Agricultural uses account for more than 80 percent of all freshwater withdrawals worldwide. With fresh water supplies short in arid and temperate climates alike, pressure is mounting for more efficient agricultural water use without losses in either food production or rural incomes. PA is involved in many programs that seek to achieve these parallel goals through better sectoral planning, better resource pricing and allocation, and innovative arrangements to maximize water use and reuse.
Track record
Strategic planning program, Jordan
PA is helping the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) to build its capacity in strategic planning and privatization. PA will provide training to JVA's senior and middle-management staff on strategic planning processes, leadership skills, business competitiveness, change management, re-engineering, the new regulatory and supervisory roles of water sector agencies and environmental management and negotiation. A major goal of the strategic planning is to have JVA become more of a regulator and manager and let farmers' co-operatives and others in the private sector implement and handle the delivery of services. PA is working with JVA and other stakeholders to help them plan and implement a program of participatory irrigation management and the privatization of bulk and retail water supply in the Jordan Valley.
Water reuse implementation activity, Jordan
Facing severe agricultural and municipal water shortages, Jordan must look to alternative options to meet its growing demand. PA is assisting the Government of Jordan in implementing direct water reuse that is reliable, commercially viable, environmentally sustainable and safe. The four pilot sites are Wadi Mousa, Aquaba, the Jordan University of Science and Technology and Mafraq. This will demonstrate that water reuse is an effective, viable and safe component for managing Jordan's water resources to decision makers and the public at large.
Developing water users associations for irrigation sector, Romania
Agriculture is an important sector in Romania's economy, currently providing 14 percent of GDP and 37 percent of employment. The shift from a centralized economy to a market-oriented system and the redistribution of land disrupted agriculture and the organization and maintenance of agricultural initiatives in Romania.
PA is providing technical, management and program assistance to USAID/Romania to help improve the practices and operations of the country's water user associations (private, non-profit, self-governing entities composed of farmers who have received irrigated land under the current policy of restitution of collectivized public lands to private owners). This work will facilitate the development of a market-driven rehabilitation of Romania's irrigation system and complements the World Bank's efforts to structure a loan to support this rehabilitation.
For more information on this project, please visit www.paconsulting.ro.
