Jordan River Basin

Originating from the Anti-Lebanon and Mount Hermon mountain ranges, the Jordan River covers a distance of 223 km from north to south and discharges into the Dead Sea. The river has five riparians: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.

The Jordan River headwaters (Hasbani, Banias and Dan) are fed by groundwater and seasonal surface runoff. The Lower Jordan River originally received its main inflow from the outlet of Lake Tiberias and the Yarmouk River, the largest tributary, as well as from several wadis and aquifers. The flow of the Upper Jordan River into Lake Tiberias remains nearly natural, but flow rates in the downstream part of the river have decreased sharply in the last 50 years due to the construction of a series of infrastructure and diversion schemes established in the basin. For instance, the mean annual historic flow of the Yarmouk that was estimated at 450-500 MCM in the 1950s has today decreased to 83-99 MCM. The current annual discharge of the Lower Jordan River into the Dead Sea is estimated at 20-200 MCM compared to the historic 1,300 MCM. Moreover, water quality in the Lower Jordan River is very low.

Water use in the Jordan River basin is unevenly developed. Palestine and Syria have no access to the Jordan River; hence their use of water resources from the river itself is nil. However, Syria has built several dams in the Yarmouk River sub-basin, which is part of the Jordan River basin. The country uses about 450 MCM/yr of surface and groundwater resources in the basin, mainly for agricultural purposes. Annual abstractions in the Hasbani sub-basin in Lebanon are estimated at 9-10 MCM, which are mainly used for domestic water supply. Israel is the largest user of water from the Jordan River basin, with an annual withdrawal of between 580 and 640 MCM. It is also the only user of water from Lake Tiberias. Jordan uses about 290 MCM/yr of water from the Jordan River basin. Water diverted from the Yarmouk River to the King Abdullah Canal is used for irrigation of crops in the Jordan Valley and for domestic use in Amman. Overall, the Jordan River basin has an estimated total irrigated area of 100,000- 150,000 ha of which around 30% is located in Israel, Jordan and Syria, 5% in Palestine and 2% in Lebanon.

The quality of water in the Jordan River has severely deteriorated in recent decades. While the headwaters are relatively unaffected, the Lower Jordan River consists primarily of untreated sewage and agricultural return flows, groundwater seepage, as well as brackish water from springs diverted into the river away from the Lake Tiberias area. The Lower Jordan River in particular is extremely polluted. Other environmental concerns include water-level fluctuations in Lake Tiberias and the associated risk of saline water intrusion from below, and, more importantly, the decline of the Dead Sea, which all threaten the stability of the basin ecosystem.

Since the early 20th century, numerous attempts to foster cooperation between basin riparians have been hampered by the regional political conflict which continues to stand in the way of any basin-wide agreement on water. A number of bilateral agreements encourage cooperation over water between Israel and Jordan, and Israel and Palestine.