Environmental Management in Jordan: Problems and Recommendations

Abstract

Jordan faces a wide variety of environmental problems, most of which are attributable to the inherent water supply–demand imbalance. This paper has examined the broad range of environmental problems experienced by Jordan, including local, regional, and global, environmental threats. Economic costs of ignoring environmental problems are presented, with examples showing how expensive and how complicated decontamination may be. The paper then discusses current policymaking to counter the existing problems and recommended that future decision-making mechanisms be flexible, robust, and timely enough to be able to cope effectively and rapidly with the evergrowing environmental problems.In conclusion, the paper offers some suggestions for how the process of environmental policymaking may be improved and accelerated in order to cope with the wide range of environmental problems facing Jordan. The paper recommends that scientists and researchers become more involved in governmental decision-making, to be able to establish more technically-informed policies than hitherto. In addition, some type of concessional financing may be necessary from multilateral and bilateral lending organizations to assist in overcoming some of the more threatening environmental problems, such as water quality, and to provide economic impetus to a depressed economy.