Overview:
1) To support the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the rural populations living in the project area, by rationalizing the use of water in agriculture. In Lebanon, the project aims at the rehabilitation – through cleaning and recalibration – of the Litani river, in the northern section of the Karaoun dam in the Bekaa Valley. For many months a year the land along the river course cannot be farmed because of frequent flooding and because the competent river authorities lack technical and human resources. In Jordan, the project focuses on improving the quality of the irrigation water and its more rational distribution. In both countries service centers are established and/or upgraded to provide technical assistance and training courses to both the partners’ staff and the farmers themselves. Furthmore, the project also aims at guiding the local authorities to a more rational use of water, by organizing conferences and meetings at regional level.
Activities:
– improvement of the irrigation system and increase of the productivity of the land along the Litani river course among Quaraoun Lake, Bar Elias (Lebanon) and Ghor (Jordan);
– cleaning and recalibration of the Litani river;
– improvement of the irrigation water management and increase in land productivity.
Results:
– management of the Litani riverbed: 10km of the Litani riverbed have been cleaned, 11 intervention points
recalibrated, 925 ha of arable land for cultivation rehabilitated;
– improvement of the know-how: a centre for agricultural services was built and equipped in the Bekaa Valley
(Lebanon); 960 farmers have been trained in both Lebanon and Jordan on the most important and relevant
topics concerning water management and integrated agricultural practices; 16 extension agents have been
trained and involved in organizing and developing technical assistance to farmers in Lebanon and Jordan; 30
pilot farms in the Jordan Valley were equipped with optimized irrigation networks; demonstration plots for
advanced agricultural and irrigation techniques have been realized in Lebanon and in Jordan;
– improvement of water quality distributed to farmers in the Jordan Valley: four turn outs on the KAC, the Jordan Valley’s main irrigation water conveyor, were rehabilitated through the installation of self-cleaning grids;
– optimisation of on-farm irrigation management in Jordan: a prototype filtration kit (vertical sand filter,
fertilization injection, and irrigation system) was developed and installed.
