The impact of adopting a water-energy nexus approach in Jordan on transboundary management

Abstract

There is growing coordination and cooperation between the water and energy sectors in Jordan. However, a water-energy nexus approach is seen as a useful management tool by the water sector more than it is by the energy sector. Strong political leadership will be required for a far-reaching adoption of the nexus approach. Increasing policy connections between Jordan’s water and energy sectors will lead to improved technical decision-making but major resource allocation decisions at the national level remain inherently political, regardless of how government departments and authorities are structured.Adopting a water-energy nexus approach in Jordan increases the potential for transboundary nexus cooperation with Israel and Palestine to exploit the potential of solar electricity production in Jordan and desalinated water production in Israel. Transboundary nexus co-operation in the medium term is desirable and even likely, but only to the extent that a break down in cooperation would not threaten the security of either country. Security concerns mean that such cooperation is likely to be limited in scale initially but via a nexus approach could build overtime to form a minority of water or energy supplies, occurring in parallel to other water and energy supply augmentation schemes.The case study of Jordan shows that adopting a water-energy nexus approach can assist in ensuring water and energy management occurs more on the basis of technical and economic criteria, however, major water and energy decisions remain political in nature and thus politics will continue to exert significant influence.