USAID Jordan, through the Water Innovations Technologies (WIT) activity, will conserve water through the use of proven techniques and the latest available water-saving technologies to help decrease unsustainable water abstraction from aquifers and to increase water availability in households to promote water security. WIT focuses interventions on the most wasteful uses of water in areas where the potential to save water is the greatest. While water initiatives in Jordan have historically focused on water supply, WIT seeks to promote water conservation and behavior change. The activity will promote scale-able, water-saving technologies. At the community level, WIT combines simple, proven interventions, such as water harvesting and storage in cisterns to benefit households and institutions. Community interventions are focused in northern Jordan, in communities most impacted by immigration, and seeks to include and benefit both Jordanian and Syrian members of refugee host communities. WIT also supports water-saving techniques in the agriculture sector, such as hydroponic production and drip irrigation in the North and Jordan Valley.
The main outputs of this project are:
• Water conservation, with a focus on conserving groundwater where possible;
• Improved access to finance for technology adoption;
• Local institutions strengthened to support technology adoption;
• Expanded opportunities for women, youth, and Syrians in host communities;
• Increased role of the private sector in both providing technologies and advisory services that promote water conservation technologies and practices, and;
• Behavioral change in the use of water resources by the target audiences reached by the activity.