I have the impression that the Jordanians are planning that Israel will solve their acutely growing water supply problems. Israel already is supplying much of the water consumed by the capital, Amman.
Jordan's annual water demand currently exceeds 1.3 billion m³ having nearly doubled since the mid-90s. Jordan's renewable water resources can supply around 750 million m³/year, leaving an annual deficit which has grown steadily, despite the investment in the water sector. Water demand is a function of the population, and Jordan's populations i growing about 3% per year. In addition, the political stability of the country has attracted half a million Iraqi refugees, 300,000 Egyptian guest workers, 200,000 Syrians and many other Arab and African illegals.
Another issue is climate change. Apparently (I am yet unconvinced on this subject), the Eastern Mediterranean is undergoing a drying up cycle. Jordanian scientists in A sudden change in rainfall characteristics in Amman, Jordan during the mid 1950s American Journal of Environmental Sciences, July, 2006 by Mahmoud M. Smadi, Ahmed Zghoul found that this phenomenon started in the fifties.
Jordan's hope is to pump fossil water under the dessert, and are building a 200-mile pipeline that will pump water from the Disi aquifer in the southern city of Mudawarra to Amman. Funding the $1 billion cost of the undertaking will be done by GAMA Energy (a subsidiary of GE Energy Financial Services), which will invest $190 million, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Jordan will provide a $300 million grant, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United States, the European Investment Bank and Proparco of France will collectively provide $455 million. Of course, fossil water exploitation is not sustainable and the water is liable to be brackish (The Negev's is).
A likely scenario is that Israel will deliver low quality surface waters to the Palestinians and Jordanians - as annual tribute to their leaving us in peace - and we shall consume desalinated seawater.
4 comments:
Even if there is no man made global warming the climate could still be moving in cycles.
I thought you said there was no aquifer under the Negev. Did I read you incorrectly?
There are no active aquifers in the Negev.
But there is a vast fossil aquifer very deep (1,500 meter) under the whole region, from Lybia to Yemen. Lybia is exploiting it as well as Saudi Arabia. Under the Negev it is brackish and difficult to exploit. The water is very hot.
This tribute sounds like a dhimmi-tax.
If the water is hot, can you also not extract energy from it? To contribute to the cost of cleaning it, for instance?
Anon.
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