The Restoration and Economic Development of Zarqa River Basin

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The Restoration and Economic Development of Zarqa
River Basin

• International Union for Conservation of Nature

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Project Setting

• The The Restoration and Economic Development
  of Zarqa River Basin Project, is one of the
  demonstration projects within the REWARD
  Programme initiated by the DGCS/ WESCANA Project
  and supported by the IUCN Water and Nature
  Initiative (WANI), funded by DGIS/ The
  Netherlands.
• Up-scaling of methodologies and insights, are
  realized through the sub-networks on different
  water resource systems of REWARDs Regional Water
  Knowledge Network.

3
Country Overview

• Jordan has a critical shortage of water resources
  
• Water use per capita is among the lowest in the
  world (150 CMC)
• High competition for scarce resources for
  agriculture, industry and households.
• Wastewater is becoming a resource for agriculture
  gradually replacing freshwater.
• There are only three river basins in Jordan
  Yarmouk River, Jordan River and Zarqa River

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Zarqa River Basin description

• 3,900 Km2 area, c.a.
• 300 mm/year annual rainfall
• 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

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

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River Flow

• The flow characteristics have been further
  modified by the discharge to the river of treated
  domestic and industrial wastewater that compose
  nearly all of summer flow and substantially
  degrade the water quality.

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The Three Main Problems Associated with Zarqa
River

• 1- Decrease of Natural Flow.
• 2- Pollution by Industrial wastewater and solid
  wastes disposal .
• 3- Pollution by partially-treated domestic
  wastewater.

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Socio-economic aspects

• River watercourse length is 70 KM passes through
  4 governorates
• 65 of Jordan total population and more than 90
  of the small medium industries are concentrated
  in this area.
• About 10,000 donums are used for agriculture in
  the watershed 2380 H.

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State of Environment in Zarqa Basin

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

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Environment increasing risks

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

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Zarqa River Basin Restoration

• good analysis and planning contributing to more
  effective and economically sound water resource
  management and improving rural livelihoods,
  environmental and water security.
• promoting increased participation and
  representation of stakeholders, mainly end-users
  of 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 level

through
by
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Project Partners
Project Donors
Ministry of Water and Irrigation
The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature
AWO
Ministry of Agriculture
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Project Stakeholders

1. Zarqa Governorate.
2. Balqa Governorate.
3. Jodan Valley Authority.
4. Zarqa Balqa NGOs.
5. Zarqa Chamber of Commerce.
6. Care International.
7. Ardha Municipality/ Balqa.
8. Directorate of Public Works.
9. Zarqa Municipality.
10. Russeifeh Municipality.

• 11. Zarqa Public Hospital
• 12. Zarqa Directorate of Social Development.
• 13. Balqa Directorate of Health
• 14. Balqa Directorate of Social Development.
• 15. Zarqa University
• 16. All Jodan Youth Commission

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Constrainsto Improved Water Management

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

• Unclear governance of
• the water basin, such as
• 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 government institutions.
• National government institutions
• Other river basin in the region or in other
  areas.

• From the local
• Trough the 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 Agr.

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Zarqa River Restoration
3 or 4 pilot sites for testing approach 2
PWPC DST 3
Governance Institutional 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, on a regional and
• national level.

• Increasing the influence of
• stakeholders on the planning and
• decision-making process 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
  resource planning and management processes

3. Enabling the implementation of similar
activities in the other areas of the region and
country. 4.Development of economic and social
issues in the river basin due to the improved
environment.
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Progress so far

• Institutional arrangement
• Steering committee was established at national
  level to ensure the participation and
  influencing the decision makers at national level
  .
• Establishing Zarqa River Basin Rehabilitation
  Unit(ZRBRU) within the MOEnv structure to ensure
  the sustainability of the project .
• Conducted Institutional Review of the
  organizational structure of MoEnv and Zarqa River
  Basin Rehabilitation Unit to come up with the
  best options for establishing the unit and its
  sustainable institutional linkages within the
  Ministry of Environment and other line ministries
  and agencies
• Stakeholders Dialogue(communication platform)
• Establishing local water management committees at
  pilots sites level.
• Empowering the Local committees including the
  end-users to participate actively in decision
  making process for water resources management
  .
• Establishing communication channels between the
  relevant stakeholders.

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Capacity Building

• Conduct Rural Rapid Appraisal to whole Zarqa
  river to select three four pilot sites to
  Implement pilots to test technical interventions
  based on stakeholders' priorities
• Assess training needs for the relevant
  stakeholders and for ZRRU, in order to build
  their capacity on river rehabilitation.
• Translate three key documents in river
  restoration ,water and Environment management
  authored by IUCN(Flow , Pay and Ecosystem
  approach ) based on the training needs assessment
  results to build the capacity of the relevant
  stakeholders in river rehabilitation(in term of
  technical knowledge and awareness raising).

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• Training workshops ,public awareness campaigns
  and dialogue session were conducted and targeted
  the stakeholders on several issues concerning
  water governance such as ,PRA, water resources
  assessments, scenario building ,water strategic
  planning....etc .
• The environmental legislations/ laws were
  reviewed and assessed.
• Amendments and recommendations were identified
  for better enforcement of the environmental
  legislations.

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Practical Learning

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

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• - Three pilot Projects were identified by the
  relevant stakeholders and will be implemented in
  selected pilot sites that aim to
• Reduce pollution load dumped .
• Improve the environmental situation.
• Green the area.
• 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 improved water resource
  management and river rehabilitation .
• - Two schools were selected within Zarqa River
  Basin to enhance the participation of the
  students in the river rehabilitation and water
  management .

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Lesson Learned

• The commitment of the Government of Jordan to
  take the policy, institutional and legal measures
  are necessary to implement and sustain the river
  rehabilitation
• The availability and exchanging of the
  information between relevant stakeholders is
  core issue for better water governance .
• Reverse years of river pollutions is possible
  through concerted coordination between the line
  ministries and local communities
• Community empowerment is core issue for real
  participation in river rehabilitation process
  .
• Schools are focal points for technical knowledge
  and awareness raising of local communities .
• Water issues become the main concerns for the
  local communities ,due to the water shortage and
  high demand .

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Thank You