AWW 2015-Groundwater Management of Abstraction-Tools & Applications Draft 1

Arab Water Week 2015- Innovations and Sustainable Solutions for the Water Sector in the Arab Region
Name of the author: Mona Qabbani
Company: ISSP
Address: Amman - Shmeisani
Postcode/Town: 930583 Amman 11193
Country: Jordan
Email: mqabbani@isspjordan.local
Groundwater Management of Abstraction: Tools & Applications
Abstract
As part of ISSP activities to strengthen and Consolidate Authority for Water Resources Planning
and Management, several tools and applications were developed to improve efficiency, optimize
performance and increase productivity. The following tools now provide a better basis for
groundwater management and decision making while increasing transparency and strengthening
data quality:
• Licensing Database; was developed in 2013 to maintain all of the records and associated
technical data for all current and historical groundwater wells licenses. This practical, user-
friendly database has significantly improved the efficiency and thoroughness with which wells
licenses are reviewed and approved. Records now can be quickly managed, searched and sorted.
• A GIS Database was installed, tested and certified for MWI that is the new repository for all
MWI GIS data needs and related projects. It is an enhanced tool to cover licensing and
monitoring functions as well as improving the abilities of the field employees who will apply
and benefit from this tool. It provides MWI with an intelligent, spatially enabled database so
that job planning, any equipment inventory, and workflow analysis become an automated
procedure integrated into one system.
• Meter Reading & Violation Management System was developed in a direct response to
critical needs in the Basins Offices for wells management and control of illegal use. These are
an important first step to organize and improve data flow and management within the offices
and related departments at central WAJ. A link to the billing system will enhance the collection
process while the link to the legal department will enhance the prosecution process.

BACKGROUND
One of the most critical issues in sustainable water resource management in Jordan is the over-
abstraction of groundwater resources either by private wells pumping, in excess of allocations and
without consideration for the safe yield of aquifers; or by abstraction of uncontrolled wells that
were drilled illegally.
Since 1997, water strategies, policies and laws have addressed the need to reduce unsustainable
groundwater abstraction. The passing of the Groundwater By-Law No.85 in 2002, subsequent
amendments, and recent mandates given to the Ministry/Authorities to curb illegal activities, all
represent significant moves to control abstraction. These included using price as a tool, applying
penalties for withdrawal beyond licensed legal amounts, shutting down illegal wells and preventing
the construction of new ones.
To do all this, decision makers have to have data to support their decisions. This data has to be
available and validated, i.e. of high quality. Most of the required data related to groundwater are
either scattered among many departments without clear ownership to it or are of doubtful quality.
There are no documented standards or procedures, that govern the availability on the updating of
data and once available it’s being shared manually.
Groundwater management of abstraction process start with the Licensing Department of WAJ
(Water Authority of Jordan) that issues the licenses and permits of private wells, then a continues
monitoring process takes place by 8 Basins Management offices distributed across Jordan. These
offices are responsible for private wells meter readings and calculations of abstractions to be then
transferred to the Billing Department in WAJ. They are also responsible for violation management
in the field for all the wells in the area. All permitted and licensed wells are being monitored around
the clock according to the license conditions while focusing as well on wells drilled without a
license. All information related to legal issues gets transferred to the legal Department at WAJ. A
detailed description of the Abstraction Process and the difficulties that were encountered before
developing systems and using modern technologies is as follows:
Licensing Wells
All licensing/permitting activities for wells start when the client application is received. A technical
review could then be made leading to either granting or rejecting the request for a license. Data
management practices for permits and licensing was a simple and straightforward process where all
the applications and supporting documents for licensing are scanned into a simple program, while
hard copies are stored in a filing room. The program lacked the ability to perform queries or simple
analysis to support any decision making process. The internal data management process for the
entire cycle of licensing which involved other departments in the sector was considered to be weak
and ineffective. Discrepancies between different databases were noted with personal relationships
shadowing the process while updating was conducted randomly rather than on the basis of
systematic approaches and sound procedures. The absence of documented or standardized
procedures for technical review and field assessment, combined with the lack of data control,
affected the accuracy and integrity of the data being collected and assessed.

