Outdated pumps at a water facility in Jordan were consuming unnecessary amounts of electricity and poor quality connections led to extensive water losses. With pumping stations accounting for 15% of the nation's total energy demands, a solution was needed. Stefan Girod looks at how a German-Middle East partnership came to the rescue.
Jordan is one of the most arid countries in the world. In the absence of a permanent water supply, water is generally stored in tanks on the roofs of residential buildings. It is the transportation of the water that poses the most challenging problem.
Pumping stations supply millions of people in the nation's cities with water from around 600 springs and wells that are dotted across the country. The pump network has to navigate height differences of up to 1,400 metres.
However, existing pumping stations are outdated, demand extremely high energy consumption and are in desperate need of renovation. They alone account for 15% of the nation's total electrical energy consumption, and because fossil fuels are the primary source of energy generation, they also have a high rate of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, dilapidated supply networks lead to extraordinarily high water losses.
A joint project involving both public and commercial cooperation partners, which is being organised under the leadership of the GIZ or Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for International Cooperation), intends to set the modernisation process in motion.
Modernisation measures
In 2008, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project for sustainable water management started in Jordan (see box out). In the run-up to the project, GIZ carried out multiple energy audits to ascertain the actual energy consumption and energy savings potential of the water supply systems. The results were used as a basis for developing measures and financing concepts. A contracting model between the Jordanian energy provider Engicon and the Jordanian Water Authorities helped to ensure a quick and sustainable reduction in CO2 emissions.
The main focus of the project was to replace an outdated facility with a highly efficient and state-of-the-art pumping station. By doing so, the objective was to significantly reduce the station's energy consumption as well as the extreme energy costs and pollutant emissions associated therewith. In July 2011, a pilot system incorporating electronically-controlled pressure shroud pumps was introduced to the Ebqoriyeh pumping station near to the town of Salt – approximately 20 km west of the capital Amman.
