Abstract
Jordan is considered one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. As a result, Jordan took several steps toward good water governance by setting goals, policies, strategies, and plans. However, several research studies show that it should be strengthened and improved. Research has shown that good water governance is necessary to achieve water security, and several frameworks have been developed to research these challenges (e.g., Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) framework). This study aims to evaluate water security governance in Jordan and identify gaps and challenges for good water governance. To achieve the research objective, various qualitative methods and analytical frameworks were used. A two-level framework was followed by combing the OECD Principles on Water Governance (2015) and the OECD Water Governance Indicator Framework (2018) to analyze Jordan’s National Water Strategy 2016–2025 (NWS) through direct content analysis. The study findings showed that Jordan’s NWS managed to capture to some extent, good water governance principles for Policy Framework, but failed to provide Governance Mechanisms for implementation. Furthermore, the study showed that the water governance Institutional Setup is relatively well established. Regarding the implementation and functionality of the principles analyzed, the performance of each of the principles tended to vary. The study revealed that Jordan should take serious steps toward a water governance reform that puts good water governance principles and practices in the center, to achieve water security.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.
References
Abu Azzam SI (2016) The National Integrity System (NIS) Jordan. Rasheed – Transparency International – Jordan, Jordan
Abu Qdais H (2008) Environmental impacts of the mega desalination project: the Red–Dead Sea conveyor. Desalination 220(1–3):16–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2007.01.019
Al-Halasah NK, Ammary BY (2006) Water Resources Policy and Management in Jordan. In: Hlavinek P, Kukharchyk T, Marsalek J, Mahrikova I (eds) Presented at the NATO Security through Science Series. Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4685-5_7
Al-Karablieh E, Salman A (2016) Water Resources, Use and Management in Jordan – a focus in groundwater. IWMI project publication – Groundwater governance in the Arab World – taking stock and addressing the challenges
Aziza A, Delphine C (2016) Flood governance: a shared responsibility. OECD
Bigas H, United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health (2013) Institute for Water, Water Security and the Global Water Agenda: a UN-water analytical brief. Hamilton, Ontario. United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health. http://ra.ocls.ca/ra/login.aspx?inst=centennial&url=https://www.deslibris.ca/ID/237295. Accessed 13 May 2019
Creswell W, John D, Creswell J (2017) Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications
FAO (2007) Making every drop count, press release. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/NEWSROOM/EN/news/2007/1000494/index.html
Hadadin N, Qaqish M, Akawwi E, Bdour A (2010) Water shortage in Jordan—sustainable solutions. Desalination 250:197–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2009.01.026
Hebert CA, Trudeau SA, Sprinkle W, Moo LR, McConnell ES (2020) Directed content analysis of veterans affairs policy documents: a strategy to guide implementation of a dementia home safety toolkit for veterans to promote ageing in place. Health Soc Care Community 28:182–194. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12852
HWF (2013) 11th Session Highland Water Action Plan ‘Finalisation and Endorsement of the Azraq Groundwater Management Action Plan. The Highland Water Forum Secretariat, Azraq, Jordan
Jordan Corruption Report (2017) GAN Integrity. https://www.ganintegrity.com/portal/country-profiles/jordan/
Kis A, Abdulla F, Abu Qdais H, Ungvári G (2016) Water demand management in the context of water services Jordan. Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK), Jordan
Knieling J, Leal Filho W (2013) Climate change governance, 1st ed. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
Kuno S (2016) JICA’s cooperation for water sector in Jordan. Japan International Cooperation Agency
Leduc G et al. (2021) How are ecological approaches justified in European rural development policy? Evidence from a content analysis of CAP and rural development discourses. J Rural Stud 86:611–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.06.009
Martins G et al. (2013) Water resources management in southern Europe: clues for a research and innovation based regional hypercluster. J Environ Manag 119:76–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.01.027
Mason N, Calow R (2012) Water security: from abstract concept to meaningful metrics: an initial overview of options. ODI Working Papers. Overseas Development Institute
Muhammad Anwar SNB, Alvarado V, Hsu S-C (2021) A socio-eco-efficiency analysis of water and wastewater treatment processes for refugee communities in Jordan. Resour Conserv Recycling 164:105196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105196
MWI (2016) National Water Strategy 2016-2025. Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Jordan
MWI (2019) Ministry of Water and Irrigation – Annual Report 2019. Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Jordan
OECD (2011) Water governance in OECD countries: a multi-level approach. OECD Publishing, Paris. 10.1787/9789264119284-en
OECD (2014) Water Governance in Jordan: overcoming the challenges to private sector participation. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264213753-en
OECD (2015) OECD Principles on Water Governance. OECD
OECD (2018) OECD Water Governance Indicator Framework. In: Implementing the OECD Principles on Water Governance. OECD, 49–105. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264292659-5-en
Özerol G et al. (2018) Comparative studies of water governance: a systematic review. Ecol Soc 23(4):art43. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10548-230443
Paul C, Donley TS, Hadii MM (2013) Understanding public policy: theories and issues – by Paul Cairney and Global Tobacco Control: power, policy, governance and transfer – by Paul Cairney, Donley T. Studlar and Hadii M. Mamudu. Public Admin 91(3):784–787. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12008
Pedregal B, Cabello V, Hernández-Mora N, Limones N (2015) Information and knowledge for water governance in the networked society. Water Altern 8(2):1–19
Salman M, Casarotto C, Bucciarelli M, Losacco M (2018) An assessment of policies, institutions and regulations for water harvesting, solar energy, and groundwater in Jordan: a review and gap analysis. FAO, Rome
De Stefano L, Svendsen M, Giordano M, Steel BS, Brown B, Wolf AT (2014) Water governance benchmarking: concepts and approach framework as applied to Middle East and North Africa countries. Water Policy 16(6):1121–1139. https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2014.305
United Nations (2014) Water governance in the Arab region. United Nations, New York, NY
USAID (2010) Mena Regional Water Governance Benchmarking Project. Country Profile, Jordan
USAID (2021) Water Management Initiative (WMI). United States Agency for International Development
Yoon J et al. (2021) A coupled human–natural system analysis of freshwater security under climate and population change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 118(14):12
Yorke V (2016) Jordan’s shadow state and water management: prospects for water security will depend on politics and regional cooperation. In: Hüttl R, Bens O, Bismuth C, Hoechstetter S (eds) Society – water – technology. Water resources development and management. Springer, Cham, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18971-0_15
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the “Water Security in Jordan: From Data to Decision (WaterD2D)” project for the support. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for constructive comments that improved an earlier version of the paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
IYHD and SD contributed to the design and implementation of the research, the analysis of the results, and the writing of the manuscript. LR supervised the research.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Daoud, I.Y.H., Dehnavi, S. & Ribbe, L. Towards Good Water Governance: An Analysis of Jordan’s National Water Strategy. Environmental Management 69, 847–860 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01606-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01606-x