Abstraction Management:
Processing and management of data collected come next for the purpose of monitoring groundwater
abstraction from wells. This was done manually with no standardized procedures for generating,
processing, keeping and storing well records data. Abstraction quantities were collected, and when
not read from volumetric meters, were estimated through doubtful procedures. The process
undermined the integrity of the collected data as it did not offer any control over the field
employees nor on the validity of such data as it was being stored off-site with no feedback or access
to it for verification in the field. This prevented the field managers from benefiting or using this data
for estimation, for follow-up or, for comparisons needed to make sound decisions on timely basis.
Billing & Invoicing:
Abstraction levels were then sent to the Billing Department to issue invoices and once issued, the
field employees are required to distribute those invoices to the owners of the wells without sharing
with payment history of the use. One can note that a huge number of invoices would be rejected due
to the lack of a proper process for estimating abstraction.
Violation Management
Abstraction of groundwater has been exacerbated by many difficulties faced in the enforcement of
regulations on private sector well drilling and the near absence of control on licensed abstraction
rates.
In addition, there was no process in place for monitoring or managing violations. There were certain
procedures that employees follow, yet there were not done consistently and in most cases they
depended on the office manager’s or the field staff judgment or on the dynamics of the area and the
behaviour of its population. From the point of view of the staff themselves, these activities carried
a significant amount of risk to personal safety. The possibility of engaging in violence and/or
getting offended by the well owners prevented them from getting the job done.
Generally, the staff should monitor their areas around the clock focusing on both illegal drilling and
assuring compliance of well owners with license conditions. Due to the above mentioned facts and
the lack of regular and systemized feedback from licensing, performance in this aspect was
considered weak. Once the violation was detected, the field office staff would report it on its
respective form (as there are several types of violations) either on the spot or afterwards, if forced to
leave the site immediately due to safety issues. Nevertheless, it was noticed that the field staff do
not have the capacity to process the violation in a manner that would support a strong legal case or
even the ability to properly write violation reports. This has proven to weaken the process and the
integrity of the report itself once reviewed which, in most cases, was the reason behind losing many
cases in court.
Utilizing the enforcement authority granted for the field staff, all detected violations should be
reported to the legal department at WAJ. The legal department is in charge of following up with
violation cases and processing them through the courts. The latest assessment, however, shows
differences in the number of cases reported by the field offices and those at the legal department
attributed, as we understood, to the following: Not all the field offices comply strictly with the
process; and, some field offices do not timely engage the legal department and take the initiative
themselves of sending the case directly to the courts and then reporting to the legal department with

the registered number of the case and the date it was filed for further follow-up. Follow-up on these
cases seemed to be lacking.
Accordingly, lack of formal procedures, databases to store and manage data, systemized
communication between water basins divisions and various concerned entities, proper reporting
mechanisms and the need for quality assurance, correctness and completeness of data became the
major concern of the water sector. It is clear that data is not consistent between Licensing, Field and
WIS regarding abstraction levels, number of wells and water uses; and between Field and the Legal
department at WAJ in terms of court cases and detected illegal wells.
DEVELOPMENT APPOARCH
ISSP, as part of its institutional reform and restructuring recommendations, worked to improve
groundwater monitoring and enhance compliance and enforcement policies and mechanisms, and in
the last two years developed a range of tools and applications to enhance data sharing and control
over quality. ISSP also developed procedures and manuals to identify roles and responsibilities as
well as data ownership to enhance the use of data and regular updates. Such tools included the
following:
 Licensing Database; was developed in 2013 to maintain all of the records and associated
technical data for all current and historical groundwater wells licenses. This practical, user-
friendly database has significantly improved the efficiency and thoroughness with which
wells licenses are reviewed and approved. Records can now be quickly managed, searched
and sorted.
 A GIS Database: In order to improve data sharing and data quality coordination between
the Basins Management Offices and the MWI Water Information System (WIS) managed by
Technical Affairs, priority was placed on building a Geo-database in the Ministry. The goal
is to enhance the use of GIS, as a location based approach to better resources management,
to improve efficiency, optimize performance and productivity, and to provide a better basis
for decision making. This database was installed, tested and certified for MWI who is the
new repository for all MWI GIS data needs and related projects. It is an enhanced tool to
cover licensing and monitoring functions as well as improve the abilities of the field
employees who will benefit when applying this tool. It provides MWI with an intelligent,
spatially enabled database so that job planning, any equipment inventory, and workflow
analysis become an automated procedure integrated into one system.
 Meter Reading & Violation Management System ISSP then began work on the GIS-
based web application for the 8 Basins Management offices. The intention is to allow the
users to enter the well readings and record violations, and also to visualize the wells on a
map which was developed in direct response to the critical needs in the Basins Offices for
wells management and control of illegal use. This was an important first step to organize

and improve data flow and management within the offices and related departments at central
WAJ. Linking the web application to the billing system will enhance the collection process
while linking it to the legal department will enhance the prosecution process.
The following figures represent screenshots from the three developed systems and applications;
Licensing Database, GIS Database, Meter Reading Application and the Violation Management
Application:
Figure 1.1: Licensing Database Main Window – dropdown list for Licensing Type

Figure 2: Meter Reading Application Main Screen – Meter Reading Information
Figure 3: Violation Management Application – Report Selection Screen
A major focus was then given to the groundwater data management cycle. A framework was
developed for system integration to create a seamless data transition covering the full cycle of

groundwater data starting from licensing a well through monitoring and data reading and collection
from the field through the billing process. This cycle also included the legal implications and the
interface with legal departments in the water sector. ISSP also developed a full database for the
legal departments on the basis of water sector legal process to close the groundwater data cycle and
improve the legal activities in the water sector in general. A connection was also built into the field
systems. Additional emphasis was given to the transfer of data into the MWI system in order to
improve the development of the water budgets and data records in the Water Data Bank. This is
shown in figure 4 below.
Several upgrades, modifications and updates were required to enhance the use of the developed
systems; Licensing Database, Meter Reading & Violation Management System and GIS database.
A focus was given to quality control and validation parameters which will allow minimum human
interaction and therefore minimum human error, such as edit logs, tracking and email notifications.
Another set of interventions was designed and implemented to connect the systems and insure
seamless data transition especially between these developed systems with WIS and the Billing
Process.
Such integration also required an authority matrix which was defined and implemented
appropriately to organize data sharing, followed by system manuals and reports redesigned and
updated.
Figure 4: Schematic for Databases and Data Sharing Model

RESULTS
Systems Development
The development of such management information systems resulted in maintaining in computerized
databases all of the records, and associated technical data for all current and historical groundwater
wells information such as licensing data, abstraction and violation records. Such systems provided
staff, managers and decision makers with the ability to access data in a timely manner as well as the
ability to perform queries and analyses that helped each level formulate its recommendations and
conclude necessary actions; all on the basis of sound data. A query window screenshot from the
Violation Management application is shown in figure 5 below.
Such tools also supported the water sector in developing customized reports that could be generated
instantly in response to various needs and requests at all management levels and different
stakeholders including the Donors Community. Each tool used at the respective department,
operating with a more accurate and reliable database, supported the managers to better control their
internal procedures and improve the efficiency and thoroughness of their technical and
administrative decisions. A generated report is shown in figure 6 below.
More upgrades were developed for these systems that provided tracking mechanisms, edit logs, edit
restrictions and email notifications thus supporting technical managers to track, follow-up and
control their respective staff in implementing related procedures giving the better control over the
data generated. As for the different use authorities designed for these systems, edit tracking and
restrictions also provided seniors with quality and more trusted data to formulate sound decisions.
An example of a generated report for a Basin Manager to track his staff performance in meter
reading is shown in figure 7.

Figure 5: Violation Management Query Window - Identify location of a well
Figure 6: Licensing Database Generated Report – Licenses according to Basin & Type

