Source to tap: community involvement in source water quality protection in Jordan.

This paper addresses the community involvement aspects of a USAID-funded program for watershed protection for which Camp Dresser & McKee International Inc. (CDM) is providing technical assistance to the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) and which has a global objective to protect and improve water quality at sources safeguard infrastructure investments and protect public health. Tracing public involvement in one particular source water protection case study this paper describes how the community was successfully engaged in problem analysis and resolution as well as in galvanizing governmental action to protect basic needs for clean safe drinking water. In our paper we illustrate an integrated water resources management picture that subverts an old development paradigm-that the "community" in the developing world is a passive recipient of governmental dysfunction. In this optimistic case study the community uses its own distinct voice-through the media and byway of direct action-to catalyze the motion of the local government. We demonstrate that there were few remarkable circumstances in the watershed that fostered this unique success story. A mix of rural peri-urban and dense urban areas the community of 35000+ who reside in the watershed is diverse with socioeconomic status ranging from average to poor. Yet this case study is characterized by the fact that ordinary people reacted with common sense in their best interests making this approach uniquely simple with possibilities for replication of this approach elsewhere in Jordan and in countries with similar characteristics. (authors)