Abstract
In 2017, a comprehensive review of groundwater resources in Jordan was carried out for the first time since 1995. The change in groundwater levels between 1995 and 2017 was found to be dramatic: large declines have been recorded all over the country, reaching more than 100 m in some areas. The most affected areas are those with large-scale groundwater-irrigated agriculture, but areas that are only used for public water supply are also affected. The decrease of groundwater levels and saturated thickness poses a growing threat for drinking water supply and the demand has to be met from increasingly deeper and more remote sources, causing higher costs for drilling and extraction. Groundwater-level contour lines show that groundwater flow direction has completely reversed in some parts of the main aquifer. Consequently, previously established conceptual models, such as the concept of 12 “groundwater basins” often used in Jordan should be revised or replaced. Additionally, hydraulic conditions are changing from confined to unconfined; this is most likely a major driver for geogenic pollution with heavy metals through leakage from the overlying bituminous aquitard. Three exemplary case studies are presented to illustrate and discuss the main causes for the decline of the water tables (agriculture and population growth) and to show how the results of this assessment can be used on a regional scale.
Highlights
Overexploitation of groundwater resources in Jordan has been ongoing for at least 30 years and has become a growing threat to safe water supply in the country (Salameh 2008)
Groundwater levels in Jordan are measured by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI), either manually at a monthly interval or by telemetric monitoring stations at a daily interval
The greatest declines have occurred in the north along the border with Syria, south of the capital Amman and east of the archaeological site of Petra in southern Jordan (Fig. 1)
Summary
Overexploitation of groundwater resources in Jordan has been ongoing for at least 30 years and has become a growing threat to safe water supply in the country (Salameh 2008). Because of the large drawdown, water for public water supply and agriculture has to be pumped from ever increasing depths. Numerous wells have been drilled to depths of 1,000 m to investigate the potential of deep groundwater, some of which are used for drinking water production, for example in the Lajjun wellfield in central Jordan (Margane et al 2010). Decreasing water quality due to overabstraction has been reported in some cases (Goode et al 2013), for example by mobilization of heavy metals due to changing redox conditions (Al Kuisi et al 2015) or by extraction of deeper, more mineralized groundwater (Salameh 1996; Kaudse 2014).
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