river basin, farmers,
  CBOs, industries
• Industries and local-level government
  institutions
• National-level government institutions
• Other river basins in other areas or in the
  region

• Locally
• Intermediate
• To the top
• Best practice for

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Physical Problems Tree for ZRR
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• GW safely yield 87.5 MCM/yr
  - 80.1 for domestic
• Actual use 149.8
  - 6.9 for industrial
• Over use 62.3 MCM/yr
  - 62.9 for agricultural

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Zarqa River Restoration
3 or 4 Pilot Sites for Testing Approach 2
PWPC DST 3
Institutional Governance Consolidation Process 4
Pilot Projects on the ground 7
Planning SDCA Long Term Strategy
Development 1
Capacity Building 5
Technical Studies on Selected Information 6
Long-Term Strategic Plan for Zarqa River
Restoration Management
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Project Components

• Development and implementation
• of different pilot projects to test
• solutions for river basin restoration.
• Empowerment of local communities,
• private sector, NGOs and government
  agencies.
• Documenting the learning process and sharing
  information and knowledge at
• local, regional and national levels.

• Increasing the influence of
• stakeholders on the planning and
• decision-making processes for water
• resources management.
• Water resources, environmental and
• socio-economic assessments.
• Development and endorsement
• of a master plan for the
• watershed/river restoration.
• Development of system analysis
• tools (PMC IWMIS) to support
• restoration master plans.

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EXPECTED RESULTS

• An effective River Contract, i.e the
  organizational structure and operational tools
  for Zarqa River Basin master plan
  implementation.
• 2. Empowering stakeholders GOs, NGOs, private
  sector, CBOs and end-users in the water resources
  planning and management processes.

3. Enabling the implementation of similar
activities in other areas of the country
and the region. 4. Developing the economic
and social elements in the river basin due to
the improved environment.
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Progress to Date

• Institutional Arrangements
• Forming a steering committee at the national
  level to ensure participation and influence the
  national-level decision makers.
• Conducting an institutional review of the
  organizational structure of the Ministry of
  Environment and Zarqa River Basin Rehabilitation
  Unit in order to come up with the best options
  for establishing the unit and its sustainable
  institutional linkages within the Ministry of
  Environment and with other line ministries and
  agencies.
• Establishing a specialized institutional unit for
  the restoration of Zarqa River Basin as part of
  the Ministry of Environments institutional
  structure to ensure sustainability of the
  project.
• Stakeholders Dialogue (Multi-Stakeholder
  Platforms)
• Stakeholders dialogue was facilitated and an
  effective communication system between all
  stakeholders at different levels was established.
• Three local water management committees were
  established at pilots sites level.
• The local committees including end-users were
  empowered to increase water users participation
  in decision making.

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Progress to Date Cont..

• Capacity Building
• Conducting Rapid Rural Appraisal for Zarqa river
  to select three or four pilot sites whose
  implementation is designed to test technical
  interventions based on stakeholders priorities.
• Conducting training needs assessment for the
  relevant stakeholders and for Zarqa River Basin
  Rehabilitation Unit (ZRRU).
• Based on training needs assessments results,
  three key documents in river restoration authored
  by IUCN (Flow , Pay and Ecosystem Approach) were
  translated to Arabic in order to build the
  capacity of the relevant stakeholders on river
  rehabilitation.

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Progress to Date Cont

• Conducting training workshops, public awareness
  campaigns and dialogue sessions, targeting the
  stakeholders on several issues concerning water
  governance such as PRA, water resources
  assessments, scenario building, water strategic
  planning....etc .
• Reviewing and assessing the environmental
  legislations/laws, and introducing amendments and
  recommendations for better enforcement.
• Conducting several training workshops on Env.
  Laws targeted legal advisors of different
  ministries ,lawyers ,Municipalities
  representativesetc, in cooperation with
  Jordanian Lawyers Bar and IUCN law commission .
• Defining the list of criteria in different
  aspects (socio-economic, environmental and
  economic) in order to be quantified then used for
  multi- criteria analysis (MCA).

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Practical Learning

• Four pilot sites, selected upon specific
  criteria, were developed by the national steering
  committee as follows
• Russeifeh Site (upstream).
• Al Zarqa Site (upstream).
• Al Balqa Site (downstream).
• In-depth social and water information were
  collected by local stakeholders to increase their
  involvement.
• Local River Rehabilitation Strategic Plans were
  developed for the pilot sites in a participatory
  way.

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• - Three pilot projects were identified by the
  relevant stakeholders and will be implemented in
  selected pilot sites, aiming to
• Reduce pollution load dumped .
• Improve the environmental situation.
• Green the area (making eco-learning parks).
• Community development
• Promote effective governance.
• Demonstrate how an effective planning and
  management relationship can be developed and
  sustained between a local community, CBOs,
  private sector and respective government
  departments for the purpose of improving water
  resources management and river rehabilitation.
• - Two schools were selected within the Zarqa
  River Basin and two small pilot project on water
  management were implemented to increase students
  participation in the river rehabilitation and
  water management.

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Lessons Learned

• Jordan Governments commitment to adopt the
  policy and institutional and relevant regulatory
  measures are necessary to implement and sustain
  the river rehabilitation.
• The availability and exchange of information
  between relevant stakeholders are a core factor
  for better water governance.
• Reversing years long of river pollution is
  possible through concerted coordination between
  the line ministries and local communities.
• Community empowerment is a core factor for real
  participation in the river rehabilitation
  process.
• Schools are focal points for technical knowledge
  and awareness raising of local communities.
• Water issues became the main concern of the local
  communities due to scarce water and increasing
  demand.

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Thank You