500 million cubic metres of water annually. in august 2008, the jordanian minister of water and irrigation raed abu soud denoted the project as "the solution to our water problems." the level of the dead sea has been continuously falling since the early 1930s at an average rate of 0·7 m per year. the water level, as of february 1998, is about 410·9 m below mean sea level. responsibility for water supply and sanitation legal framework water and sanitation are regulated mainly by the water authority of jordan law no. 18 of 1988 and its amendments, jordan valley authority law no. 30 of 2001 and ministry of water and irrigation law no. 54 of 1992 and its amendments. other relevant laws include public health law no. 47 of 2008, environmental protection law no. 85 of 2006 and groundwater by-law no. 85 of 2002. jordan does not yet have a comprehensive water law, although a draft law is being discussed. the bill is supposed to define the structure and functions of the different ministries and other institutions managing the water and sanitation sectors. the un special rapporteur on the human right to safe water drinking water and sanitation stated in a 2014 report: "dopting a comprehensive water law, is an important first step for the realization of the human right to water and to sanitation." policy and regulation the ministry of water and irrigation (mwi) is the official apex body responsible for the formulation of national water strategies, policies and planning, subject to approval by the council of ministers. the mwi has been established in 1988 through a bylaw. the establishment of the mwi was in response to jordan's recognition for the need of a more integrated approach to national water management. since its establishment, mwi has been supported by several donor organizations that have assisted in the development of water policy and water master planning as well as in restructuring the water sector. two key agencies in the water sector are under the authority of the ministry: the first of them is the water authority of jordan (waj) which is mainly in charge of water and sanitation service provision. it provides its services directly or through public companies that it owns (see below). moreover, waj is also responsible, together with the ministry, for water resources planning and monitoring. it also regulates water abstraction by all users, including itself, by issuing licenses. waj thus combines both regulatory and service provision functions. the second institution directly subordinate to the mwi is the performance monitoring unit (pmu), previously called programme management unit. it is in charge of projects with private sector participation. it has also carried out major investment projects such as the water loss reduction program in amman and has regulated the private operator in amman from 1999 to 2006. the pmu was supposed to be an embryonic unit for a future semi-autonomous water regulatory agency for the entire country, to be established by law outside of the ministry of water and irrigation. as a step in that direction, a water sector audit unit (wsau) was established in the pmu in may 2008. the unit has set up a benchmarking system using performance indicators that have initially been applied to the aqaba water company and miyahuna. due to the absence of a regulatory agency, tariff setting is the responsibility of the cabinet, after proposal from the ministry of water and irrigation. service providers waj is responsible for planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the public water supply and sewer services either directly or indirectly through its subsidiaries. it has been established as an autonomous corporate body, with financial and administrative independence linked with the minister of water and irrigation. one of waj's subsidiaries is the aqaba water company (awc), a public company established in august 2004 as jordan's first semi-autonomous water utility. it is owned by waj (85%) and the aqaba special economic zone (aseza; 15%) whose establishment triggered the establishment of awc. a second public water company, the jordan water company (miyahuna), was set up in 2006 for the governorate of amman. the company, which was created to take over service responsibility from a private operator, is a 100% subsidiary of waj. a third public company, the yarmouk water company (ywc), has been be set up in 2010, serving the four northern governorates of jordan, namely irbid, jerash, ajloun and mafraq. ywc is also a 100% subsidiary of waj and replaces the northern governorates water administration (ngwa). in 2013 miyahuna was given the responsibility for water supply and sanitation in madaba governorate and in january 2014 in zarqa governorate under public-public management contracts, while the employees in these two governorates remain employees of waj. private participation water distribution and sewerage in amman were operated by a private french company from 1999 to 2006. amman management contract. in 1999, a public-private partnership (ppp) started with the signing of a management contract between waj and the private joint venture lyonnaise des eaux - montgomery watson - arabtech jardaneh (lema), led by the french company lyonnaise des eaux, now known as suez environnement. according to the contract, lema was responsible for operating and managing water and wastewater services in the greater amman area on behalf of waj. the original five-year contract which began in august 1999 was extended until december 2006. the contract was intended to strengthen the technical structure and management capability as well as to develop the skills and knowledge of the staff. to this end, a small team of experienced expatriates worked with, and trained, around 1250 local staff. lema received treated water from number of waj sources. it also collected wastewater and transported it to treatment plants. the company was able to comply with 12 out of 15 performance targets. in the service area, i.e. in the amman governorate, access to supply increased from 90% in 2000 to universal access in 2005. at the same time, sewer connections increased from 69% to 80%. in 2007, the jordan water company miyahuna replaced lema after its contract had been extended one final time for an extra six months. as-samra build-operate-transfer. the wastewater treatment plant as-samra, the largest such plant in greater amman, is being operated by a consortium led by suez under a 25-year build-operate-transfer (bot) contract with waj. madaba micro private sector participation. in the madaba governorate, a different model of private sector participation (psp), called micro psp, has been carried out starting in 2006. the micro psp involved outsourcing customer service operations to engicon, a local operator hired on a three-year performance-based contract. aims of the project were to improve water and wastewater revenue, to increase the billing rate and to develop the customer management organisation, thereby improving efficiency. to achieve this, engicon trained staff, surveyed and mapped all subscribers and regulated routes to meter readers (to eliminate reader monopoly). the micro-psp with engicon had a variety of positive effects for the madaba water administration: as a result of the cooperation, the madaba water administration could start issuing its own bills instead of having to rely on waj structures. the accuracy of meter reading improved and net billed water increased by 75%. net collections increased from 0.9 million in 2005 to 1.9 million in 2008. the levels of non-revenue water (nrw) initially dropped from an average of 45% to 34%, but in 2009 they were back at 40% due to an increase in water pumping pressure. advantages of the micro-psp model include the fact that waj maintained asset ownership and that all revenue collected went to waj, so that investment costs could be fully recovered within 13 months of operation. the performance-based contract set strong incentives for the private operator to deliver concrete results. non-governmental organizations more than 15 non-governmental organizations (ngos) work directly or indirectly on water issues in jordan, including the jordan environment society (jes) and the royal society for the conservation of nature. ngos carry out awareness projects and provide support to community projects together with national and international partners. ngos are particularly engaged in water harvesting and water reuse. the royal scientific society, through its environmental research center, undertakes applied research including water quality assessments and wastewater management. community-based solutions in addition to large-scale solutions there are also several community-based approaches aiming at a more sustainable use of jordan's water resources. an important fosterer of these small-scale community-based approaches is the “community based initiatives for water demand management project” (cbiwd), a project organised by the ministry of water and irrigation in cooperation with mercy corps, the jordan river foundation and the royal scientific society which is supported by usaid. the cbiwd supports a variety of project types, among them e.g. rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse projects. the rainwater harvesting projects are mostly located in jordan's north since rainfall is higher in this region than in the rest of the country. the communities, who are often not connected to the piped network, use harvested rainwater instead of or complementary to piped freshwater. concerning the reuse of greywater, jordan's ministry of water promotes this alternative source especially in the agricultural sector, but also in hotels, government premises and on the individual household level. the most important motivation for using greywater - next to saving freshwater - is to cut down water bills. non-revenue water the share of non-revenue water (nrw) - water which is produced but not billed - was estimated at approx. 50% nationwide in 2014. this amounts to an estimated physical leakage of 76 billion litres per year, which could meet the needs of 2.6 million people (more than a third of the population. the main reasons leading to this high rate are leakage, by-passing of meters, illegal connections, unreliable water meters and problems concerning the reading of those meters. leakages also affect water pressure and quality. stolen water is used for irrigation or sold through water tankers, which reduces the amount available for official water supply and increases the price. measures to decrease the rate of nrw can thus contribute to relieve the high pressure on water resources. the government, in its national water strategy, aims at reducing non-revenue water to 25% by 2022, and technical losses to below 15%. the strategy thus also includes strengthening the criminalization of water theft and illegal wells. under a nationwide campaign to end water theft and violations on water networks and resources, the ministry of water and irrigation, water companies and security authorities sealed 26 illegal wells in january 2015, seized and confiscated 30 drilling rigs, as well as dismantled 408 illegal fixtures on water mains and pipes across the kingdom. according to waj, hundreds of thousands of stolen and wasted cubic metres of water have been saved since a “serious crackdown” on water theft and violations was initiated in august 2013. in amman, the level of non-revenue water has been reduced from an estimated 46% in 2005 to an estimated 34% in 2010. however, during the same period the average hours of service per week declined from 66 to 36. the un special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation called in a 2014 report on donors to prioritize their cooperation in tackling non-revenue water through small scale, effective interventions. financial aspects cost recovery water and sewer services in jordan are heavily subsidized. the revenue covers only part of the operation and maintenance costs, especially after the near-doubling of electricity tariffs in 2011 since 14% of electricity in jordan is used to pump drinking water and to treat wastewater. subsidies to the water sector amount to more than 0.4% of gdp. tariff structure and level water and sewer tariffs in jordan are differentiated by geographic area, type of use and volume of use. in areas served by public companies - the governorates of amman, aqaba, irbid, jerash, ajloun and mafraq - tariffs are higher than in the rest of the country where services are provided by waj. residential water and sewer tariffs use an increasing-block system, under which users pay a higher tariff per m3 if they consume more water. the first block, corresponding to a consumption of 18m3 per quarter, is a minimum charge independent of the amount of water consumed. water and sewer tariffs for non-residential use (commercial and industrial users) are about ten to twenty times higher respectively