Controversial aspects in the management of transboundary fossil groundwater: the Disi aquifer

1. Controversial aspects in the management of transboundary fossil groundwater: the Disi aquifer Ferragina Eugenia National Research Council of Italy Greco Francesca Independent Consultant

2. The history of the Disi aquifer • Discovered in 1969 by the UNDP. • 250-km long, 50-km wide, 1-km deep fossil aquifer, dated 30,000 years ago, non-renewable. • Located between Jordan and Saudi Arabia. • Exploited since the 1980s by Saudi Arabia. • Exploited since the second half of the 80s by Jordan (low-cost land rental, including exploitation of Disi water provided by the government to agro-business companies). • Current exploitation: Jordan 70-80 mcm, Saudi Arabia 1 billion (controversial data). Sources: ICE Case Studies www.american.edu/TED/ice/aquifer.htm

3. The technical features of the project • Pipeline length: 325 kilometres with 55 deep wells (500 metres) and 8 intermediate pumping stations • Initial budget $625 million current budget $1 billion • Implementation: 3.5 years • Water withdrawl from Disi: 100 million m³ annually • Term of exploitation: between fifty and one hundred years • The winner of the international bid, Turkish company GAMA, will own and operate the project for 25 years; after this period, the project will be transferred back to the Jordanian government

4. Controversial aspects Conflictual aspects • Conflicts between economic sectors and internal actors:agricultural versus domestic use, agricultural lobbies versus government • Lack of support from external actors: international institutions and environmental NGO (World Bank, Friends of the Earth Middle East) • Risk of aggravation of the groundwater dispute: silent pumping race with Saudi Arabia • Environmental aspects: the depletion of the fossil aquifer before the expected terms, the risks of pollution during the exploitation, alteration of the local ecosystem • Economic aspects: the rising costs during the implementation of the conveyance system (energy, steel, technical problems, etc..) will represent a heavy public expense • Social aspects: increasing water prices for Jordanian users, aggravating territorial imbalance inside the country, worsening of living conditions for local communities in the south • Political aspects: inability to close the water deficit gap, mere postponement of a water crisis that will emerge in the future with consequences in terms of internal consensus and political stability

5. RECOMMENDATIONS • Enforcing measures to stop the agricultural use of Disi • Sharing data and information between Jordan and Saudi Arabia concerning the rate of exploitation of the Disi Aquifer • Stopping the “pumping race” between the two countries and setting up a bilateral treaty according to international law • Involving local communities through a bottom-up process • Adopting a policy of information transparency concerning the project among local populations and final users in Amman

6. THE CHALLENGE • Considering the water crisis as a multidimensional problem involving non-water aspects such as planning, education, environment and , above all, culture. • Enhancing a social awareness of the water crisis: “Any mega-project will not solve a problem that is deeply rooted in the lack of social adaptive capacity to water scarcity” (Anthony Turton,1999) • Establish a new hydro-social pact involving all the internal and external actors

7. Thank you for your attention CONTACTS: eugenia.ferragina@issm.cnr.it francescagreco78@gmail.com For further details: Water International, Volume 33, Issue 4, 2008: “The Disi Project: an Internal/External Analysis”