Dam storage at 21%, similar to last year — Water Ministry

AMMAN — The total storage of dams in the Kingdom currently stands at 59 million cubic metres (mcm) with a storage capacity of 21 per cent, which is close to the same period of last year when it stood at 57mcm or 20.3 per cent, the Water Ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry said that the distribution of stored water in dams this year is different than last year, especially for dams in the southern region that are used for storing drinking water, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Last year, the Mujib Dam last year had 1.34mcm of water with a storage capacity of 5.43 per cent, while it currently has 196,000 cubic metres at a capacity of 0.8 per cent, while the Al Waleh Dam last year had 1.663mcm, or a 6.63 per cent capacity, and now holds 706,000 cubic metres at a capacity of 2.8 per cent, which means that these dams are almost dry.

Last year, Al Wehdeh Dam's storage stood at 7.981mcm (7.5 per cent) and now it holds 11.592mcm (10.9 per cent).

Last season, Jordan witnessed a “clear drop” in rainfall due to climate change, the ministry said, mainly in the southern region that saw erratic rainfall and temperature increases. 

The ministry said that precipitation in the northern region accounted for 75 per cent of its annual average, while the central region received 86 per cent of its average precipitation, the eastern region recorded 42 per cent, the southern region 47 per cent and the southern Jordan valley received only 39 per cent of its average precipitation.