Figure 7 Meter Reading Application – Generated report for tracking performance

Systems integrated approach and linkages
All the above systems are now linked at different levels, and a more integrated approach is being
implemented for Groundwater Management. This has led to better organized and improved data
flows and management within the offices and related departments at central WAJ with Billing,
Licensing, Legal linked into the MWI.
Such integration between the proper roles and procedures and the allocated responsibilities also
allowed the water sector to have one source of data for the different types of data to groundwater
management, and supported the users to identify and correct inconsistencies in records and wells
data. The following can now be observed:
1. Any information related to a well starting from licensing and permits information, records of
abstractions and violations can all be obtained easily through the different systems by
simply having the ID of the well.
2. The use of GPS technology became a regular daily practice when locating existing or new
wells in the field or even while visiting old ones for any reason. Each time a well is visited
the GPS will be used in order to improve information fed into the WIS information on
regular basis, and to populate the GIS well layer and keep it updated. Also the GPS units
will be used to register the location of violations recorded in the field regardless of their
types. Transferring the coordinates from the GPS device to the GIS specific layer for the
violations will enable the managers to, at least, analyze and define the problematic areas
with systematic violations. The coordinates obtained from the GPS for the different cases
will enable the departments or units responsible for the quality checking to follow up and
conduct targeted interventions. In addition, the managers can easily control the staff field
visits when using the GPS units on regular basis
3. The introduction of GIS-based work orders enable the possibility of rotating meter readers
on regular basis in order to reduce independence while any meter reader is subject to further
quality control and random checking. Office managers can easily switch the meter reader
from one location to another.
4. The intelligence of these systems also supports again the quality of data provided through
embedded calculations and procedures to minimize human interventions in sensitive areas
such as estimating abstraction. A matrix for estimating abstractions was designed and
implemented in the system to generate rates more reliable and accurate which resulted in
reduced number of complaints over invoices
A case exemplifying the flexibility of the tools above is the adoptability of the process to the results
emerging from the socio-economic study conducted by ISSP for all groundwater wells in the
Kingdome. It was important to know, among other factors the irrigated land areas as well as the
corresponding different crop types and their water demand. This information is also important at the
time of billing for the water consumed in irrigation when meters on private wells are not read or the
wells are not metered for any reason. As estimates of consumption require justification,

documentation of the cultivated areas and crop types in terms of square meters or Kilometers
become very important for MWI.
The new technologies can be used to obtain this data and populate the GIS layers designed for both
crop and land use layers. Using satellite imagery or aerial photos in combination with GIS can
provide better information confirmation about the cultivated areas of the parcels served by a
particular well. Different land uses can be checked on satellite images from which cultivated lands
can be digitized. This information is then transferred to the GIS and the cultivated area can be
calculated according to the coordinate system used. Specialists in remote sensing can assist in
identifying the major types or classification of the crops and the results can be added to the GIS
layers data created from digitizing the satellite image. Accordingly, The GIS staff can cross validate
this data with other sources mostly with the concerned department in the Ministry of Agriculture
through their field supervisors in each governorate.
Another example is the delination of adminstrative boundries for responsibility of groundwater
wells monitoring. Figure 8 belwo shows the adminstraive boundries where GIS maps indicated that
some wells are not belonging to any boundry. Yet incorporateing the socio economic study results
and using the GIS tool, a new map was developed with a clearer boundrias for all wells as shown in
figure 9 below.

Figure 8: Private Wells Overview Map - Basin Offices Boundaries of Private Wells

Figure 9: New Boundaries for Basin Offices
About the Author:
Mona Qabbani is an Organizational Development Manager at a USAID/Jordan-funded Institutional
Support and Strengthening Program (ISSP), an undertaking to strengthen and support the
government of Jordan in implementing sector-wide reforms in water sector management, planning,
policy-making and service delivery. Involvement includes strengthening the Ministry of Water &
Irrigation authority to a level commensurate with its sector-wide water resource planning and
management mandate. Tasks include providing changes in approach and/or systems to better
enhance efficiency, equity, and transparency objectives, and to assure clarity of responsibilities, as

well as the Capacity Building needed in the form of side-by-side mentoring and training.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Khair Al Hadidi, Assistant Secretary General for Groundwater Basins / Water Authority of
Jordan, has more than 25 years of experience in groundwater resources management and has
published more than 30 scientific papers, and supervised many master theses. Currently his
activities also include the participation of integrated water resources management in the lower
Jordan rift valley project SMART since 2006 which is funded by federal ministry of education and
research (Germany),the highland water forum (Amman-Zarqa & Azraq Basins), and member of the
technical working group on ACWUA (Arab Countries Water Utilities Association).
He contributed in many projects for example: Fate of Groundwater Resources and the
Environmental and Socio-Economic Implications of their Overexploitation- the Case of Jordan (The
Higher Council for Science and Techonlogy), National Water Master Plan), Integrated National
Water Resources Monitoring System, Feasibility Study and Engineering Design of Groundwater
Artificial Recharge
Also he is a member of many associations as: Jordan desalination &water reuse, department of
water &environmental engineering, German-Jordanian university, national (IHP-UNESCO)
committee Jordan, Jordan society for quality, international water resources, Jordan environmental,
Jordan engineers.

AWW 2015-Groundwater Management of Abstraction-Tools & Applications Draft 1

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