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Introduction
by STEFFEN MACKE
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was populated by 4.9 million people in 1999 [3]. The capital Amman is the biggest city in the country with 1.9 million inhabitants (1999). Jordan covers an area of 89342 square kilometers.[10]
Figure 1 shows the Middle East region with Jordan and its neighbors.
To illustrate Jordan's water supply problems, it is interesting to compare the energy consumption figures of Jordan and Austria:
Jordan consumed 971.8 GW/h for water pumping in 1999, while the total current consumption was 5808 GW/h [3]. Nearly 17 % of the country's electricity resource was used for water supply.
In Austria 1990, only 0.3% of the current consumption was used by water undertakings [6]. Though the figures cannot be compared directly as water is not a scarce resource in Austria, this illustrates Jordan's situation.
Figure 2 displays the Jordanian Governorates with their capitals.
1.00 JOD = 3.048 DEM (February 2001)
Irbid governorate with its capital Irbid forms the northern part of Jordan. It stretches from the Jordan valley in the east to the Syrian border in the west. The size of Irbid governorate is 1621 square kilometers.
Figure 3 shows the location of Irbid city and the location of the district Al Koura within Irbid governorate.
The population of Irbid governorate consisted of 874 200 people in 1999 [3], Irbid is the second biggest city in Jordan. Table 1 contains more detailed population figures including growth rates.
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As the available quantities of water are the limiting factor, the population growth will decrease the available amount of water per capita.
Table 2 shows the average number of persons connected per subscription.
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Table 3 describes the development of subscription numbers in Irbid Governorate.
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Tables 1 - 3 have been taken from [11].
The Al Koura district is located in the south of Irbid Governorate.
It consists of highlands east of the Jordan river's great rift valley.
Figure 4 displays the villages that form the district Al Koura.
The Al Koura district is home to approximately 50 000 people.
The German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) is financing a water loss reduction program for the governorates Irbid and Jerash. The project is currently in the tender phase.
On July 2000 specialists have been commissioned to create a water loss reduction program, a study about its feasibility and to work out the outline for a management contract into the direction of private sector participation (PSP) [11]. Administrative changes are the key to improve the losses.
The Al Koura district has been chosen as a pilot area for the private sector participation. The meter reading and revenue collection process will be privatized within the next months.
It is the goal of the water loss reduction program (WLRP) to reduce the unaccounted-for water figure from 55% to 15%. As a consequence a water quantity of 33.5 million cubic metres can be saved every year. Selling this quantity would yield additional revenue of 3.2 million per year.
According to [11] an increase of water production of app. 13% between 1999 and 2004 would be necessary to achieve the same service level of 70 litres per capita and day of the implemented WLRP. The implemented program would require this water production from the year 2009 onwards for covering the increased consumption, caused by population growth. Energy savings due to pressure reduction are estimated with 1.0 million JOD per year.
It is estimated that a surplus of 1.3 million Jordanian Dinar per year can be reached with the reduction of technical and administrative losses in Jerash and Irbid [11]. With a present annual operating deficit of app. 2.5 million JOD an enormous improvement of the current situation would be realized.
