Knowledge Transfer

In SMART, a focus was placed on building a strategic network from the very start of the project. This was done inter alia through a project-related program in which a total of 26 doctoral students from Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Germany participated. The setting and the maintenance of this network reflect a sustainable use of the SMART project, as many of the former graduate students now work in decision-making leadership positions in government agencies and ministries.

In addition, a scientific exchange program (Scientific Advanced Training) was established to promote ongoing scientific exchange between partners from the region and Germany. In SMART II alone, ten scientists from the three countries visited Germany under the above program. The publication and dissemination of the results are documented by more than 35 papers in international journals. Furthermore, SMART can look back on more than 80 contributions to international conferences and, for example, was the co-organizer of the IWRM conference in Dresden and Karlsruhe.

Capacity Development

In order to overcome further societal and political barriers that impede implementation and to set impulses for a sustainable development on different social strata, capacity development activities targeting different and essential stakeholder groups were realized:

• Development of a complete primary school teaching unit “Water Fun – Hands, Minds, and Hearts on Water for Life?” addressing core aspects of water quality, water consumption, wastewater treatment and reuse in Jordan and Palestine.
• The teaching unit was introduced to 118 teachers/schools from North, Central, and South Jordan and the Palestinian territories, covering school projects for nearly 5,000 primary school students.
• An «implementation office» in the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation has been established. Its main tasks are to facilitate and mediate an inter-ministerial and multi-stakeholder “National Implementation Committee for Decentralized Wastewater Management – NICE” that has set out to develop a regulatory and institutional framework for DWWM implementation in Jordan
• Based on input and feedback of SMART sub-project 3.1, DWWM systems were integrated into “Jordan´s Water Strategy 2009-2022” and its associated “Action Plan”. (Klinger et al. 2014, Klinger et al. 2015)