Challenges of Implementing IWRM in the Lower Jordan Valley

The Lower Jordan Valley in the Middle East comprises parts of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories and is amongst the water scarcest regions worldwide. As the average water availability per person is below 150 m³/year, this region is facing absolute water scarcity. The water resource systems are overexploited and subject to further stress through high population growth, climate change and the recent migration of refugees from Syria. Declining water levels of the Dead Sea and within the regional aquifers are visible evidence of overexploitation. Further, salinization and contamination including pharmaceutical residues in surface and groundwater indicate the strong deterioration of water quality by anthropogenic activities. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) is a concept to address these water related issues but needs to be incorporated into the water strategies of the riparian states. SMART (Sustainable Management of Available Resources with Innovative Technologies) is a research and development project within the framework of IWRM and has the overall goal to develop a transferable concept for a sustainable water resource management in the Lower Jordan Valley. Besides natural available freshwater, unconventional sources such as treated waste water, artificially recharged groundwater, and desalinated brackish groundwater are considered. Based on detailed water balances, management concepts have been developed and applied to allow the assessment of the current state of the water resources, as well as the future development, taking the actions of the respective water strategy into account. The SMART approach is transferable to other regions in the world suffering under natural and/or manmade water scarcity.