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: [email protected]

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.

Documents

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