Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world and groundwater plays a vital role in providing the country with water for public, agricultural and industrial needs. The quality of this groundwater can vary widely between locations and over time and the basis for an appropriate groundwater management is an adequate monitoring of water quality. This monitoring dashboard visualizes groundwater quality data, collected in the scope of the Annual Water Quality Monitoring, which is conducted by the laboratory of the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Resources (BGR) of Germany to facilitate assessment and reporting. It is meant to inform the general public and serve as a unifying platform for various stakeholders, encouraging communication and collaboration on water quality concerns. This way the dashboard supports stakeholders as well as the general public in informed decision-making, environmental awareness, and cooperative efforts to protect and improve our water resources.
Discover Groundwater
Introduction to Groundwater in Jordan
Learn moreGeology and Main Aquifers of Jordan
Learn moreNational Groundwater Quality Baseline Study 2023
Learn moreAnnual Groundwater Sampling
Learn moreWhat is groundwater ?
Groundwater is all water, that infiltrated into the subsurface and accumulated in small,
connected voids and crevices of underground rocks and sediments,
comparable to a sponge. Such rocks and sediments that contain groundwater are called aquifers.
They store and transport large quantities of groundwater. Other rocks or sediments with very
few, or poorly connected voids and crevices
are called aquitards. They block
the groundwater from flowing,
limiting the extent of an aquifer laterally as well as vertically.
For a more thorough understanding of the topic of groundwater we recommend the open-source
publications of "The Groundwater Project",
for example
"Groundwater in our water
cycle".
Groundwater of Jordan
Large parts of the groundwater in Jordan are extremely old and have accumulated several thousand years ago. Nowadays, rainfall in Jordan is scarce, with a maximum of 500 mm/a in the northern highlands (around Ajloun), 200-400 mm/a around Amman and Madaba, around 100-150 mm/a in the Southwest and less than 100 mm/a in the East of the country. Of this relatively low amount of rain only 5 % finds its way into the groundwater (summing up groundwater recharge of 280 Mio. m³/a) This means that every drop of water, which is abstracted from the underground, needs long time periods to be replenished.
However, in order to supply the municipalities with drinking water 520 Mio. m³/a
are abstracted for domestic supply. Additional 580 Mio. m³/a are withdrawn for
agricultural purposes (not including illegal abstractions, which are estimated to be between 200
and 400 Mio. m³/a). The different industries consume another 35 Mio. m³/a. This
sums up to much more than 1000 Mio. m³/a, or in other words:
Four times more groundwater is abstracted than
recharged!
BGR and MWI made an assessment of the overall groundwater situation in Jordan in 2017 with
regard to quantity, which can be found here.
For more recent information on the Jordanian water sector, please refer here
What is Groundwater quality?
Groundwater quality can be affected directly or indirectly by human activities: The obvious
deterioration in groundwater takes place, when anthropogenic contaminants from garbage,
fertilizers or waste water trickle
into the underground. The more subtle deterioration begins, when an aquifer is overpumped. This
can trigger the intrusion of waters with a different chemistry
from other aquifers or it can catalyze the mobilization of trace elements from the aquifer
itself.
While in the underground, groundwater continuously interacts with the surrounding rocks and
minerals. Especially when the hydrochemical regime (the main composition of the water) is
changed - e.g. by the introduction of air into parts of the aquifer, that
have been flooded for thousands of years - this interacton with the aquifer material can
suddenly alter, possibly resulting in a release of trace elements, e.g. Selenium, Molybdenum,
Iron, Nickel, Vanadium, etc.
This doesn't necessarily result in a release of toxic amounts of these elements, but due to the
many unknowns, we currently face in the underground, it is crucial to monitor the concentration
of these elements as closely
as possible, in order to minimize their mobilization and develop countermeasures. All relevant
parameters for domestic purposes are covered in the Jordanian
Drinking Water Standard