Jordan's Water Shortages

 As world leaders meet at COP26, the issue of increasing water scarcity is high on the agenda. 

According to UNICEF, Jordan is the second most water-scarce country in the world, and water levels have been falling in recent years.

Its Ministry of Water and Irrigation’s 2016-25 National Water Strategy states each person in Jordan has access to about 61 litres (16 gallons) per day, with a further 65 litres (17 gallons) per person being lost because of “physical and administrative gaps”. By contrast, the average American uses more than 350 litres (92.5 gallons) of water per day.

A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences warned without intervention, climate and population changes could see almost all low-income households in Jordan having access to as little as 40 litres of piped water per person per day by the end of the century

Jordanians receive their water supply from the government anything from twice a week to once in two weeks, with the water being stored in tanks on roofs or in garages for use until the next delivery.

Some households resort to buying extra tanks of water from private companies when their water tanks run dry. However, with many in the kingdom unable to afford to buy tanks of water, this has led to a disparity in water access between the rich and the poor.

Increased temperatures and lower rainfalls, plus a rapid growth in population over the last decade because of arrivals of refugees from neighbouring Syria, have seen water become an increasingly scarce resource in Jordan.

“The water management during the last six, seven decades has been crisis management,” said Elias Salameh, former professor of hydrology and hydrochemistry at the University of Jordan, and member of the Royal Committee on Water. “You plan something, you start to implement, you have a refugee wave, you resort to crisis management, your original programme is not implemented and so forth,” he explained.

Salameh added the effects of population increase and climate change have all been exacerbated by poor policy. “There is no long-term planning,” he said. “Groundwater levels are depleting, and all our surface water resources are being utilised … The only way to increase our water resources is desalination. There is no other way for the country,” Salameh said.

“Israel is number one in the world in desalinating water on the Mediterranean,” said Yana Abu Taleb, Jordanian director of EcoPeace Middle East, an environmental organisation operating in the West Bank, Israel and Jordan. “They’re producing excess water, more than they need.”

In July this year, Israel and Jordan reached a deal for the sale of an unprecedented 50 million cubic metres (13.2 billion gallons) to Jordan, effectively doubling the existing amount. The deal also intends to boost exports from Jordan to the occupied West Bank.

‘Catastrophe’ faces Jordan’s water sector as climate heats up | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera