Water Innovation Technologies | Quarterly Report: April - June 2019

The purpose of the project is to increase water conservation in Jordan by focusing on water efficiency in the agricultural sector, community, and household levels. The project goal is to promote the adoption of new and existing water saving practices and technologies. WIT works to facilitate the uptake of financing and advisory services and uses an integrated marketing and social and behavior change communication approach to help a variety of water sector market actors overcome key barriers and constraints at individual and institutional levels. The project seeks to achieve three complementary outcomes: improve access to water saving technologies for agriculture and household use, improve access to finance for water conservation technology adoption, and strengthen institutions to support water conservation. Through private companies' development, WIT promotes the sustainable and scaled adoption of water saving practices and technologies in agriculture and households. The project targets key water sector market actors who work directly with agriculture users, communities, and households in the North and Jordan Valley. WIT works in collaboration with the Government of Jordan (GOJ) through the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Jordan Valley Authority and Water Authority of Jordan), the Ministry of Agriculture (National Center for Agriculture Research and Extension), and the Ministry of Social Development. By using a set of pre-identified market barriers to frame program objectives, WIT designs activities that bring improved and affordable water savings practices and technologies into use among farmers, households, and communities, and that also enhance the functioning of the market for those technologies. During the April-June 2019 quarter, the WIT Project continued to support and catalyze private sector-led efforts. Within the Agriculture sector, WIT's efforts through June 2019 have led to 5,170 metered dunums. These installations lead to savings of approximately 2.5 MCM by June 2019 and will lead to a total water savings of over three million m³ by the end of the fiscal year in September 2019. Estimated installations through FY19 will contribute to 7.5 million m³ through the life of the project (LOP). Irrigation systems sold through June 2019 include 5,537 dunums, with 5,170 dunums metered. The total water saved by June 2019 is approximately 2,490,343 m³. An additional 4,000 dunums are expected to be installed through the Investment Fund initiative by February 2020 from the on-going first and second round, which will contribute to additional water savings through the life of the Project. The Project continues to raise awareness and disseminate the results of the thirteen demonstration sites and communicating early adopters' positive experiences to the public and other farmers in order to increase their interest in adopting water saving technologies and optimized irrigation systems. An example of this is the support given to Mais Irrigation Co. (MAIS) for a field day implementation. A total of 37 participants attended the activity on April 17, 2019, at Dr. Ahmad Al Safadi's farm in Azraq. The field day featured the benefits of purchasing and installing pressure-compensated (PC) drippers along with the adoption of filtration systems in stone fruits, olives, and grape farms and the reduced costs in water and energy consumption. A rapid assessment determined that after this field day, seven farmers expressed their interest in investing in water-saving technologies. In addition to the support given to suppliers, the Project is encouraging the financial sector to reduce the information gap between financial entities. On April 9, 2019, the Project held a dialogue session with the financial sector to share the findings from the Agriculture Financial Assessment previously conducted by WIT. This session was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (WMI) and the Associations of Banks in Jordan (ABJ). A total of 74 participants attended the session, including representatives of key banks, microfinance institutions, Jordan Farmers Union, and other notable banking sector actors.