In the framework of ENI SEIS II South Support Mechanism project, the Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt) hosts a 5-day study tour in the field of monitoring, production and collection of data on industrial waste water, on 16-20 July, gathering participants from the Ministry of Environment and Department of Statistics of Jordan.

Better management of waste water and industrial waste water are one of the top priorities to tackle one of the main sources of pollution of the Mediterranean Sea and contribute to the Horizon 2020 initiative for a cleaner Mediterranean. The Ministry of Environment in Jordan is currently preparing technical documents and a feasibility package for the construction of an industrial waste water treatment plant in Zarqa Governorate through direct cooperation with the European Investment Bank.  Zarqa area encompasses 65% of the Jordanian industrial sector, thus this project is one of the priority projects that has been identified in the National Action Plan developed by Jordan with the support of UN-Environment Mediterranean Action Plan in 2015.

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.3 requires from the countries by 2030 to “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse of water resources”. Jordan suffers from an ongoing water shortage, the situation is worsening due to the Syrian refugee’s influx and hence in addition rising demand for water. A better information and data on the qualities and quantities of waste water produced including the pollutants discharged will lead to a better water management.

As part of Jordan SEIS national plan, Jordan is exploring possibilities to develop and implement industrial wastewater monitoring and statistics. This study tour organised with the support of  the ENI-SEIS support mechanism project and hosted by the Environment Agency Austria ( Umweltbundesamt) will allow the Jordanian delegation to learn from the Austrian practice and experience. 

The Environment Agency Austria (EAA) has more than  25 years of experience in data collection processing, validation and interpretation of water statistics data. EAA cooperates with Statistics Austria, the national statistical service, for the provision of data for European water and waste statistics. As such, EAA is a provider of national statistical data on water and wastewater, with experts having profound knowledge on the extent, structure and definitions of Eurostat’s water questionnaires.

EAA has data on wastewater generation and treatment in Austria for fulfilling the Member State reporting obligation according to the EU Waste Statistics Regulation and urban waste water treatment directive. Since years EAA provides expertise to Eurostat for the improvement of response rate and data quality of the water statistical questionnaire. Therefore, methods and tools for data evaluation have been elaborated and quality checks have been performed to evaluate the compiled data with regard to completeness and plausibility.

 The main objective of the visit is 

• Study monitoring, data collection and production of wastewater statistics
• Learn and exchange about the legal framework, implementation and enforcement practices in Jordan and Austria
• Identify data availability and statistics to fulfill national and international reporting obligations on wastewater

The study tour main outcome will be a set of recommendation on the way forward and additional specific activities to be implemented within the ENI SEIS II South Support Mechanism .

For more information see here