World Water Academy in Jordan

The OKP project WATRA has started with an inception mission to Amman, Jordan. WATRA stands for “Strengthening skills development for WAter Treatment and Reuse in Agriculture”. Peter van der Steen (IHE), project coordinator Poolad Karimi (IHE) and Agnes Maenhout (World Water Academy) were the Dutch representatives. In two days we were introduced to the Jordanian team of the Al-Balqa Applied University (BAU) in Salt (near Amman) led by project director Naser Almanaseer.

The project combines the best practices of Jordan and The Netherlands. In the coming two years, the project aims to achieve this goals:

• Contribute to the curriculum of the technical diploma water operator at BAU.
• Develop and realize practical courses, together with local trainers.
• Develop a practical demonstration, research and training site.

The research, academic and local knowledge of IHE, in combination with the practical concept and experience of World Water Academy creates a complementary collaboration for multiple level education. BAU provides education in Jordan on practical and vocational level. Also they want to train professionals in a separate entity.

Wastewater treatment and reuse of effluent aren’t common in Jordan, and certainly offer opportunities for a water-scarce country like Jordan. By doing this the religious limitations need to be taken into account.

During the mission in January 2020 it was winter. With temperatures just above zero degrees with rain, thick fog and snow. We look forward to a great project with friendly and constructive partners.