Integrated Wastewater Management for the Protection of Vulnerable Water Resources in the North of Jordan

Marc Breulmann, Ganbaatar Khurelbaatar, Moritz Sanne, Manfred van Afferden, Ali Subah and Roland A. Müller
Additional contact information
Marc Breulmann: Office of the National Implementation Committee for Effective Integrated Wastewater Management in Jordan (NICE), Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Salem Al Hindawi St. 45, Amman 11183, Jordan
Ganbaatar Khurelbaatar: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Permoserstarße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Moritz Sanne: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Permoserstarße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Manfred van Afferden: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Permoserstarße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Ali Subah: Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Salem Al Hindawi St. 45, Amman 11183, Jordan
Roland A. Müller: Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Permoserstarße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The protection of vulnerable groundwater resources and their optimal management is essential for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to meet current and future water demands. Our overall objective was to analyse the water situation in the district of Bani Kinana, which has received a large number of Syrian refugees in the past, resulting in an increased water demand, which in turn leads to local water shortages and puts tremendous pressure on local groundwater resources. An integrated wastewater resources management (IWRM) approach to protect groundwater resources and to reduce the risk to local communities and ecosystems was developed, and the most cost-effective wastewater treatment system solution was identified, based on the ALLOWS tool (Assessment-of-Local-Lowest-Cost-Wastewater-Solutions). The results show that a large volume of drinking water is directed to the Jordan Valley and it is recommended that this water should be retained to meet current needs and the projected future demand of 8.3 MC in 2050. The ALLOWS tool revealed that the current practice of wastewater disposal by tanker is the costliest scenario in the long-term and will cause the pollution of groundwater resources. A tailored solution, such as the implementation of a cost-efficient semi-centralized wastewater treatment plant, would contribute significantly to protecting vulnerable water recourses.

Keywords: groundwater protection; vulnerable water resources; decentralized wastewater management; water scarcity; integrated wastewater and resources management; cost-effective wastewater treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3574/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3574/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3574-:d:774035

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().