Jordan ties up with WEF on water initiative

The Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, Raed Abu Al Saud, and the Jordanian Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, Suhair Al Ali, mandated last 16 May the World Economic Forum to catalyse a major new partnership initiative on water in Jordan.

The initiative will bring together public, private and civil society stakeholders, academics and development agencies, to develop a stream of new water projects that benefit all aspects of Jordanian society, make best use of scarce water resources and attract private as well as public finance.

The Ministers set the new initiative the task of mobilising more than $50 million in new projects for Jordan over the next two years.

The new partnership arose from a discussion on water held at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East at the Dead Sea in Jordan. In this session participants from government, business, civil society and development agencies heard about a successful pilot initiative on water in India also involving the World Economic Forum.

The first phase of this initiative catalysed over $20 million of new water projects in India, ranging from improved watershed management to waste water reuse. The participants agreed that a similar initiative would be good for Jordan.