Status of Groundwater Resources in Jordan

Jamal A. Radaideh^1,

¹Department of Civil and Water Engineering, Al Balqa Applied University

Cite this paper

Jamal A. Radaideh. Status of Groundwater Resources in Jordan. American Journal of Water Resources. 2022; 10(2):59-67. doi: 10.12691/AJWR-10-2-4

Abstract

This study focuses on the actual status of groundwater in Jordan after years of depletion in the absence of programs that take care of strategies for protection and sustainability and impacted by the scarcity of natural resources, climate change, the growing population, and pollution due to increasing activities in industry and agriculture. Groundwater resources are essential and represent Jordan’s main water supply source, which necessitates careful planning and management to sustain water supply and human socio-economic development. However, these vital resources are permanently under the massive pressure of degradation by both mismanagement and over-exploitation whicht leads to contamination and a decline in water levels. This paper shows the state of groundwater resources in Jordan and deals with the weakness of groundwater as the main source of water supply and protection strategies to meet the many challenges it faces. Significant loss of saturated thickness and growing extension of unsaturated zones, inversion of flow directions toward areas of extensive groundwater abstraction, and increasing the number of dried springs are clear indicators of the severe overuse of groundwater resources. These impacts determine the reliability of groundwater for future water supplies, people’s health, and food security.

Keywords

groundwater resources, overexploitation, depletion, decline, drying up, Jordan

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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